Texans vs. Ravens: Why Houston and Baltimore Are a Perfect Match

If you like old-school, smash-mouth football, Sunday's matchup between the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens will be for you. When they meet in Baltimore in the divisional round of the playoffs, it should be a nasty, grind-it-out game.

The Texans finished the 2011 season with the NFL's second-ranked defense, having allowed just 285.7 yards per game. The Ravens finished third, surrendering 288.9 yards per game. 

Houston was third in pass defense (189.7 yards per game) and fourth in run defense (96.0 yards per game), while Baltimore was fourth in pass defense (196.3 yards per game) and second in rush defense (92.6). Seeing a pattern here? 

Offensively, the Texans relied on their running game to get things done, finishing with the league's second-best rushing offense (153.0 yards per game). The Ravens finished 10th in rushing offense, averaging 124.8 yards per game, but running back Ray Rice led the NFL with 2,068 total yards from scrimmage. Just for the sake of comparison, Houston's top running back, Arian Foster, finished third in the NFL in total yardage with 1,841.

Meanwhile, Houston's offense ranked 18th in passing yards (219.1 yards per game), and Baltimore ranked 19th (213.9 yards per game). 

So we can all agree that these two teams win the exact same way, right? 

The Texans are going to pound the ball with Foster and backup Ben Tate, while the Ravens will get the ball to Rice any way they can. In the passing game, both teams will keep things simple to keep their quarterbacks from making mistakes. 

Defensively, we're probably see a lot of eight- and nine-man fronts, as both teams will dare the opposing quarterback to throw to win the game. 

I expect this to be a low-scoring, brutal affair in which field position and time of possession could determine the winner. It'll be an old-school slugfest, and I can't wait to see it.