Baltimore (10-5) at Houston (9-6)
Wednesday, 4:30 p.m., EST, Netflix.
BetMGM NFL Odds: Ravens by 5 1/2.
Against the spread: Ravens 8-6-1; Texans 6-7-2.
Series record: Ravens lead 12-2.
Last meeting: Ravens beat Texans 34-10 in the divisional round of the playoffs on Jan. 20 in Baltimore.
Last week: Texans lost to Chiefs 27-19; Ravens beat Steelers 34-17.
Ravens offense: overall (1), rush (2), pass (5), scoring (3).
Ravens defense: overall (16), rush (1), pass (31), scoring (T19).
Texans offense: overall (20), rush (18), pass (18), scoring (13).
Texans defense: overall (4), rush (11), pass (6), scoring (9).
Turnover differential: Ravens plus-3; Texans plus-11.
QB Lamar Jackson has thrown at least two touchdown passes and has had a 100-plus quarterback rating in four straight games. He ranks second in the NFL with a career-high and franchise-record 37 touchdown passes this season and needs 87 yards rushing to eclipse Michael Vick (6,109) for most yards rushing by a quarterback in NFL history. Jackson is 4-0 with seven touchdown passes and two scoring runs in four starts against the Texans, including the playoffs.
WR Nico Collins, who leads the team with 909 yards receiving, will be even more important this week after Tank Dell sustained a season-ending knee injury Saturday. Collins leads a thin receiving group that was already without star receiver Stefon Diggs, who tore an ACL in Week 8. Collins has been great at home this season with 473 yards and all six of his touchdowns coming in Houston.
Baltimore RB Derrick Henry vs. Houston’s run defense. Henry, who ranks second in the NFL with 1,636 yards rushing, has had some of his greatest success against the Texans. Four of the 30-year-old’s six career 200-yard rushing games have been against Houston, including a career-high 250 in the season finale in the 2020 season to surpass 2,000 yards. He’s had 100 yards rushing in two of his past four games this season, capped by 162 last week.
Ravens WR Nelson Agholor (concussion), CB Jalyn Armour-Davis (hamstring), G Daniel Faalele (knee), WR Zay Flowers (shoulder), RB Justice Hill (concussion) and CB Tre’Davious White (shoulder) missed practice time this week. C Tyler Linderbaum (back) was limited. ... Houston S Jimmie Ward had season-ending foot surgery this week after being injured Saturday. … G Shaq Mason is likely to miss the game after injuring his knee against the Chiefs. … WR John Metchie is expected to return after sitting out last week with a shoulder injury.
The Ravens have won the past five games in this series. … Houston’s most recent win was a 25-13 victory in 2014. … These teams first met in Houston’s first season in 2002 when Baltimore got a 23-19 win.
The Ravens have clinched a playoff berth for the third straight season and sixth time in seven years. They need two wins and one loss by the Steelers to win the AFC North title. … The Ravens play on Christmas for a second straight year. They won 33-19 at San Francisco last season. … Baltimore has outrushed its opponents by an average of 98.1 yards per game. The Ravens have won the rushing battle every game this season. Baltimore’s 15 straight games outrushing the opponent is a single-season NFL record. … Henry’s 15 total touchdowns are tied with Ray Rice and Mark Ingram II for the most in a season in Ravens history. … The Ravens need 167 net yards to break the single-season franchise record set in 2019. … Jackson leads the NFL in passer rating (120.6), touchdown-to-interception differential (33) and yards passing plus rushing (4,552). ... Baltimore has scored TDs on a league-best 72.9% of its red zone trips. ... Flowers led the Ravens with five receptions for 100 yards last week for his fifth 100-yard game this season. … WR Rashod Bateman had a touchdown reception last week and has had one in three of his past four games. … TE Mark Andrews has a TD catch in four straight games. He leads NFL tight ends with nine touchdown receptions this season. … TE Isaiah Likely had his fifth touchdown catch last week. … LB Roquan Smith led the team with 10 tackles last week and has at least 10 tackles in four of the past five games. … LB Kyle Van Noy had 1½ sacks and his first fumble recovery of the season last week. … CB Marlon Humphrey had his first interception return for a touchdown against the Steelers. He leads the AFC with six interceptions. … The Texans are AFC South champions for a second straight season. … Their 46 sacks tie a franchise record set last season. … QB C.J. Stroud has had two touchdown passes in three of his past four games. He hasn’t thrown an interception in two games against the Ravens. He needs 8 yards passing Wednesday to become the ninth player in NFL history with at least 3,500 yards passing in each of his first two seasons. … RB Joe Mixon needs 33 yards rushing for his fifth career 1000-yard season. He had at least 95 yards of offense in both meetings with Baltimore last season while playing for the Bengals. … Collins needs 91 yards receiving to reach 1,000 yards for a second straight season. … TE Dalton Schultz had a touchdown reception last week and needs two catches to reach 50 for a fifth straight season. … DE Danielle Hunter is tied for second in the NFL with 12 sacks. It’s his fifth career season with at least 12 sacks, which is tied for most among active players. … DE Will Anderson Jr. has had a sack in three straight home games and has 10½ overall this season. He has a tackle for loss in both career games against the Ravens. … LB Henry To’oTo’o had 10 tackles, including one for loss last week. … LB Christian Harris had his first sack of the season against Kansas City. … CB Derek Stingley ranks second in the NFL with a career-high 18 passes defensed this season.
