Texans vs Ravens: 3 things to watch for, including a

premier quarterback matchup

Texans vs Ravens: 3 things to watch for, including a premier quarterback matchup

In the AFC Divisional round of the playoffs, the Houston Texans will face the Baltimore Ravens following their 45-14 victory over the

Cleveland Browns in the Wild Card round.

The Ravens finished the regular season with a league-best 13-4 record, earning them the first seed. After defeating the Indianapolis

Colts in Week 18, Houston improved to 10-7 and won the AFC South.

Three things to look out for in Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. CST game in Baltimore are as follows:

Will the Ravens have another one-and-done postseason as the one seed?

The last time the Ravens had the AFC’s one seed and a bye week was in 2019. Their opponent another AFC South team in the

Tennessee Titans. The 9-7 Titans beat Baltimore 28-12 to move onto the AFC Championship despite the Ravens gaining 530 yards on

offense. That year’s eventual MVP Lamar Jackson finished with 365 yards passing and 143 yards rushing. The problem was that the

Ravens had three turnovers and went 0-for-4 on fourth down attempts, Tennessee had no turnovers.

The Texans have a different identity than the Titans did with Derrick Henry. Rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud is the star of Houston’s

pass-heavy offense. That season Tennessee was eighth in points per game and 12th in points allowed per game. This year the Texans

are 11th in points and 10th in points allowed.

Baltimore has one playoff win in the past nine years and Jackson is 1-3 in his postseason career as a starter. Houston is nowhere near a

favorite to win but there’s an opportunity to make the Ravens go home early yet again.

A two-time MVP quarterback vs. a future MVP candidate

Jackson is well on his way to win his second Most Valuable Player award in the past five years. C.J. Stroud flirted with the award this

season as a rookie and looks like he’ll be in contention for years to come.

The best playoff matchups often feature the best quarterbacks. In the AFC over the past few seasons that’s been any combination of

Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow. On top of a Allen-Mahomes matchup Sunday, we have another star-studded AFC

quarterback matchup in Jackson vs. Stroud.

The two played each other in Week 1 but each have drastically improved since. The Ravens won six straight games when Jackson

started to finish the season. In those games he averaged 250.2 passing yards and threw 14 touchdowns and two interceptions. In the

three games since Stroud came back from his concussion he’s averaged 250.3 yards while throwing six touchdowns and no

interceptions.

Both teams are coming into the game at their best, and the quarterbacks are a massive reason why.

The emergence of players such as Zay Flowers and Isaiah Likely eased the pressure on Jackson, who’s been without his go-to target

since mid-November. Mark Andrews suffered an ankle injury in Week 10 against the Cincinnati Bengals and is questionable to return

Saturday after logging a couple full practices. Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said Andrews’ status is “still up in the air” Thursday.

“Knowing how good this team is, how good our players are, how good our tight ends are, if I feel like I’m going to be helpful to the

team, I’m going to go,” Andrews said. “If I feel like I’m close but not there, I’m going to let these guys go and hopefully get there next

weekend.”

In the nine games before his injury Andrews had 43 catches for 521 yards and six touchdowns. His six receiving scores still leads the

Ravens even after not playing the final seven weeks of the regular season. Jackson would have his best red zone target and most

reliable receiving option on the field if Andrews were to play. The Ravens averaged 34 points over the final 10 games, many of which

were without Andrews. The Texans defense will have their hands full regardless, but Andrews’ return would make it even harder for

them.

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