{"id":20417,"date":"2011-12-21T01:02:19","date_gmt":"2011-12-21T06:02:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20417"},"modified":"2011-12-21T01:04:11","modified_gmt":"2011-12-21T06:04:11","slug":"thursday-night-nfl-football-betting-texans-going-for-first-ever-win-in-indy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/thursday-night-nfl-football-betting-texans-going-for-first-ever-win-in-indy-20417\/","title":{"rendered":"Thursday Night NFL Football Betting: Texans going for first-ever win in Indy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts
\nThursday, 12\/22\/11, 8:20 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 NFL
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -7.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -5.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 40.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 40
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Texans
Arian Foster and the Texans have never won in Indianapolis but have already clinched the AFC South title.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Indianapolis Colts are coming off their first victory of the season and do not have to worry about matching the Detroit Lions as the only winless teams in NFL history.\u00a0 What the Colts (1-13) might have to worry about is losing out on their position for the top overall pick in the 2012 draft if they find a way to win another game or two, including a Thursday Night Football matchup with the Houston Texans (10-4).<\/p>\n

Indianapolis has been a virtual lock to win the Andrew Luck sweepstakes for most of the season until the team crushed Tennessee 27-13 at home last Sunday.\u00a0 The Colts were 6.5-point home underdogs and have covered the spread in three straight games after failing to beat the line in their previous seven.<\/p>\n

The Texans (-5.5, O\/U 40) saw their seven-game winning streak come to an end with a 28-13 home loss to Carolina last week, but they have already clinched the AFC South.\u00a0 Indy had won the division in seven of the previous eight years but lost the season opener at Houston 34-7 without star quarterback Peyton Manning, who has missed the entire season following neck surgery.<\/p>\n

It has been widely speculated that the Colts were targeting Luck, the Stanford All-American, to replace Manning next season.\u00a0 However, another win on Thursday could put them at risk of missing out on Luck because the Minnesota Vikings and St. Louis Rams are both 2-12.\u00a0 The Vikings and Rams have both drafted QBs in the first round of the draft over the past two years, but the value of the top overall pick could still be intriguing to each of them.<\/p>\n

Indianapolis is down to its third signal caller behind Manning in Dan Orlovsky, who has played better than Kerry Collins and Curtis Painter before him.\u00a0 Orlovsky\u00a0 has completed 64 percent of his passes with four touchdowns and two interceptions in six games.<\/p>\n

While he will never be mistaken for Manning, Orlovsky has protected the ball better than Collins and Painter, who turned the ball over a combined 16 times.\u00a0 Orlovsky threw for just 82 yards and one touchdown against the Titans last week, but he didn\u2019t need to do much more with second-year running back Donald Brown totaling 161 rushing yards on 16 carries, including an 80-yard score.<\/p>\n

Houston knows what it\u2019s like to go through quarterbacks with starter Matt Schaub (foot) and backup Matt Leinart (collarbone) going down with season-ending injuries, putting the offense in the hands of rookie T.J. Yates.\u00a0 The Texans have never won in Indy and hope Yates can play well enough to keep them in the running for one of the top playoff seeds in the AFC.<\/p>\n

The Colts are 9-0 all-time at home against Houston, but the Texans have covered the spread in two of the past three meetings at Lucas Oil Stadium, the site of this year\u2019s Super Bowl.\u00a0 The UNDER has cashed in the last two games between the team after going OVER in seven of the previous eight meetings.<\/p>\n

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

Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts Thursday, 12\/22\/11, 8:20 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 NFL Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -7.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -5.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 40.5 Current Total:\u00a0 40 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker The Indianapolis Colts are coming off their first victory of the season and do not have to worry about matching the Detroit Lions […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":17251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2585,1120,126,1772,1930,1922,2757,3779],"class_list":["post-20417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-afc-south","tag-houston-texans","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-nfl-betting","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks","tag-pro-football","tag-thursday-night-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20417","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\/194"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20417"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20419,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20417\/revisions\/20419"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}