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The New England Patriots and Houston Texans both used strong defensive efforts to carry the day in their Wild Card Weekend victories. Something has to give when the 2-seeded Patriots host the 5-seeded Texans on Sunday in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs. Kickoff from Gillette Stadium is set for 3pm ET for the nationally televised contest. <\/p>\n
The AFC East champion Patriots are coming off a big 16-3 win over the Los Angeles Chargers in which they sacked Justin Herbert six times and allowed 207 yards while holding Los Angeles to 1-of-10 on third down attempts. <\/p>\n
The Texans used a similar profile as their stout defense turned on a strong second half in a 30-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. Houston allowed just 175 yards of total offense and 3.1 yards per play, and two late defensive scores helped overcome a triple-double performance from quarterback CJ Stroud. <\/p>\n
New England is a three-point favorite at home and the overall over\/under score is 40.5, according to the latest DraftKings NFL stats for Texans vs. Patriots. <\/p>\n
Here’s a look at the Texans vs. Patriots from a betting perspective: <\/p>\n
<\/sportsline-pick-snippet><\/p>\n The Texans quietly overcame an 0-3 start — by 13 combined points — to end the regular season on a nine-game winning streak behind one of the NFL’s top-rated defenses. A national TV audience on Monday night saw what that menacing group, with a relentless pass rush and ball-hawking secondary, is capable of. However, they were fortunate that Pittsburgh is an extremely limited offensive team because Stroud’s consistent troubles with the snap (he had five total fumbles) and shaky decision-making kept the Steelers in the game for three quarters and could have spelled doom against a higher-quality opponent such as the one they will face Sunday in the Patriots.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Patriots were a trendy pick to exceed their over\/under win total and perhaps contend for a playoff berth, and they cleared both hurdles with room to spare. There’s little doubt they were aided by the NFL’s weakest schedule but, even so, a road win over the Bills and their wild-card victory over the Chargers illustrated that this team is no fluke. Second-year quarterback Drake Maye, who is an MVP candidate, didn’t have his best game in the opening round but still outplayed Herbert, who has yet to notch a playoff victory. Maye sealed the game with late TD pass to Hunter Henry. Maye threw for 268 yards and added a team-best 66 rushing yards as the Patriots moved one win away from an AFC title game appearance in their first year under coach Mike Vrabel.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/sportsline-pick-snippet><\/p>\n Although we believe the Houston defense is strong enough to carry the Texans to a Super Bowl appearance, the alarmingly poor play of Stroud in the opening round is a concern that can’t be ignored. All the Texans need from the former No. 2 overall pick is a game manager-plus profile, one that includes playing mistake-free football with the occasional big play mixed in, and Stroud has shown such ability in the past. But he looked uncomfortable from the start against the Steelers and appeared unwilling to use his legs to get a first down when the opportunity presented itself. This dynamic caused his awful red-zone interception. Stroud’s lack of accountability also was concerning as afterward he repeatedly told a stunned media contingent — many of whom believed he was trolling — that he thought he played well in the victory. While a similar performance will guarantee a Houston exit, we’re hoping for better from the third-year QB who, in fairness, has led the Texans to the Divisional Round in all three seasons as their starter. But we expect the Patriots’ varied looks to force Stroud into at least one mistake and feel comfortable that he will cash the Over on this interception prop. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Magnificent Pictures The New England Patriots and Houston Texans both used strong defensive efforts to carry the day in their Wild Card Weekend victories. Something has to give when the 2-seeded Patriots host the 5-seeded Texans on Sunday in the Divisional Round of the NFL playoffs. Kickoff from Gillette Stadium is set for 3pm ET …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1659"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1661,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions\/1661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.insightresearcher.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Patriots betting profile<\/h2>\n
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Texans-Patriots prop pick: C.J. Stroud Over 0.5 interceptions<\/h2>\n