For all intents and purposes, the Ravens appear to be a broken team at the moment. After all, Baltimore just lost back-to-back games against AFC North foes to squander its position at the top of the division and suddenly put itself in real jeopardy of missing the postseason. Lamar Jackson is clearly playing through some kind of injury, and his supporting cast has not exactly been helpful in recent weeks, either. To make matters worse, the defense is regressing a bit after about 6 weeks of improved performance following a slow start to the season. Despite all of that, I’m actually going to hold my nose and back Baltimore as a short road favorite in Cincinnati this week in what is essentially a must-win game for John Harbaugh’s team.
A few weeks ago, Cincinnati went into Baltimore and comfortably dispatched of the Ravens in Joe Burrow’s first game back in the lineup. However, the Bengals were pretty fortunate to win that game, as Baltimore finished with a whopping 5 turnovers, including a game-changing fumble from Isaiah Likely as he was about to cross the goal line late in the first half. The Ravens were the clear better team in the box score against Pittsburgh last week, as Baltimore outgained the Steelers by more than 100 yards and controlled the time of possession, but ultimately struggled to convert in the red zone and was even stripped of a crucial touchdown by a questionable overturn from the replay booth. Just about everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for Jackson and company in recent weeks, so there should be some positive regression coming Baltimore’s way on Sunday. Additionally, Cincinnati’s defense has been a mess in the ground game and against tight ends, which spells good things for Jackson, Derrick Henry and the stable of capable Ravens tight ends. And while Joe Burrow and the Bengals just scored 34 against the Bills a week ago, it’s unclear if Tee Higgins will be in the lineup for an offense that has to score 30+ every week to put itself in position to win. I’ll back Baltimore to bounce back in this spot.
Ravens vs Bengals prediction: Baltimore Ravens -2.5 available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.
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