Merry Christmas. The Texans (9-6) host the Ravens (10-5) on Wednesday in a Week 17 matchup. Houston and Baltimore squared off in the 2023 regular season, as well as last January in the Divisional Round of the playoffs, and the Ravens took both contests. Here are five things to watch when they kick off at 3:30 inside NRG Stadium on Christmas Day.
1) This is different – For the first time in franchise history, the Texans play a game on a Wednesday. Superstar Beyonce will perform at halftime, and that intermission will be 20 minutes long, compared to the standard 12 minutes. Houston's wearing it's City-Inspired alternate H-Town uniforms. The game will air on Netflix. It's Christmas. Several factors about this matchup are atypical, but the Texans will need to block all that out and zero in on winning each snap.
"It's just about having laser focus," Head Coach DeMeco Ryans said. "There are a lot of things as I mentioned yesterday that can pull our attention in many different directions. Physically, emotionally with everything that's going on right now with short week, Christmas. There are a lot of things that can pull our energy, but right now we have to be laser-focused on Baltimore."
The Texans haven't beaten Baltimore in 10 years. The last Houston victory was a decade ago, at home, on the next-to-last weekend of the season, in 2014.
2) Keep improving, C.J. – On the first possession of the third quarter of Saturday's loss, quarterback C.J. Stroud marched the offense 70 yards up the field, completing a 17-yarder to Robert Woods, handing off to Joe Mixon for a gain of three, and then connecting with wide receiver Tank Dell for a 30-yard touchdown in the back of the end zone. Dell suffered a knee injury that shook the team emotionally, and play was stopped for quite some time as medical staff attended to Dell.
If Dell caught the scoring strike and avoided injury, there's no telling how the game would've turned out after that. But offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik liked what he saw from his second-year signal-caller, and would like to see more of it.
"I thought C.J. last game played his best game," Slowik said. "I really did. I thought the things he put out there against Kansas City, how firm his back foot was on some of these throws, how he was hanging in there in the pocket, how good our protection was, how receivers were running routes. We really felt good about the pass game against Kansas City early on and the week before also."
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh also sees improvement from Stroud.
"Just continues to grow," Harbaugh said. "He's just a super-talented guy. Just has a strong arm. He's very accurate, quick release, makes a lot of tight windows throws to his receivers."
3) Jiggle Jackson – Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is playing at an MVP-caliber level. He's taken home that honor twice, and he enters Wednesday's game with 37 touchdown passes and only four interceptions. He's completed 67.9 percent of his passes for 3,787 yards, and has also run for 765 yards and three more scores. Since an 0-2 start to the season, Jackson's led the Ravens to a 10-3 mark over the last 13 games.
"He's going to make plays," Texans linebacker Henry To'oTo'o said. "He's going to move around in the pocket. But it's his arm that everybody underestimates. Being able to make throws, move around and out of the pocket and then make those same throws."
Including the postseason, the Ravens have won all four career games he's played against the Texans. Jackson's completed 73.9 percent of his throws in those four games for a combined 747 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception. He's also run for two scores, and amassed 271 yards on just 43 carries.
4) Oh yeah, Derrick Henry's a Raven now – Running back Derrick Henry tortured the Texans when he was with Tennessee. In 14 career games versus Houston, Henry's averaged 102.2 yards per contest and picked up 5.66 yards per carry. He cracked the 200-yard mark in four straight games against the Texans between 2019 and 2022, and eclipsed the century mark in a game two other times.
This year, he's already gained 1,636 yards and is averaging 5.9 yards per carry.
"He's running behind a really good offensive line and just schematically they're doing a great job of just using him to his strengths and you know he's running the football really well," Ryans said. "Always a tough guy to tackle and always going to take more than one guy. Got to be aware of that stiff arm when he's out on the edge as well. He's a great player."
5 ) Get the ball back – Houston turned the ball over twice in Saturday's loss at Kansas City, and didn't register a takeaway for the first time in the last 10 games. But the Texans are still at plus-11 in the turnover differential stat, meaning they've taken the ball away from opponents 11 more times this season than they've turned it over. Only three teams in the NFL have a better turnover differential.
Houston is 7-3 in games when they've won that turnover battle, and 2-3 when they've finished even or lost the turnovers battle.
Baltimore in 2024 is plus-3, which is the 14th-best mark in the NFL.
