How to watch Texans vs Ravens Divisional round game

Baltimore Ravens' Lamar Jackson and Houston Texans' Will Anderson Jr.
Baltimore Ravens' Lamar Jackson and Houston Texans' Will Anderson Jr. (Image credit: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Before Thursday night or even Sunday night was saved for NFL football each fall, Monday Night Football was bringing fans primetime football for more than 50 years. While Monday Night Football is done for the year, ESPN's MNF team has one more game to cover this year from the NFL playoffs, the AFC Divisional round matchup between the Houston Texans and Baltimore Ravens. 

What to Watch has you covered with how to watch this and all of the primetime NFL offerings, including Thursday Night Football and Sunday Night Football, as well as the Sunday NFL on Fox and NFL on CBS games, and, in a few weeks, Super Bowl LVIII.

But here is everything that you need to know about this playoff edition of Monday Night Football.

How to watch Monday Night Football

Monday Night Football airs on multiple channels throughout the season, including ESPN and ABC. For select weeks it'll also be available to live stream on ESPN Plus.

In the case of the Monday Night Football playoff matchup, fans can watch the game games on ESPN, ABC and ESPN Plus.  

ESPN is a cable channel, requiring viewers to be subscribers to a traditional pay-TV or live TV streaming service (Fubo, Hulu with live TV, Sling TV and YouTube TV), though it may not be available on all packages. With a subscription to one of these services, in addition to being able to watch ESPN on your TV or connected device, viewers can watch Monday Night Football through the ESPN app or ESPN.com.

ABC, meanwhile, is also available through pay-TV and live TV streaming services, but as one of the four major networks also has local stations in each US TV market that can be received via a TV antenna.

To stream the Monday Night Football games on ESPN Plus, you must be a subscriber to the sports-centric streaming platform.

NFL Plus is also an option to stream Monday Night Football live. You must be a subscriber and the live stream is only available through a mobile device.

Sky Sports is the home for NFL football in the UK, offering live game broadcasts to Sky TV subscribers. The games also are available free-to-air on My5.

NFL Game Pass is also an option. The international version of this subscription service offers live broadcasts of games as well as the opportunity to watch the full broadcast on-demand or a condensed version of the broadcast that only features the plays. 

What time is Monday Night Football?

ESPN's coverage of the Texans vs Ravens Divisional round game is going to air at 4:30 pm ET/1:30 pm PT on Saturday, January 20.

What channel is Monday Night Football on?

Monday Night Football primarily airs on ESPN, though ABC, ESPN2 and ESPN Plus are also going to carry games, live streams or alternate broadcasts (ie the Manningcast) of the games occasionally throughout the season.

For the Divisional round, it is airing on ESPN, ABC and ESPN Plus.

Divisional round game: Texans vs Ravens

Houston Texans' CJ Stroud

Houston Texans' CJ Stroud (Image credit: Cooper Neill/Getty Images)

The Texans and Ravens played in the very first game of the 2023 NFL season, with the Ravens winning 25-9. But this Texans team has done a lot of growing up since then and look to flip the script as a spot in the AFC Championship game is on the line.

Things turned around for the Texans much faster than expected with the arrival of head coach DeMeco Ryans and rookie quarterback CJ Stroud, as the team went from worst in the AFC South in 2022 to division champs this year. Their work was further emphasized with an impressive win over the Cleveland Browns in the Wild Card round. Stroud has put up big numbers this season (4,108 yards, 23 touchdowns and just five interceptions in the regular season) and showed the playoffs weren't too big for him with a great debut game against the Browns. The defense also was very opportunistic, forcing two turnovers, both of which were returned for a touchdown. And despite losing their first matchup, the Texans actually played better than the score would indicate, keeping Lamar Jackson and the Ravens from getting explosive plays and CJ Stroud showing he could make plays against the stingy Ravens defense.

