Home

Buy Sports Picks

Free Sports Picks

Sports Betting Forum

Members Login

Article Archives

Contact Us

Leaderboard

Who's Hot

Recent Results

Falcons Texans Odds

The Atlanta Falcons and Houston Texans square off Sunday in a pivotal non-conference showdown. Both teams would be in the playoffs if the season were to end today. This is a more important game for Atlanta, which is holding on to a wild card spot. Houston is leading their division after a surprising start to the year. These teams have only faced each other twice all-time, and the home team has won both contests. That includes a 26-16 Atlanta victory in their most recent meeting in 2007.

Taking a look a the NFL odds for Week 13, I find a spread of Atlanta -3 over Houston and a total set of 37.5 points.

Atlanta

The Falcons are finally starting to look like the team that owned the No. 1 seed in the NFC last season. Atlanta (7-4, 3-2 away) has won five of their last six games to put themselves in great position to make the playoffs. They trail the New Orleans Saints by just one game in the NFC South division, and they have a rematch with them coming up in Week 16. The Falcons are coming off of a 24-14 home victory over the Minnesota Vikings last Sunday.

Atlanta appeared to be headed for an easy win over the Vikings after taking a 17-0 lead into halftime. Minnesota would not go away, putting together a pair of touchdown drives that cut the Falcons lead to three with 13:13 to play. Atlanta would respond with a long touchdown drive that resulted in a Michael Palmer 3-yard scoring pass from Matt Ryan with 6:40 to play, basically sealing the game. Ryan finished with 262 passing yards and three touchdowns.

The Falcons come into this game with Houston ranked 13th in the NFL in total offense (365.9 yards/game) and 9th in total defense (329.2 yards/game). Their strength is a run defense that ranks 2nd in the league at 83.5 yards/game, and it will certainly be tested against the Texans Sunday. Ryan is completing 62.4 percent of his passes for 2,887 yards with 18 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Michael Turner has rushed for 948 yards and eight scores, though he is questionable Sunday with a groin injury. The Falcons are going to be without top corner Brent Grimes, who is out for at least two weeks with a knee injury.

Houston

The Texans have overcome a plethora of injuries to some of their best players this season. Houston (8-3, 4-1 home) sits atop the AFC South division by two games over the Tennessee Titans. They have lost their top two quarterbacks to season-ending injuries, and will now be playing with rookie T.J. Yates from here on out. Star receiver Andre Johnson finally returned last week from a hamstring injury, and star running back Arian Foster has missed time due to the same hamstring ailment. Plus, defensive end Mario Williams has been placed on the injured receiver with a Pectoral injury.

Matt Leinart helped the Texans build a 10-point halftime lead over the Jacksonville Jaguars last Sunday before going out with a broken collarbone. Yates stepped in, going 8 of 15 passing for 70 yards in his NFL debut. Houston would beat Jacksonville 20-13, but they managed just 47 yards and two first downs in the second half. Once again, they relied on their defense to carry them to victory. Arian Foster rushed for 65 yards and a touchdown to lead an offense that managed just 215 total yards against the Jaguars.

Houston ranks 8th in the NFL in total offense (379.7 yards/game), including 3rd in rushing (151.7 yards/game). The biggest reason for their turnaround has been a stop unit that ranks 1st in the league in total defense (268.4 yards/game), including second in scoring defense (16.3 points/game). Foster is averaging NFL bests of 156.6 yards/game from scrimmage and eight touchdowns in five games since returning from his hamstring injury. Johnson missed six games before catching two balls for 22 yards against Jacksonville last week.

Betting Trends

The Falcons are Falcons are 7-1 ATS in their last 8 road games vs. a team with a winning home record, but just 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games as a favorite of 3.0 or less.

The Texans are 4-0-1 ATS in their last 5 games overall, but only 1-5 ATS in their last 6 games as an underdog.