The Houston Texans pack their bags and head out to Baltimore, for a rematch of of their October 16th tilt, back when the Texans were still able to have Matt Schaub behind center. Baltimore won 29-14, despite being -2 in turnovers. Ray Rice ran for 101 yards, and Joe Flaco was able to throw for 305 yards against one of the best pass defenses in the NFL (2nd in Defensive Passer Rating). The Ravens were able to shut down Arian Foster, who rushed 15 times for just 49 yards.

The Ravens have several key advantages in this game, not only do they have an extra week to prepare, but the Houston Texans are a warm weather dome team playing outside for the 1st time in a month.

Arian Foster was able to torch the Bengals last week, going for 153 yards on 24 carries, but against the Ravens, Foster will face a team that has allowed an NFL 2nd best 3.54 yards per rush, who are 2nd in the NFL at getting off the field on 3rd downs, allowing conversions on just 32.13 % of tries, and are the NFL's #1 ranked team in Defensive Passer Rating.

For Houston to be able to have a chance, they will need to play great defense, and get Arian Foster going in the running game to take pressure off of their young QB, and that is something that they have not been able to do against top defenses this year, and a difficult task to do today against the Ravens, who have exceled at stopping the run in the playoffs (81.9 yards/game and 3.1 yards per carry, both of which are the best in NFL postseason history). This year agaisnt against teams ranking in the top 10 in yards per carry allowed, he averaged just 3.37 yards a crack in the regular season, and he also struggled catching balls against these types of defenses,, with a 6.04 yards per catch, a huge drop off of his season average of 11.6. The Texans will not only struggle to move the ball between the 20's, but inisde the Red Zone, the Ravens have been the NFL's best defense, allowing TD's on just 38.10% of drives, not a good formula for the Texans, who on the road rank 27th in the Red Zone.

Joe Flaco should be the diffrence maker in this game, and I think he will play well in his first ever home playoff start. Flaco's playoff numbers have been poor, but they have all come in road games, and like most QB's, has better numbers at home. Flacco has won 18 of his last 19 home starts, throwing 29 TD's and 8 INT's. I think Flacco, Ray Rice, and a Baltimore defense that forces over 2 TO's a game at home this year welcome the Texans to cold weather playoff football and advance to the AFC Championship.

Baltimore Ravens -7 (-123)