The Houston Texans kickoff the first full week of action in the NFL preseason with a road game against the Carolina Panthers. The Wednesday night game is the featured matchup on the NFL Network. BetAnySports opened the Panthers as three-point favorites. The total was opened at 36. After a couple of weeks of betting, the line now has the Panthers as 1-point favorites. The total is now up to 38.
The big question for Houston heading into this preseason opener is which quarterback on its current roster will line up under center. Early September is when the games start counting for real, and it is not far away. The Texans drafted former Clemson standout Deshaun Watson with the 12th overall pick in the 2017 draft. He may have to wait a bit to take his place as the team’s quarterback of the future. Tom Savage is still holding the top spot on the depth chart. Houston also has quarterback Brandon Weeden on its roster.
The Texans have been able to win the AFC South Division the last two years. They won it with a record of 9-7 both seasons. Their projected win total this season has been set at 8.5. Moneyline odds set at -110 for both the UNDER and the OVER. Houston is a slight +200 favorite to win this division again in 2017. They are followed by Indianapolis with +220 betting odds. Last year the Texans went 2-8 against the spread when closing as an underdog.
Carolina slipped all the way to 6-10 last season after making a run all the way to the Super Bowl back in 2015 after going 15-1 straight-up in the regular season. The Panthers were 6-8-2 ATS overall in 2016 and they went 3-4-1 ATS on their home field. Their projected win total for this season stands at nine games with the betting odds slightly favoring the OVER at -115. Carolina’s betting odds to win the NFC South are set at +225 as the second favorite behind Atlanta (+155).
There is no quarterback controversy in Carolina with a healthy Cam Newton back under center, but it remains to be seen how much action he will see on Wednesday night. Panthers’ fans will be more interested in watching first round pick Christian McCaffrey run the ball in an effort to take some of the pressure off Newton as the center piece of this offense.
I would lay the one-point with BetAnySports in this game and take Carolina. While the actual results do not count in the standings, I get the feeling that the Panthers would like get things started on a winning note after a very disappointing 2016 campaign.
Recent Form
Name
Record
ATS
Offense
Defense
Diff
ATS Home
ATS Away
OU Record
OU Home
OU Away
Houston
10-8
7-10-1
17.89
20.89
-3
5-3-1
2-7
8-10
4-5
4-5
Carolina
6-10
6-8-2
23.06
25.12
-2.06
3-4-1
3-4-1
8-8
3-5
5-3
Power Stats
Yards Per Point
Name
Offense
Defense
Differential
HOU
17.43
14.37
3.06
CAR
14.9
14.32
0.59
Â
Name
Offense
Defense
Differential
HOU
9.18
10.26
-1.08
CAR
12.04
10.49
1.55
Yards Per Rush
Name
Offense
Defense
Differential
HOU
3.99
3.95
0.04
CAR
4.00
3.90
0.1
Team Records
Houston Texans
Name
Record
Home
Away
ATS
ATS Home
ATS Away
Offense
Defense
Diff
Overall
10-8
8-1
2-7
7-10-1
5-3-1
2-7
17.89
20.89
-3.00
vs Conf
8-6
6-1
2-5
5-8-1
3-3-1
2-5
18.07
21.21
-3.14
vs Div
5-1
3-0
2-1
3-2-1
1-1-1
2-1
22.83
20.83
2.00
Last 3
1-2
1-0
0-2
1-2
1-0
0-2
20.00
24.00
-4.00
Carolina Panthers
Name
Record
Home
Away
ATS
ATS Home
ATS Away
Offense
Defense
Diff
Overall
6-10
4-4
2-6
6-8-2
3-4-1
3-4-1
23.06
25.13
-2.07
vs Conf
5-7
3-3
2-4
4-6-2
2-3-1
2-3-1
22.67
25.83
-3.16
vs Div
1-5
1-2
0-3
1-4-1
0-2-1
1-2
23.33
29.33
-6.00
Last 3
1-2
0-1
1-1
2-1
0-1
2-0
19.33
21.67
-2.34
Supergrid
Title
Stat
Rank
Stat
Rank
Away Team Overall Scoring vs Home Team Overall Defense
17.89
28
25.13
26
Away Team Road Passing vs Home Team Home Passing Defense
169.11
32
226.63
11
Away Team Road Rushing vs Home Team Home Rushing Defense
119.00
7
83.50
7
Home Team Overall Scoring vs Away Team Overall Defense
23.06
15
20.89
12
Home Team Home Passing vs Away Team Road Passing Defense
223.00
24
214.22
4
Home Team Home Rushing vs Away Team Road Rushing Defense
Dirty has been an employee or owner of some of the top online sports gambling forums since 1998. He worked at EOG.com from it's inception until 2008 when he left and opened GamblingIQ and then in 2012 opened Handicappers Hidaway. He has written hundreds af articles over the years and always has his "Dirty Dozen" College Football poll up starting the first week of October.
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