NFL Betting Preview: Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts

Added on Oct 31, 2010 by Jack Thurman in

NFL

The NFL betting schedule for the week will conclude on Monday Night as the Houston Texans play the Indianapolis Colts. Houston defeated the Colts on their home field earlier this year–only the second victory over Indy for the Texans in 17 tries. The Colts are coming off a bye week and would like to reciprocate for the earlier loss at Houston.

Houston Texans at Indianapolis Colts
November 1, 2010 5:30 PM Pacific

Both teams enter this matchup at 4-2 and the winner will take over share of first place in the AFC South with Tennessee. Indy hasn’t been able to catch a break this season on the injury front, and it didn’t get better over their bye week. Running back Joseph Addai will be out for this game (Addai has been upgraded to ‘questionable’) and the team has also lost tight end Dallas Clark for the rest of the season. They have upgraded wide receivers Pierre Garcon and Anthony Gonzalez to ‘probable’ here, more out of necessity than anything else. While it’ll definitely help the Colts to have more depth at the wide receiver position nothing has come easily for the Indy offense this year despite another solid season for QB Peyton Manning.

Houston has done well on the road this year with a 2-0 SU/1-0-1 ATS record away from home. They’ll get tackle Duane Brown back for this game following his suspension for a failed drug test. Our big concern about the Texans is their passing defense, which ranks dead last in the NFL allowing 302 yards per game. They’ve also allowed 24 points or more to every opponent this year except one (Jacksonville). On their home field Peyton Manning should be able to shred a defense that he ripped for 419 yards in the season opening loss at Houston.

Still, we can’t get over the fact that despite Manning’s excellence that the Colts have just looked out of sync for most of the year. As we said earlier, nothing has come easily for the Colts this year and that could be crucial in a series in which Houston has been very competitive against the pointspread even before the SU win at home earlier this season. All time, Indy is 15-2 SU against Houston but the Texans hold a 10-7 ATS advantage in the series. They’ve also covered four of the last five meetings overall, and the last two at Indy despite the Colts winning both games. The Texans’ vulnerable passing defense concerns us but we just can’t lay the price with the Colts at this point.

Bet Houston +5′ over Indianapolis