3 coaching advantages Baltimore Ravens hold over Houston Texans 

When the Baltimore Ravens meet the Houston Texans in the divisional round, every matchup will matter. It always comes down to the players on the field, but the coaching staff can influence the outcome of the game in a similar manner. Why do the Baltimore Ravens have the coaching advantage this week?

3. Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator should beat Houston Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik

When the Baltimore Ravens defense takes on the Houston Texans offense, it will be the better unit on the Texans against the better unit on the Ravens. This will be the side of the ball that decides the outcome of the game. It will also be the biggest coaching matchup. There are real reasons to give the edge to the Baltimore Ravens here because of coaching. 

Mike MacDonald is in his second year as defensive coordinator, while Bobby Slowik is in his first. Slowik had a great first year, and his reputation was already high, coming from the Kyle Shanahan coaching tree. 

However, if there is one thing that we saw about MacDonald this year, it is that he has had success against this tree. He was hired from Michigan because he had shown to be innovative as a coordinator. This year, it showed.

On Christmas, he turned Brock Purdy into a pumpkin with four interceptions. The very next week, they exposed Tua Tagovailoa. Those are the top two offensive coordinators when it comes to the Shanahan scheme. 

The Ravens even played the Bengals twice, which featured Zac Taylor and Sean McVay once as well. Those two run a slightly different scheme, but MacDonald has shown he can handle all of these top-end offenses. Even better than that, in week one, it was the Houston Texans and Bobby Slowik who MacDonald shut down. Both Slowik and C.J. Stroud were young and inexperienced then, but since then, MacDonald has done nothing but show that he is ready to shut down this scheme. Coming into the game, Mike MacDonald has the advantage.