{"id":18679,"date":"2011-10-16T09:40:37","date_gmt":"2011-10-16T14:40:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=18679"},"modified":"2011-10-16T09:40:37","modified_gmt":"2011-10-16T14:40:37","slug":"houston-texans-vs-baltimore-ravens-pro-football-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/houston-texans-vs-baltimore-ravens-pro-football-betting-preview-18679\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston Texans vs. Baltimore Ravens Pro Football Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens
\nSunday, 10\/16\/11, 4:05 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Baltimore -5.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Baltimore -6.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 45
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 45
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Baltimore<\/a>
Baltimore Ravens LB Ray Lewis leads a unit that's allowing the fewest points per game in the NFL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Houston is set to travel to Baltimore without the services of arguably its two most talented players, as wide receiver Andre Johnson is still out with a hamstring injury, while defensive end Mario Williams is out for the year with a torn pectoral muscle.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re never going to replace a guy like Mario,\u201d commented Texans linebacker Brian Cushing.\u00a0 \u201cAt the same time, it\u2019s the \u2018next guy up\u2019 attitude.\u201d\u00a0 Williams already tallied five sacks this season and has accounted for 48.5 of the team\u2019s 131 sacks since the start of the 2007 campaign, which is the highest share of any player for a squad in the NFL.\u00a0 Houston is 3-2 ATS on the season and the \u2018under\u2019 is 4-1 in those contests.<\/p>\n

The Texans are truly up against it and have never beaten the Ravens in four meetings, including a 34-28 overtime loss as three-point home underdogs last year.\u00a0 Houston actually out-gained Baltimore by a 489-253 margin in that contest.\u00a0 It\u2019s also important to note that Houston averaged 60 more yards without Johnson in three games last year, while also generating 473 in last week\u2019s loss to Oakland.<\/p>\n

Baltimore comes in off a bye week and will be looking to jump on Houston early, outscoring opponents by a 52-7 margin in the first quarter.\u00a0 The team may be able to strike against a wounded defense, but also must respect the Texans jumping on opponents by a 47-6 score in the opening 15 minutes.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019ve jumped out to big leads in the first quarter, big leads in the first half,\u201d commented Ravens coach John Harbaugh this week.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve done pretty well in the first quarter, too, something has to give.\u201d\u00a0 Baltimore is 2-0 ATS after a bye week and the \u2018under\u2019 has cashed in both of those contests.<\/p>\n

The Ravens and Texans may stall inside the 20-yard line this afternoon, both ranking 27th in the NFL in red zone efficiency.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note that Baltimore was a perfect 3-for-3 against Houston last year.\u00a0 Quarterback Joe Flacco will need to play well after the time off, completing less than 50 percent of his passes in two contests this year, but the team has still managed to score 34 points or more in three of its first four games.\u00a0 On the other side of the ball, Baltimore\u2019s defense continues to play well, allowing just 14.3 points a game.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Ravens due to their 8-2 ATS mark following a bye week, while the Texans are 0-4 ATS as an underdog.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NFL handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Texans at Baltimore Ravens Sunday, 10\/16\/11, 4:05 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Baltimore -5.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Baltimore -6.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 45 Current Total:\u00a0 45 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Houston is set to travel to Baltimore without the services of arguably its two most talented players, as wide receiver Andre Johnson is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[414,608,1120,396,5544,31],"class_list":["post-18679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-afc","tag-baltimore-ravens","tag-houston-texans","tag-joe-flacco","tag-mario-williams","tag-nfl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18679"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18680,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18679\/revisions\/18680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}