The Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens will take center stage as these AFC clubs are set to duke it out on Christmas Day as part of the NFL’s holiday doubleheader. While this is a standalone game on the Week 17 schedule, it’s potentially not the biggest matchup these two teams will have against one another this season.
At the moment, the Texans and Ravens are slated to play each other in the opening round of the playoffs, with Houston currently situated as the No. 4 seed and Baltimore entering Week 17 as the No. 5 seed.
Given that these teams could play again in just a couple of weeks, and both already locked into the playoffs, it’s fair to wonder if there will be any gamesmanship at play. Could either side maybe keep some plays a little closer to the vest to maintain a leg up in the postseason? Ravens head coach John Harbaugh was asked that very question on Tuesday but indicated that his team won’t pull any punches by keeping some of their tricks in their bag for another day.
“[It’s] not a priority,” Harbaugh said, via the official team website. “You try to win the game. There’s plenty of things that we can come up with for the next game that would be the next iterations of whatever we’re doing. Everything we can think of that’s good, we’re going to try to do it.”
That’s a fair assessment of the situation from Harbaugh. After all, the Ravens are not locked into the No. 5 seed. In fact, if they win out and the Pittsburgh Steelers — who are currently the No. 3 seed — drop one of their final two games, they’d win the AFC North and suddenly finding themselves hosting a playoff game rather than going on the road.
It’s also not like the Texans are unfamiliar with the Ravens in a playoff setting. Just last year, these two teams met in the divisional round, with Baltimore sending Houston home. With that in mind, DeMeco Ryans and the rest of the Texans brass know quite well the opponent they’ll face on Christmas and possibly down the road in the playoffs.
