Texans vs. Vikings: TV Info, Spread, Injury Updates, Game Time and More

The Minnesota Vikings and Houston Texans will kick off their preseason at Mall of America Field on Friday at 8 p.m. ET. This is a matchup of two teams with their sights set firmly on the playoffs and beyond.

The Texans won the AFC South last year before losing to the New England Patriots in the second round of the playoffs. 

Meanwhile, Adrian Peterson almost carried himself to a new NFL rushing record and took his team to a wild-card berth. However, that is where the good news stopped. The Vikings lost in the Wild Card Game to the Packers, 24-10. 

Of particular note for this matchup is that the Vikings wouldn't have even made it to that game had they not gone into Reliant Stadium and beaten the Texans in Week 16, 23-6. 

There is no doubt that the Texans want revenge for the one-sided beatdown. However, there is also no doubt they aren't looking towards Friday's game as a platform to get it. 

The priorities of the first game of the preseason need to be to get the starter's feet wet for a series or two, let the backups get some nice run while offering up vanilla play-calling and hopefully getting everyone out of the game healthy.

With all of that in mind, check out the vitals, and then I'll break down the matchups. 

Where: Mall of America Field 

When: Friday, August 9 at 8 p.m. ET

Watch: KARE (Channel 11 in Minneapolis)

Live Stream: Preseason Live

Listen: NFL Audio Pass 

Betting Line

Info according to Bovada on Aug. 8

Spread: Vikings -1

Over/Under: 35

Injuries

Injury information via ESPN.

Vikings

Questionable: Desmond Bishop, LB; Xavier Rhodes, CB

Probable: Jared Allen, DE

Texans 

Questionable: Sam Montgomery, LB

Probable: Brandon Harris, CB; Wade Smith, G; Ben Tate, RB; J.J. Watt, DE; Tim Dobbins, LB; Brooks Reed, LB

Texans Player to Watch: DeAndre Hopkins, WR

Looking at the stats of the Houston Texans, their offense was dominant. At 372 yards per game, they were the AFC's third-most prolific offense. 

Arian Foster gobbled up a good portion of this yardage on the ground by rushing for 1,424 yards, but that still wasn't as much as Andre Johnson produced. 

Johnson alone piled up 1,598 yards to set a new high in his decorated career.  

While these are tremendous stats, there is a problem. The Texans relied too heavily on these two guys. Houston needs someone to step up opposite Johnson to help diversify the offensive attack and occupy some of the defense's attention.

The Texans drafted DeAndre Hopkins to do just that.

Hopkins has the explosiveness to help take the top off the defense, and it will be exciting to see him grow into his role with the squad. 

Vikings Player to Watch: Cordarrelle Patterson, WR

Let's just stick with rookie wide receivers. Cordarrelle Patterson has huge shoes to fill, as he will forever be seen as the man who replaced Percy Harvin.

After trading Harvin to the Seattle Seahawks, the Vikings traded back into the first round with the New England Patriots at No. 29 to nab this athletic youngster.

Patterson is raw, but he will be a threat to take it to the house on every play. This is a badly needed quality for the Vikings offense.

As the season rolled on last year, teams were stacking not just eight, but nine in the box with the hopes of containing Adrian Peterson.

Patterson has the ability to either help divert some of that attention or exploit the lack of it.

However, how much he helps this offense will be determined on how quickly he adjusts to the NFL. We'll see how far along he is in this process on Friday. 

Prediction: Texans 20, Vikings 17

Both of these teams like to establish the run, but I expect them to give the passing game a longer look in the preseason, and if I'm betting on passing games, I'm going to side with the Texans in this one.