Henry always plays the Texans tough and would be a good option this week.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud (7) scrambles before being sacked for a 12-yard loss by Kansas City Chiefs cornerback Joshua Williams (2) during the second half of an NFL football game Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson throws a pass against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the first half of an NFL football game, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Houston Texans wide receiver Nico Collins (12) celebrates scoring a touchdown along with teammate, wide receiver Tank Dell (3), during the first half of an NFL football game against the Miami Dolphins, Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, in Houston. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry busts a long run against the Pittsburgh Steelers during the second half of an NFL football game, Saturday, Dec. 21, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Gunfire has rung out for days from the West Bank's Jenin refugee camp. But this time, it’s not Israeli forces that are facing off against armed groups. It is the forces of the Palestinian Authority clashing with Palestinian gunmen.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied territory, launched a rare crackdown earlier this month that has sparked one of the worst armed confrontations between Palestinians in years. The authority says it wants to bring law and order to what's long been a hotbed of militancy and a place where it has little control.
Its ability to contain armed groups there will reverberate far beyond the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority wants to position itself to take over governance in Gaza once the war there ends. But confronting Palestinians at a time when many view the authority as a subcontractor for Israel could deepen divisions in Palestinian society.
Here is a look at the days of fighting between Palestinians in the West Bank:
Earlier this month, security forces for the Western-backed Palestinian Authority stormed into Jenin refugee camp, a restive militant stronghold, and began a crackdown against armed groups.
Fighting has raged in the streets of the camp, and armored cars are seen patrolling. Palestinian security forces have taken over part of a hospital, using it as a base and shooting from inside, according to the United Nations.
At least one militant from the Islamic Jihad group has been killed as have two security force members, according to the Palestinian forces. About 50 people have been arrested.
At least two uninvolved civilians have been killed and some wounded. The fighting prompted the main U.N. agency for Palestinians, UNRWA, to suspend its services, including schooling. The violence has disrupted safe access for Palestinians to other services, including water and health. It also has complicated the restoration of services destroyed in previous Israeli raids of the camp.
The urban, built-up refugee camp in the northern West Bank houses Palestinians whose families were displaced in the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. It has long been a center for Palestinian militancy and a bastion of armed struggle against Israel. The militant groups Islamic Jihad and Hamas operate freely there, and its streets are regularly lined with posters depicting slain fighters as martyrs for the Palestinian cause.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers the main Palestinian population centers of the West Bank as part of interim peace agreements with Israel from the 1990s, has little presence in Jenin. Many people view the Palestinian Authority forces with suspicion and see them as serving Israel's interests because of security coordination that has facilitated Israel's own crackdowns on Palestinians.
The refugee camp and the adjacent city of Jenin have long been targets of Israel in its stated bid to stamp out militancy. Since the start of the war in Gaza, which has sparked a wave of violence in the West Bank, Israel has raided or carried out airstrikes in Jenin multiple times, killing dozens and leaving heavy destruction.
Palestinian health officials say Israeli raids throughout the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023, have killed more than 800 Palestinians. Israel says most of these are militants, but youth throwing stones and people not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
According to Brig. Gen. Anwar Rajab, the spokesperson for the Palestinian security forces, the raid is meant to impose law and order and restore peace and security. The troops were focused on “eradicating” Iran-backed groups that were trying to incite “chaos and anarchy,” he added. The raid will end when those goals are reached, according to the security forces.
But the raid is also shining a spotlight on the Palestinian Authority's ability to impose order and security in a restive area. With no clear vision for who will administer postwar Gaza, the raid could convince skeptics that the authority has what it takes to rule the Palestinian enclave. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering an agreement with Hamas that would create a committee of politically independent technocrats to administer the Gaza Strip after the war. The committee would report to him.
The Biden administration sees a rehabilitated Palestinian Authority as the best option to govern and secure postwar Gaza. The U.S. has for years invested heavily in training the Palestinian security forces, and the administration has seen its re-entry into Gaza, after being routed by Hamas in 2007, as a feasible replacement for Hamas, whose rule Israel has sought to end with the war.
Israel rejects this idea, seeing the Palestinian Authority as too weak to be able to contain Hamas. It says it will maintain open-ended security control over Gaza.
The incoming Trump administration has not yet laid out its vision for postwar Gaza, but Trump's first term was overwhelmingly supportive of Israel's positions.
Palestinians are not strangers to divisions within their society, with the most prominent the rift between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah party. The parties fought bloody street wars in Gaza before Hamas forced Fatah out of the territory, and the sides have failed to reconcile since.
Since then, the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority has tried to diminish Hamas' influence in the West Bank, often with Israel's help.
Reeling from the yearslong internal rift, Palestinians have staged general strikes and protests calling for unity. But the raid could deepen the perception of the Palestinian Authority as a facilitator of Israel's whims and potentially undermine any popular support for it to return to effectively rule Gaza.
Goldenberg reported from Tel Aviv, Israel.
Armored Palestinian security vehicles are seen on the road as Palestinian forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Closed shops during a general strike called as Palestinian security forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Journalists take cover from gunfire as Palestinian security forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Armored Palestinian security vehicles are seen on the road as Palestinian forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Palestinians sit in front of closed shops during a general strike called as Palestinian security forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Palestinians sit in front of closed shops during a general strike called as Palestinian security forces mount a major raid against militants in the Jenin refugee camp in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
