Official Wild Card Playoff Round - Texans vs. Bills Game Thread, 1/4/2020

[Arky]

The 10-6 Houston Texans will host the 10-6 Buffalo Bills this Saturday in a late afternoon game at NRG stadium in round 1 (wildcard round) of the playoffs. Both teams are coming off a week of taking it easy as the Texans fell to the Tennessee Titans at home 35-14 and the Bills fell to the NY Jets 13-6 at home.

There are 20 other teams sitting at home so if the Texans can win, they can advance to the final 8 (divisional round). A win there and they would advance to the final 4 (conference championship round) - a place they've never been before in their somewhat short history. But first things first...

The Bills defense is rated #3 (yds/game) behind the Patriots and 49'ers. The Texans defense is rated #28 which is bottom 5. The Texans, however, have the better offense statistically. The Bills were knocked out in the wild card round in 2017 but before that, you have to go back to 1999 for their last playoff appearance. The Texans have made the playoffs 4 of the last 5 years so, give the edge to the Texans for playoff experience.

It would be nice for the Texans to have relatively clean game that is not marred by an excess of turnovers, coaching blunders or defensive lapses. Well, that's probably not going to happen but I still see it:

Texans 17, Bills 13

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TV = ABC/ESPN (channel 13 local), 3:35 pm CST, Saturday, 1/4/2020

Announcers = (probably) Joe Tessitore, Booger McFarland (talk to me, Booger!)

The line = (mostly) Texans by 2½

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Other playoff games:

CBS (Saturday night) = Tennessee @ New England, 7:15 PM CST

FOX (Sunday early) = Minnesota @ New Orleans, 12:05 PM CST

NBC (Sunday late) = Seattle @ Philadelphia, 3:40 PM