The Houston Texans will hit the highway to face the New England Patriots in an AFC Divisional round NFL pro football playoff game on Sunday afternoon. Kick off time from New England is scheduled for 4:30PM Eastern Time with national television coverage provided by CBS.
The NFL odds from this AFC Divisional round playoff game has the home team New England Patriots opening up as a -10 ½ point favorite with an over under line of 48 ½ points. Early money from the bettors has landed on the side of the road underdog as New England is now favored by -9 point favorite. The over under has moved down to 48 points.
The teams met this regular season back on December 10th and it was the Patriots with the 42-14 home win on Monday Night Football as a -5 ½ point betting favorite. The game ended over the total of 50 ½ points. New England put the game away early by going ahead 28-0 early in the fourth quarter. The Patriots moved the ball very well on the Texans defense with 419 yards for the game. Tom Brady threw for four touchdowns on 21 of 35 completions for 296 yards. NFL Trend: The over is 4-0 in their past four head to head meetings.
Entering the post season the Texans had dropped three of their past four games and choked away home field advantage throughout the playoffs. In last weekend’s AFC Wildcard playoff game Houston earns the 19-13 home win against the Cincinnati Bengals as a -4 point betting favorite. The total went under 42 ½ points. Houston had a very good effort on both sides of the football in victory. Offensively they moved the ball for 420 yards with 158 on the ground and 262 by the air. At issue last week was the fact the Texans scored just one touchdown in four red zone tries. The Houston defense held Cincinnati to just 198 yards for the game. The Texans are sixth in both total offense and defense on the season. Quarterback Matt Schaub completed 64% of his passes with 22 touchdowns and 12 picks.
The Patriots concluded their regular season with a record of 12-4 on the season. The team went 6-2 straight up on their home field. The team has won nine of their past ten games since a 3-3 start to the season. New England is the number one offense in football as they gain 427 yards per game and average under 35 points a contest. On the defensive side of the ball the Patriots rank 25th by allowing 373 yards a game. New England struggles in pass defense as they are second to last in the league by giving up 271 yards per game. When they faced Buffalo this season they gave up 28 points in their first meeting and 31 in the rematch. Quarterback Tom Brady connected on 63% of his passes with 34 touchdowns and 8 interceptions. Brady has thrown half of his interceptions in the past three weeks of the season.
