{"id":24642,"date":"2024-01-12T17:19:03","date_gmt":"2024-01-12T22:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=24642"},"modified":"2024-01-12T17:19:05","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T22:19:05","slug":"nfl-wild-card-game-1-cleveland-browns-at-houston-texans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/nfl-wild-card-game-1-cleveland-browns-at-houston-texans\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL WILD CARD GAME 1: CLEVELAND BROWNS AT HOUSTON TEXANS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY ADAM GREENE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only do we get our first NFL Wild Card game on Saturday afternoon, we get our first excellent storyline to lean into as the Cleveland Browns, without the quarterback they gave the worst contract in NFL history and a boatload of picks for will travel to Houston to face the Texans, the team that they acquired that particular quarterback from. Oh, and that QB, Deshaun Watson, is not playing in this game. Instead, it\u2019s Joe Flacco, a Super Bowl winner signed off his couch, will lead the Dawg Pound in this contest to open what might be the best weekend of football of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will be the 15th<\/sup> all time meeting between the two franchises and the first in the playoffs, which should not surprise anyone who\u2019s paid attention to the league over the last 20 years. They\u2019re knotted up at 7-7, but Cleveland has won the last five straight. The Texans took five consecutive before that. They last faced off on Christmas Eve, with the Browns winning 36-22.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the win, Joe Flacco was 27 of 42 passing for 368 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. Jerome Ford rushed 15 times for 25 yards and a score. Amari Cooper caught 11 passes for a team record 265 yards and two TDs. David Njoku hauled in six receptions for 44 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the loss, Davis Mills was was 15 of 32 passing for 149 yards and two touchdowns. Case Keenum was 11 of 17 passing for 62 yards, no scores and two picks. Devin Singletary had nine carries for 44 yards. Dalton Schultz caught eight passes for 61 yards. Nico Collins caught four balls for 18 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLEVELAND BROWNS AT HOUSTON TEXANS <\/strong>(+2.5, O\/U: 44.5)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location:<\/strong> NRG Stadium, Houston, Texas<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broadcast:<\/strong> NBC<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kickoff:<\/strong> Jan. 13, 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CLEVELAND BROWNS (11-6)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cleveland rested its starters last week and paid the price with an \u201cL,\u201d falling 31-14  to the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 18. Jeff Driskel was 13 of 26 passing for 166 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He was sacked three times. Pierre Strong, Jr. rushed 14 times for 65 yards. David Bell caught four passes for 68 yards and two scores. The defense sacked Jake Browning twice and picked him off once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

HOUSTON TEXANS (10-7)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Texans won their playoff game to get into the playoffs, beating the Indianapolis Colts 23-19 last week. CJ Stroud was 20 of 26 passing for 264 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions in a season-defining game that has Houston fans going nuts about their future prospects with this kid. He added 20 yards on the ground and was sacked twice. Devin Singletary had 24 carries for 63 yards and a TD. Nico Collins caught nine passes for 195 yards and a TD. Andrew Beck caught two balls for nine yards and a touchdown. The defense sacked Gardner Minshew II once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE PICK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m as caught up in the Houston rookie head coach and quarterback story as anyone, but Joe Flacco, in his career, is a different monster in the playoffs. He\u2019s one of the best playoff quarterbacks of all time. I think that guy shows up Saturday. Browns 27, Texans 23<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Straight up:<\/strong> 9-7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against the spread:<\/strong> 11-5<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Season<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Straight up:<\/strong> 146-84<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against the spread:<\/strong> 131-99<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter <\/em><\/a>@TheFirstMan<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connect with us our socials on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a> for the latest sports news, viral moments, betting odds and the occasional memes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ADAM GREENE Not only do we get our first NFL Wild Card game on Saturday afternoon, we get our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":24346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[146],"class_list":["post-24642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-nfl"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24643,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24642\/revisions\/24643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}