Saturday’s doubleheader kicks off with a battle between the Houston Texans and the Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead. The night ends with a huge game between the Washington Commanders and the Detroit Lions. All four teams are looking to punch their tickets to the Conference Championships, but only two will move on.
Here is all the information you need about the games, including how to watch, which channels they will be on, and more.
NFL Games Today: Breaking Down the Texans vs. Chiefs
- Date: Saturday, Jan. 18
- Time: 4:30 p.m. ET
- TV Channels: ABC, ESPN
- Live Stream: ESPN+
- Where: Arrowhead Stadium
Commanders vs. Lions Channels, Live Streams, and More
- Date: Saturday, January 18
- Time: 8:00 p.m. ET
- TV Channel: Fox
- Live Stream: Hulu
- Where: Ford Field
Houston Texans
Team: The Texans have yet to win more than three games in a row during the C.J. Stroud era– they’ll need to run their win streak to four games to reach the Super Bowl.
QB: Stroud had a 27-yard rush against the Chargers – prior to that, he didn’t have 27 rushing yards in a game since Halloween.
Offense: The Texans bet heavily on Stroud early, part of a theme during the second half of their season:
Texans: Highest First-Half Dropback Rates in 2024
- Saturday vs. Chargers: 78.8%
- Week 16 at Chiefs: 77.1%
- Week 12 vs. Titans: 73.9%
- Week 15 vs. Dolphins: 73.9%
- Week 17 vs. Ravens: 71%
Defense: Houston posted their second-best Defense+ grade in our database (since 2019) Their 88.7 grade was 5.6 points better than their best showing during the regular season.
Fantasy: Joe Mixon has recorded multiple red zone touches in 13 straight games.
Betting: The Texans opened the season 0-4 ATS – they are 8-5-1 since with covers against the Bill and Lions as a part of that.
Kansas City Chiefs
Team: Kansas City had a first-round bye on their way to a title in 2022 and there were no signs of rust – they scored in each of their first three possessions and allowed just 5.1 yards per play in the first half in the divisional round.
QB: Patrick Mahomes posted an 84.8 grade in our QB+ metric this season, 10th best in the NFL (below his career norm, but ahead of his 81.5 from a season ago).
Offense: Kansas City settled for a field goal on just 13.4% of their drives in 2022 – their rate was 18.4% in 2023 and 18.9% this year.
Defense: In Weeks 15-17, understanding that this team rested most of their playmakers in Week 18, the Chiefs allowed a touchdown on just two of seven opponent red zone drives.
Fantasy: DeAndre Hopkins has topped out at a 63.1% snap share with Kansas City and now has to navigate a healthy Hollywood Brown who has been targeted on 44.1% of his routes in two games back.
Washington Commanders
Team: Since the start of 2022, the Lions have a 73.8% win percentage against teams without a true weapon of a runner under center and a 54.5% mark when facing such an asset – Jayden Daniels certainly falls into that second bucket of QB.
QB: On Sunday night, Daniels completed 58.3% of his pressured passes with two scores and zero interceptions (regular season: 46.4% complete with 1.6 touchdowns-per-interception).
Offense: The Commanders scored on 62.5% of their drives in the Wild Card Round and are near unstoppable when having success even close to that level (13-2 when scoring on over one-third of their offensive possessions).
Defense: Washington posted a 66.7 Def+ grade on Sunday night, their fourth-worst effort of the season. That said, two of those four instances have come against the Buccaneers, making that potentially a tough matchup more than something to fear moving into the Divisional Round.
Fantasy: If you extrapolate Terry McLaurin’s last seven games for a 17-game season:
- 100 receptions (143 targets)
- 1,127 yards
- 19 touchdowns
- 329.1 PPR fantasy points
Justin Jefferson was WR2 in total PPR points this season with 317.5.
Detroit Lions
Team: The Lions scored 41 points against the Chargers last season coming off their bye. They hung 47 on the Cowboys this season and are now coming off another bye week.
QB: Jared Goff finished the season with a 93.2 grade in our QB+ metric, the 11th best mark in our six years of tracking (second best this season, trailing Lamar Jackson).
Offense: The Lions ranked third in fourth down conversions during the regular season (22) and tied for seven in fourth down conversion rate (66.7%).
Defense: Detroit’s offense gets the attention, but their defense, for the season, ranked seventh in turnover rate and red zone efficiency.
Fantasy: The best games over PPR fantasy expectation during the second half of the season, minimum 20 touches:
- Week 12 Saquon Barkley (at LAR): +127.1%
- Week 16 Jonathan Taylor (vs. TEN): +124.1%
- Week 18 Gibbs (vs. MIN): +114.4%
- Week 17 Gibbs (at SF): +77.9%
- Week 9 Derrick Henry (vs. DEN): +77%
Where Do the Remaining Teams Rank?
The NFL playoffs are underway, with eight teams still standing after Wild Card Weekend. Where does each team stand in our NFL Playoff Power Rankings?
To limit subjectivity from our power rankings, we have devised our PR+ metric, which combines our internal Offense+ and Defense+ metrics, our special teams ranking, and a level of correction for the teams’ strength of schedule and win-loss record among other things. We also take injuries and other factors surrounding teams into account.
Let’s examine which teams have the best shot at advancing to Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans.
1) Detroit Lions
2) Baltimore Ravens
3) Buffalo Bills
4) Philadelphia Eagles
5) Kansas City Chiefs
6) Los Angeles Rams
7) Washington Commanders
8) Houston Texans
