{"id":30039,"date":"2013-09-08T23:30:43","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T04:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=30039"},"modified":"2013-09-08T10:30:52","modified_gmt":"2013-09-08T15:30:52","slug":"nfl-week-1-predictions-houston-texans-vs-san-diego-chargers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-week-1-predictions-houston-texans-vs-san-diego-chargers-30039\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Week 1 Predictions: Houston Texans vs. San Diego Chargers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Houston Texans vs. San Diego Chargers
\nMonday, 9\/8\/13, 10:20 PM EST
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -2.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -3.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 44.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 44.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Houston<\/a>
Houston Texans RB Arian Foster has carried a heavy load over the past three seasons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Houston has established a goal of representing the AFC in this year\u2019s Super Bowl, as it comes off a 12-4 campaign a season ago.\u00a0 \u201cI think it\u2019s obviously our main goal and final goal, but there are a lot of steps that lead up to that,\u201d commented Texans linebacker Brian Cushing.\u00a0 The Texans certainly have one of the more formidable defenses in the league, with Cushing being the captain and defensive linemen J.J. Watt registering an NFL-leading 20.5 sacks in 2012.\u00a0 Houston is 6-1 SUATS in September the last two-plus seasons, which can\u2019t be ignored when making your NFL expert picks Monday night.<\/p>\n

The Texans are definitely concerned with the health of running back Arian Foster, who didn\u2019t suit up in any of the team\u2019s four preseason games, as he continues to deal with back and calf injuries.\u00a0 Houston head coach Gary Kubiak has stated that backup Ben Tate will likely share the load in the backfield.\u00a0 Foster\u2019s 956 carries over the last three seasons are 99 more than any other player, which means that quarterback Matt Schaub and wide receiver Andre Johnson will need to open up the passing game a bit more.<\/p>\n

San Diego has a 4-0 all-time record in this series, as it begins life under first-year head coach Mike McCoy, who takes over for the departed Norv Turner.\u00a0 The Chargers are expected to focus on short and intermediate routes in a new system, which will lessen the pressure on a struggling offensive line to protect quarterback Philip Rivers.\u00a0 \u201cI think we need to play better around him,\u201d stated McCoy about the unit\u2019s performance around Rivers.\u00a0 Running back Ryan Mathews is capable of a breakout year if he stays healthy, which is important to consider when looking over the NFL betting lines in Week 1.<\/p>\n

The Chargers will focus on stopping the run on the defensive end, something that coordinator John Pagano has been very vocal about during training camp.\u00a0 San Diego has a lot of new faces on that side of the football, but will likely not have rookie linebacker Manti Te\u2019o on the field, as he deals with a foot injury.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Chargers due to their 4-0 ATS mark in this series.<\/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

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Houston Texans vs. San Diego Chargers Monday, 9\/8\/13, 10:20 PM EST Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -2.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 44.5 Current Total:\u00a0 44.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Houston has established a goal of representing the AFC in this year\u2019s Super Bowl, as it comes off a 12-4 campaign a season ago.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":17251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[5456,1120,7293,452,7510,31,1035,298],"class_list":["post-30039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-arian-foster","tag-houston-texans","tag-j-j-watt","tag-matt-schaub","tag-mike-mccoy","tag-nfl","tag-philip-rivers","tag-san-diego-chargers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30039","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=30039"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30040,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30039\/revisions\/30040"}],"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=30039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}