Sunday afternoon, January 15, the Houston Texans will be in Baltimore for only their first Divisional playoff game in Franchise history, against perennial playoff contenders and one time Superbowl champions, the Baltimore Ravens.
We have previously pooh poohed certain oft cited historical statistics that are used to purportedly predict the result of an upcoming game. For that reason, we will not discuss historical playoff performances, coaches win histories (in playoffs or otherwise) because they don’t mean a thing. Here instead, are the 7 big truths that could tell us the winner of the playoff game between the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans.
Big Truth #1: Yards per game in the 2011 NFL regular season: The Houston Texans averaged 372.1 yards per game, while the Baltimore Ravens averaged 338.7. The rushing and passing yards breakdown would per game are similarly as close. We don’t see a meaningful difference between the tow teams here. On the basis of yards per game, the game is a pick ’em.
Big Truth #2: Points per game for the 2011 regular season: The Texans scored on average 23.8 points per game and the Ravens scored 23.6 points per game. At the same time, the Ravens defense allowed on average only 16.6 points per game while the Texans only allowed 17.4. Nothing there either. Pick ‘em.
Big Truth #3: Quarterback harassment factor: The Baltimore Ravens totaled 48 quarterback sacks against 33 for opponents for the 2011 season. The Houston Texans on the other hand, recorded 44 sacks against 33 for their opponents. Again, there is no daylight between the two teams here. Pick ‘em.
Big Truth #4: Common Opponents: Both the Houston Texans and the Baltimore Ravens beat the Pittsburg Steelers. However, the Baltimore Ravens beat them twice. The Houston Texans were 1 and 1 against the Tennessee Titans but the Baltimore Ravens lost to the Titans. Houston beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, but the Baltimore Ravens lost. Both teams beat the Cincinnati Bengals although the Baltimore Ravens beat them twice. Both Teams Beat Cleveland. It almost looks like a pick ‘em on the basis of common opponents but a close examination will give the Houston Texans a very slight edge.
Big Truth #5: How much BadaSSitude does each team have? We measure this by the frequency of nominations and winners for the BadaSSitude Pro Football Player of the Week from each team:
Ray Rice, Running back for the Baltimore Ravens was nominated for the BadaSSitude Pro Football Player of Week 13
- Terrell Suggs, Outside Linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens was voted the BadaSSitude Pro Football Player of Week 12
- Arian Foster, running back for the Houston Texans was nominated for the BadaSSitude Pro Football Player of Week 7.
- Torrey Smith, Wide receiver for the Baltimore Ravens was voted the BadaSSitude Pro Football Player of Week 3.
Advantage the Baltimore Ravens.
Big Truth #6: Intimidation Quotient: The Baltimore Ravens have Ray Lewis, Terrel Suggs, Ed Reed, Dawan Landry et al. Wow. The Houston Texans have Jonathan Joseph, Brian Cushing, Danieal Manning and Antonio Smith et al. Who? Advantage Ravens.
Big Truth #7: Head to head match up: The Baltimore Ravens beat the Houston Texans. Advantage Ravens.
It will be a close one but the truthometer is heavily tilted towards a Baltimore Ravens win.
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