Our Cleveland Browns vs. Houston Texans prediction takes a look at the Week 13 matchup that features the return of Deshaun Watson to the football field against his former team.
Let’s take a look at the current NFL odds, key storylines to watch, and make a prediction for the game. Note that all odds are from DraftKings Sportsbook as of Monday, Nov. 28.
Browns vs. Texans Odds
- Spread
Browns -7 - Moneyline
Browns -320, Texans +265 - Over/Under
46.5 points
Browns vs. Texans Prediction
This game has potentially the biggest storyline of the year, with Watson returning to the football field for the first time in over 700 days. The bigger part of that story is that it’s against the franchise that traded him away.
We simply don’t know what to expect from Watson, though, since it’s been so long since he’s started an NFL game. In 2020, Watson was on a 4-12 Texans team, and he still threw for nearly 5,000 yards and 33 touchdowns to just seven interceptions.
MORE: NFL Week 13 Predictions and Picks Against the Spread
There’s no doubting his talents and abilities. But it’s going to be a major storyline throughout the day to see if he looks like that version of Watson or if his time away from the field has affected his play in a negative fashion.
The Browns will walk away from this matchup with a victory if they can get competent QB play from Watson and feed the ball to Nick Chubb. The Texans are allowing a league-worst 168.6 rushing yards per game and 1.4 rushing touchdowns on average. Feeding Chubb and potentially involving Kareem Hunt a bit more will go a long way to getting a victory and covering the spread against a Texans roster void of talent.
How the Texans Can Win
As for the other side of the ball, Houston tried shaking things up this past week with Kyle Allen as the starting QB instead of Davis Mills, but it didn’t necessarily work as they had hoped. Allen threw for just 215 yards with just one touchdown and two interceptions against a Miami defense that had been wavering up until last week.
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The key for Houston to keep this game competitive — and potentially outright win — relies solely on getting the ground game back up and running. Dameon Pierce has been stifled the past couple of weeks, and the offense has sputtered accordingly.
Against the Browns’ defense that has given up an average of 154 rushing yards over the past three weeks, Pierce should have plenty of room to run. Will the coaching staff continue to feed him the ball, though? He has just 15 combined rush attempts over the past two games.
Browns vs. Texans Prediction
Browns 27, Texans 17
