Andrew Wilsher
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Merry Christmas, Pickswise Nation! We hope you’re all having a wonderful holiday and excited to celebrate with the NFL doubleheader on Netflix! The main event of the day sees the Baltimore Ravens taking on the Houston Texans, along with a little Beyonce halftime show for good measure. The Ravens earned a huge win over the Steelers on Saturday to move right back into the AFC North race, while the Texans are effectively just seeing out the regular season with the AFC South title already wrapped up.
This should be an exciting contest, so let’s get into my best Ravens vs Texans player prop bet, while you can also see our NFL picks for both of the Christmas matchups as well as every game in Week 17!
Read our full Baltimore Ravens vs Houston Texans predictions for Christmas Day
CJ Stroud (HOU) under 252.5 passing yards (-110)
Odds available at Bet365 at the time of publishing.
If you want to bet on this player prop bet then I suggest you be quick! At the time of publishing, Bet365 has a very favorable 252.5 number, while DraftKings is down at 246.5 and FanDuel is more than 10 yards lower at 241.5. There are a lot of factors that suggest CJ Stroud could struggle in this matchup. For starters, he just lost one of his top targets Tank Dell to injury, which means that Nico Collins is effectively the last man standing after Stefon Diggs was injured earlier in the season. Stroud has eclipsed this line just twice in his last 10 games, so it was already asking a lot for him to go over this number even if Dell was healthy.
What’s especially noteworthy however is how much Stroud struggles when under pressure. Although the Ravens’ problems against the pass this season are well-documented, they’ve actually recorded the 2nd-most sacks in the NFL. And when Stroud faces teams with a strong pass-rush, his performances take a dip. He is averaging 232.8 passing yards per game this season, but when he’s come against the Cowboys (257), Vikings (215), Packers (86) and Jets (191), who all rank in the top-half of the league in sack rate, his average drops to 187.25. Baltimore has a ton of motivation in this game and I’m expecting them to bring the heat. There is always the danger of garbage time yards with Baltimore a 5.5-point favorite, but this number feels way to high to pass up.
Go for the big payday with our Ravens vs Texans Same Game Parlay picks at +750 odds
