Texans vs. Ravens: Home-Field Advantage Will Propel Baltimore to Victory

By most accounts, the Baltimore Ravens are nine- or 10-point favorites over the Houston Texans for Sunday's divisional round matchup.

And why wouldn't they be?

Rookie T.J. Yates supposedly has no chance against this scary Ravens defense.

The Texans stumbled into the playoffs.

Baltimore has way more playmakers. Houston has too many injuries to overcome. 

The reasons are endless. And they are solid arguments, sure, but the Texans are extremely underrated right now.

And that makes for a dangerous team in the playoffs.

The Ravens better take those boys from Texas serious, or they are going to get upset at home.

First of all, and most importantly, how much can quarterback Joe Flacco really be trusted in the playoffs?

In his postseason career, he's thrown for over 200 yards just once in seven games. He's been under 150 yards four times. Remember, part of that is because Baltimore has always had a good defense.

Flacco has really mostly been asked to be a game-manager, but he hasn't even done that right.

Four touchdowns and seven interceptions isn't what you want from a game-manager.

Until the Audobon (not the highways in Germany) native proves everyone wrong, he has to continue to wear the "chokes in playoffs" label. If this holds up, the Ravens fortunately have a pretty nice backup plan, which goes by the name of "Give the ball to Ray Rice. A lot."

However, the Texans rush defense might just have something to say about that.

Houston is giving up just 94.8 rushing yards per game and 4.1 yards per carry. Those numbers are third- and 10th-best in the NFL, respectively.

In the past three games, those numbers shoot down to 85.7 and 3.5. This isn't your Texans defense of old. 

Mario Williams may be gone to injury, but rookie J.J. Watt leads a very stout defense. 

Who cares, you might think, it's not like the Texans will able to score against the Ravens.

That may be partially true, but Yates has been quietly efficient, throwing for a QB rating of over 85 in five of his seven games (in one of those, he threw just four times). He may be a rookie, but he knows how to make the right throws and take care of the ball.

The Texans managed to score 31 points against a good Cincinnati defense last week despite Yates throwing just 20 times for 159 yards.

Arian Foster and Ben Tate can pound away at any defense and break off a big play at any given time. 

This game, however, will eventually swing in Baltimore's favor simply because the Ravens are at home.

The Ravens have been incredibly inconsistent this season, but whenever they go back home they become themselves again. That has resulted in a league-best (obviously) 8-0 home record. 

Baltimore is favored in this one, and rightfully so, but Houston matches up with them better than most people assume. 

If this one was in Houston, I'd probably take the Texans, but Baltimore did its job during the regular season, so they rightfully get the advantage.

The Ravens will come out on top, but don't start assuming it will be easy.

Nothing ever is in the playoffs.