{"id":7271,"date":"2010-09-10T17:56:09","date_gmt":"2010-09-10T22:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=7271"},"modified":"2010-09-10T17:56:09","modified_gmt":"2010-09-10T22:56:09","slug":"nfl-picks-colts-vs-texans-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nfl-picks-colts-vs-texans-betting-preview-7271\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL Picks: Colts Vs Texans Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Indianapolis
The Colts enter todays game as 1-2 point road favorites<\/figcaption><\/figure>It might not be now-or-never desperation for the Houston Texans just yet when they host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday in a key AFC South clash to open the regular season.\u00a0 But the Texans know they will likely need to beat the Colts at least once in order to gain enough confidence to be a playoff team for the first time in their existence this year.\u00a0 Indy is a small road favorite at -2 depending where you shop\u00a0thanks to past dominance in the series.\u00a0 This line is hovering from -1 to -2 so be sure to get the best number depending on the side you like.\u00a0 You can compare the current odds on our NFL point spreads page of the website for free.<\/p>\n

The Colts have won 15 of the last 16 meetings with Houston in very high-scoring affairs, with nine of the last 10 going OVER the total.\u00a0 The Texans have managed to stay close in each of the last four meetings \u2013 covering twice \u2013 with three of them decided by six points or less.<\/p>\n

No team in the NFL seems to have more to prove in the season-opener than Houston.\u00a0 The Texans had the league\u2019s top passer in Matt Schaub (4,770 passing yards) and leading receiver in Andre Johnson (1,569 yards) last year but finished 30th in the NFL in rushing, averaging only 92.2 yards per game.\u00a0 Indianapolis actually ranked dead last in that category with a dismal 80.9 rushing yards per game.<\/p>\n

With quarterbacks like Schaub and Indy\u2019s Peyton Manning leading the respective offenses, it is no surprise that these teams have not relied much on their ground games and instead put up some fireworks when they meet.\u00a0 The Colts have needed to score 21 points in the fourth quarter alone of each of the last two meetings at Reliant Stadium to knock off the Texans.<\/p>\n

Indy\u2019s running game features a two-headed monster of Joseph Addai and Donald Brown, who could have some trouble running against Houston if left tackle Charlie Johnson (foot) and center Jeff Saturday (knee) do not play.\u00a0 Johnson and Saturday are both listed as questionable, and the play calling will be directed by first-year offensive coordinator Clyde Christensen.<\/p>\n

The Texans are hoping that second-year running back Arian Foster is the answer to their rushing woes after promising rookie Ben Tate broke his ankle in the preseason.\u00a0 Foster finished last season by rushing for 216 yards and three touchdowns in the last two weeks and looked good at times in the preseason.<\/p>\n

Defensively, the Colts will have All-Pro defensive end Dwight Freeney back at full strength after he was bothered by a torn ligament in his right ankle in the Super Bowl.\u00a0 Former Defensive Player of the Year Bob Sanders also returns healthy following another injury-riddled season.\u00a0 Houston will be without reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year Brian Cushing, who was suspended four games in the offseason for testing positive for HCG but still got to keep his award.<\/p>\n

We personally took Houston +3 about a month ago but that number is long gone.\u00a0 If you can still find a +3 on this game that is the only side we would like, at the current number the game looks lined right.\u00a0 We will have 5 NFL picks for Sunday ready to go on Friday night, you can get these winners by visiting the expert NFL picks page of the website.\u00a0 A smart investment for the NFL bettor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It might not be now-or-never desperation for the Houston Texans just yet when they host the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday in a key AFC South clash to open the regular season.\u00a0 But the Texans know they will likely need to beat the Colts at least once in order to gain enough confidence to be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":194,"featured_media":4867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,132],"tags":[2912,2539,1120,126,2615,2216,1930,1922,121],"class_list":["post-7271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nfl-handicapping","tag-colts-texans-preview","tag-football-betting","tag-houston-texans","tag-indianapolis-colts","tag-nfl-football-lines","tag-nfl-football-picks","tag-nfl-odds","tag-nfl-picks","tag-sports-betting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271","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=7271"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7449,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7271\/revisions\/7449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}