The Houston Texans’ grueling opening stretch of games continues with their home opener against Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore easily dispatched of Cleveland in the first game, and are poised to do the same to Houston, which was never comfortable in the opening loss to Kansas City. I’d expect more of the same from both sides as the Ravens ease to victory over the Texans. Houston Texans vs Baltimore Ravens Betting Odds Houston really struggled to contain Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City offense after the first quarter, which doesn’t bode well with the reigning MVP coming into their stadium on Sunday. The Chiefs were able to use the short and intermediate passing game to eat up the Texans defense, and I expect Baltimore will try to do much of the same this week. Houston also needs to be wary about Lamar Jackson’s legs and not let him extend too many plays or escape containment too often. The Texans will also need to get DeShaun Watson in a better passing rhythm, something they struggled to do early against the Chiefs. The Ravens were simply sensational against the Browns on both sides of the ball in a dominant victory. What really stood out was Baltimore’s ability to take away the deep pass from Cleveland’s playbook, something that is very important to what Houston wants to do in the passing game. The Texans aren’t as big rushing threats as the Browns were, but Baltimore did an excellent job at that as well. Baltimore won’t get as many big-play opportunities through the ari against the Texans’ defense, but Jackson’s rushing could supply that energy if Houston isn’t careful. Baltimore certainly deserves to be the seven-point favorites it is at the NFL betting sites in New Jersey, and the Ravens probably should be bigger favorites. Where I have bigger concerns is the 51.5 total points that is the over/under for this game. I do expect it to be similar to the Kansas City-Houston game, but that game only hit 54 points, and I’m not sure Houston will score as much against Baltimore as it did against the Chiefs. I was trying to find alternative totals that could work, but ultimately, I couldn’t find the right value, so I’m going to instead stick with the under 51.5 total points as one of my NFL betting predictions on this game. Baltimore Ravens to win The Ravens looked so explosive on offense against the Browns, but just as importantly, they were equally stringent defensively. I expect that will continue against Houston, which struggled to score until midway through the fourth quarter when the game was out of reach. I expect it will be a similar story in Sunday, so I’m taking the Ravens laying 8.5 points at +115 odds at the New Jersey online sports betting sites.
