The regular season is over and now for the 12 sides left the NFL campaign really gets underway as the playoffs begin this weekend. The next three weeks will determine the two sides who will head to Houston for the Super Bowl beginning with the wildcard round this weekend.
The first match of the playoffs comes from the AFC as the South winners Houston Texans host the Oakland Raiders in what is probably the lowest profile match of the four this weekend.
Houston Texans
Houston are back in the playoffs and they will be looking to maximise their participation in them so the extent that they play the Super Bowl in their own stadium, something not many sides have done in recent years. To do that they are going to have to dramatically up their game from the regular season but if the old adage of defences winning championships rings true that will give the Texans some belief.
They have one of the best defences in the league when it is on song but sadly for as good as their defence is their offense is very weak. They have had issues at quarterback all season. Brock Osweiler hasn’t justified the price tag yet but he is going to be given the chance to pay back some of that salary as he will start this match.
Oakland Raiders
The Raiders looked like they might challenge for the number one seed for much of the season. Home advantage and a bye looked inevitable but then it all came crashing down when Derek Carr suffered a season ending injury. All of a sudden the Raiders have gone from being touted as potential Super Bowl winners to making up the numbers.
That is how big Carr has been for them this season but this is a Raiders side who have a powerful running game and a defence which makes a lot of plays so that will be two areas of the game who will be looking to show they shouldn’t be written off just yet. Connor Cook will get his first NFL start here in what is a huge game.
Betting
There has been a bit of a gamble on the Houston Texans going into this match and I get that in terms of the fact that the Oakland Raiders will be starting their third choice quarterback here but I don’t necessarily think that means the Raiders can’t win this match.
On the other side the Texans will still be starting Brock Osweiler who has been a busted flush all season. The Raiders might be without their quarterback but they still have their pass rush to pile the pressure on Osweiler and they still have their running game. I think that is enough to get the job done here at a much more inflated price than we might otherwise have got.
Tips
Back Oakland Raiders to beat Houston Texans for a 4/10 stake at 2.75 with Skybet
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