The Ravens have showed few cracks in their armor all season though, earning the best record in the league and home field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs. Lamar Jackson is a strong candidate for his second MVP and their defense was arguably the league's best. They've also managed to overcome multiple injuries to some key players, including tight end Mark Andrews, but with others quickly picking up the slack. Good news for Ravens fans is there is a chance Andrews could be back this week (he's activated from injured reserve but is still questionable as of January 19). Bad new is that star cornerback Marlon Humphrey has been ruled out for the game, so someone else will need to step up. The one ding to Lamar Jackson's career thus far has been his struggles in the playoffs, can he and the Ravens correct that and be one win away from the Super Bowl?

2023 Monday Night Football schedule

Check out the complete schedule for Monday Night Football during the 2023 NFL season. There is one thing to note, flex scheduling is being applied to Monday Night Football for the first time this year, so any games currently between week 12 and week 17 could be swapped out. In fact, on November 30 the first flex game was announced, with the week 15 Eagles vs Seahawks game moving to Monday Night Football in place of Chiefs vs Patriots.

A couple of other quirks: the week 17 MNF game is going to take place on Saturday, December 30, and a week 18 doubleheader will be announced later in the season.

Without further ado, here is the 2023 Monday Night Football schedule:

  • Week 1: Buffalo Bills 16, New York Jets 22
  • Week 2: New Orleans Saints vs Carolina Panthers & Cleveland Browns vs Pittsburgh Steelers (ABC)
  • Week 3: Philadelphia Eagles 25, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 11 & Los Angeles Rams 16, Cincinnati Bengals 19
  • Week 4: Seattle Seahawks 24, New York Giants 3
  • Week 5: Green Bay Packers 13, Las Vegas Raiders 17
  • Week 6: Dallas Cowboys 20, Los Angeles Chargers 17
  • Week 7: San Francisco 49ers 17, Minnesota Vikings 22
  • Week 8: Las Vegas Raiders 14, Detroit Lions 26
  • Week 9: Los Angeles Chargers 27, New York Jets 6
  • Week 10: Denver Broncos 24, Buffalo Bills 22
  • Week 11: Philadelphia Eagles 21, Kansas City Chiefs 17
  • Week 12: Chicago Bears 12, Minnesota Vikings 10
  • Week 13: Cincinnati Bengals 34, Jacksonville Jaguars 31
  • Week 14: Tennessee Titans 28, Miami Dolphins 27 & Green Bay Packers 22, New York Giants 24
  • Week 15: Philadelphia Eagles 17, Seattle Seahawks 20
  • Week 16: Baltimore Ravens 33, San Francisco 49ers 19
  • Week 17: Detroit Lions 19, Dallas Cowboys 20
  • Week 18: Pittsburgh Steelers 17, Baltimore Ravens 10 & Houston Texans 23, Indianapolis Colts 19
  • NFL Wildcard: Philadelphia Eagles 9, Tampa Bay Buccaneers 32
  • NFL Divisional: Houston Texans vs Baltimore Ravens

Monday Night Football commentators

There's a completely new team to call Monday Night Football games this year, as Joe Buck and Troy Aikman call the games from the Monday Night Football booth, while Lisa Salters is on board as the sideline reporter.

Before the Monday Night Football game kicks off, ESPN airs a pregame show, Monday Night Countdown. The last couple of years Monday Night Countdown has been hosted by Suzy Kolber and featured Randy Moss, Steve Young, Booger McFarland, Adam Schefter, Chris Mortensen, Lisa Salters and more.

Sky Sports is the home for NFL football in the UK, offering live game broadcasts to Sky TV subscribers.   

If the standard 1 am UK start time is too late (or early) for you, NFL Game Pass is an option. The international version of this subscription service offers live broadcasts of games as well as the opportunity to watch the full broadcast on-demand or a condensed version of the broadcast that only features the plays.  

Michael Balderston

Michael Balderston is a DC-based entertainment and assistant managing editor for What to Watch, who has previously written about the TV and movies with TV Technology, Awards Circuit and regional publications. Spending most of his time watching new movies at the theater or classics on TCM, some of Michael's favorite movies include Casablanca, Moulin Rouge!, Silence of the Lambs, Children of Men, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest and Star Wars. On the TV side he enjoys Only Murders in the Building, Yellowstone, The Boys, Game of Thrones and is always up for a Seinfeld rerun. Follow on Letterboxd.