What looked to be an intriguing game on Christmas Day turned into a complete blowout, as the Baltimore Ravens crushed the Houston Texans 31-2 in a rematch of last year’s divisional round game.
The Ravens came out swinging, straight-up bullying the Texans on both sides of the ball. Houston, on the other hand, came out flat and lifeless in all phases.
Apparently, that wasn’t a new development.
Jamie Erdahl, who worked as a sideline reporter during the game and hosts “Good Morning Football,” claimed that the Texans appeared “exhausted” in the days leading up to the game, and it showed on the field.
“The Texans seemed to be exhausted in our meetings and on gameday. … What we saw in our meetings is exactly the team that we saw on the sidelines on Christmas Day,” Erdahl said, per Houston Texans On SI. “I think [Stroud] was really badly affected by the Tank Dell injury.
“When we asked him ‘How you doing man? How’s Tank doing?’ he goes, ‘Goes I feel like that injury was two minutes ago.’ … He was still feeling the after effects of the Tank Dell injury. I’m worried about this Texans team.”
Dell, a promising second-year receiver, suffered a horrific knee injury in last week’s loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. The former Houston Cougars star reportedly suffered a dislocated knee cap and tore his ACL, MCL and PCL, a devastating injury that could keep him out for the entire 2025 season as well. It’s completely understandable that the injury continued to affect the team days later, especially someone as close to Dell as Stroud is.
The Texans also played three games in an 11-day span, but so did the Ravens, and they came out with far more energy. Truthfully, though, that’s more of a testament to Baltimore’s prepartion than an indictment of Houston’s preparation, as the aforementioned injury definitely threw a wrench into the team’s plans.
“The fact that they did it – they did it in this short stretch – I think our team probably handled it the best, arguably… I’m proud of our guys, man,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh told reporters after the game. “I’m really proud of our guys for what they accomplished – our coaches, our strength and conditioning coaches, our nutritionist, our trainer [and] our performance coach.”
In any case, the Ravens and Texans seem to be going in opposite directions as the playoffs approach, which bodes well for the former and poorly for the latter.
