{"id":20733,"date":"2011-12-31T16:12:52","date_gmt":"2011-12-31T21:12:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20733"},"modified":"2011-12-31T16:12:52","modified_gmt":"2011-12-31T21:12:52","slug":"week-17-nfl-betting-titans-need-win-over-texans-help-to-get-into-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/week-17-nfl-betting-titans-need-win-over-texans-help-to-get-into-playoffs-20733\/","title":{"rendered":"Week 17 NFL Betting: Titans need win over Texans, help to get into playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans
\nSunday, 1\/1\/12, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Tennessee -1.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Tennessee -2
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 40.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 39
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Titans
Houston WR Andre Johnson is expected to return after missing the last three games with a hamstring injury.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Houston Texans are already in the playoffs while the Tennessee Titans still have an outside shot heading into their meeting in Sunday\u2019s season finale.\u00a0 The Texans (10-5) have lost two straight following a seven-game winning streak that helped them clinch the AFC South division title for the first time in franchise history, and the Titans (8-7) need a lot of help to make it to the postseason as one of the two Wild Card teams.<\/p>\n

Tennessee (-2, O\/U 39) needs a win, a win by the New York Jets, a loss by Cincinnati and a loss or tie by Oakland or Denver to get in as the second Wild Card and sixth seed in the AFC.\u00a0 There is another scenario where the Titans must win, the Bengals and Jets must lose and the Raiders and Broncos both must win for them to qualify.<\/p>\n

Houston does not need to worry about making the playoffs for the first time ever and has locked up the third seed, which means the team will host a game next weekend.\u00a0 However, the Texans are a bit concerned about finishing the regular season with three straight losses and would like to start the New Year on a positive note to give themselves some momentum heading into the postseason.<\/p>\n

Rookie quarterback T.J. Yates has not played well for Houston during the team\u2019s recent skid, throwing for a combined 344 yards with no touchdowns and two interceptions.\u00a0 Yates threw for 300 yards with two touchdowns and one interception in a 20-19 victory at Cincinnati in Week 14, and he has played just well enough since taking over as the starter to prevent head coach Gary Kubiak from making a switch.\u00a0 Veterans Jake Delhomme and Jeff Garcia are waiting in the wings if Yates continues to struggle.<\/p>\n

The Texans will have All-Pro wide receiver Andre Johnson back in the lineup after he has missed the last three games and nine of the last 11 with a strained left hamstring.\u00a0 Johnson will be on a play count according to Kubiak, but his presence should give Yates another offensive weapon and take some pressure off him along with Pro Bowl running back Arian Foster.<\/p>\n

Tennessee has dropped two of three, failing to cover the spread in all of those games.\u00a0 The UNDER is 8-0-1 in the team\u2019s last nine games, with the push coming last week in a 23-17 win over Jacksonville. \u00a0The Titans have relied on veteran QB Matt Hasselbeck to get the job done offensively for most of the season with RB Chris Johnson enduring the worst season of his career after signing a four-year contract extension worth $53 million.<\/p>\n

Johnson needs 14 yards to reach 1,000 yards and has been bothered by an ankle injury, although he is expected to start.\u00a0 Hasselbeck threw for 350 yards last week against the Jaguars but had just 104 against Houston in a 41-7 home loss back in Week 7.<\/p>\n

The underdog is 11-5 against the spread in the last 16 meetings, and the Texans are 6-1-1 ATS in their past eight games overall.\u00a0 The OVER is 8-3 in the last 11 games between the teams and 9-2 in Houston\u2019s past 11 as an underdog.<\/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!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tennessee Titans at Houston Texans Sunday, 1\/1\/12, 1:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 CBS Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Tennessee -1.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Tennessee -2 Opening Total:\u00a0 40.5 Current Total:\u00a0 39 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker The Houston Texans are already in the playoffs while the Tennessee Titans still have an outside shot heading into their meeting in Sunday\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":3950,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2585,1120,1772,1930,1922,2757,301,6283],"class_list":["post-20733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-afc-south","tag-houston-texans","tag-nfl-betting","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks","tag-pro-football","tag-tennessee-titans","tag-week-17"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20733","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=20733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20735,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20733\/revisions\/20735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}