Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals Betting Preview
The Cincinnati Bengals (12-4, 6-1 home) host the Baltimore Ravens (10-7, 5-4 away) in the AFC Wild Card Round of the NFL Playoffs. The two teams closed out the regular season against each other, with the Bengals defeating the Ravens 27-16.
Sunday’s kickoff is at 8:15 p.m. EST inside Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Bengals are an 8.5-point favorite, and the over/under total is 40.5 points.
What to Know – Baltimore Ravens
Baltimore sputtered down the stretch with starting quarterback Lamar Jackson on the sideline. The Ravens dropped three of their last four contests to finish second in the AFC North Division.
On offense, the Ravens sat in the middle of the league, scoring 20.6 points per game and averaging 338.8 yards of total offense. Baltimore’s defense ranked third in the NFL, holding opponents to 18.5 points and 324.3 yards of total offense per game.
Jackson remains out for the Baltimore offense, and backup Tyler Huntley has drawn a questionable tag. If Huntley can’t go, third-string Anthony Brown would take the snaps under center for Baltimore.
The Ravens finished 7-9-1 against the spread during the regular season with a 6-3 record ATS on the road. Baltimore is 2-6 ATS in its last eight games against teams from the AFC North.
What to Know – Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals hope to make another deep postseason run and return to the Super Bowl for the second season in a row. Cincinnati will need to navigate its way through the playoffs beginning with a win Sunday night against their AFC North rival.
Cincinnati’s offense ranked in the top ten of the league averaging 26.1 points and 360.5 yards of total offense per game. Defensively, the Bengals sat sixth in scoring defense, limiting teams to 20.1 points and 335.7 yards of total offense.
The right side of the Bengals offensive line is banged up with La’el Collins on injured reserve and Alex Cappa out. Still, Cincinnati heads into the postseason with a healthy lineup on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball.
Cincinnati was an impressive 12-4 ATS during the regular season and 5-2 ATS at Paycor Stadium. The Bengals are 5-1 ATS over their previous six contests played in the month of January.
The Pick is In
With Jackson still out, the game becomes a lot tougher for the Ravens to win. The Ravens will have to lean on their strong defense and create turnovers to give Baltimore some short-field position. If that happens, the Ravens have a shot to pull off one of the biggest upsets of the playoffs.
Cincinnati has the home-field advantage and a healthy quarterback which will end up being the difference in this matchup. Burrow and company have been here before, and the Bengals offense will do what it needs to put the Ravens away quickly and advance to next week’s Divisional Round of the postseason.
The Pick: Cincinnati Bengals -8.5
