Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs Predictions, Picks & Odds 1/12/20

Published by John Ford January 9, 2020 Categorie(s): Football, Houston Texans, Kansas City Chiefs, NFL, Sports Betting

The NFL playoffs continue with the Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs in what is sure to be an interesting matchup. Both teams come into the game with winning records and from some oddly on-again, off-again divisions where they were clearly the stand out squads. The Houston Texans had a longer road to the divisional game, playing in the Wild Card playoffs last week where they beat the Buffalo Bills 22-19 in overtime. Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson stepped up for the game, pulling off some incredible plays that really proved he is an elite player.

The Kansas City Chiefs has a bit of a strange season. For the first four games, the team seemed unstoppable, and quarterback Patrick Mahomes seemed on track to break all sorts of league records. But then their momentum came to a screeching halt as they picked up losses against the Indianapolis Colts and the Houston Texans. Although the team was able to pick up the pieces and get back to good form, it showed that the team is indeed stoppable despite their impressive squad. Will the Texans be able to get another win over the Chiefs? Or, will the Chiefs prove that it was a fluke?

Houston Texans at Kansas City Chiefs Predictions

So, before we get to the predictions, here are a few key stats of both the Texans and the Chiefs that we looked at when making the decision:

The Houston Texans had a rather average regular season posting a record of 10-6 throughout the season. If anything is evident from their record, it is that they tend to falter a bit when coming up against stronger teams. Some of their losses came up against team such as the New Orleans Saints, Baltimore Ravens and Tennessee Titans – all teams that made it to the playoffs. They were able to get some big wins throughout the season though, with the most notable being over the Chiefs in Kansas City. They’ll be looking to repeat the performance in this matchup.
Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson has had a good season, scoring the most touchdowns he has ever in a season. Throughout the season, he threw for 3852 yards and 26 touchdowns against 12 interceptions. He also rushed for seven touchdowns. In the wild card playoff game against the Bills, he threw for 247 yards and a touchdown. He also rushed 20 yards to score one in the third quarter. This was his first-ever victory in the playoffs.
The Kansas City Chiefs managed to match their regular season performance from last season posting a record of 12-4. Although they only dropped four games throughout the season, one of them was against the Houston Texans, in a period that exposed just how vulnerable the Chiefs offense can be at times. They do come into the game on a six-game winning streak, so they will be looking to take the momentum into this matchup and hopefully, prevent the repeating the same mistakes from the last game.
Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes did not match his MVP-winning performance from last season, but he was still a player you really want playing for your team. Throughout the season, he threw for 4031 yards and 26 touchdowns against five He didn’t have the best game against the Los Angeles Chargers in the final game of the season, throwing for 174 yards and one touchdown against one interception. However, in the one season that he has played for the Chiefs in the playoffs, he has played exceedingly well.
Offensively, the Chiefs have the edge in every key record except for rushing yards where the Houston Texans outrank them by 14 positions. Defensively, the Chiefs also outrank the Texans in every single metric except average rushing yards allowed. One key area that may be a problem for the Texans is the fact that they ranked second to last in the league for allowing third downs, and the Chiefs ranked first for making third downs.

So. With all of this in mind, here are our predictions for the Houston Texans vs Kansas City Chiefs:

Moneyline – the Kansas City Chiefs offense is not always rock-solid; the Texans showed that earlier this season already. However, it seems that they do have what it takes to get past the Texans, with their momentum from the regular season looking to carry on over in to the postseason. We say stick them for a moneyline.