Last week’s Thursday night primetime televised National Football League game pitted a pair of struggling teams, the Chicago Bears and Carolina Panthers. From a public attraction perspective, it was a dud.
Tonight, the NFL offers a matchup between two of the league’s best teams, with a pair of the league’s most dynamic quarterbacks when the Joe Burrow led Cincinnati Bengals invade the Lamar Jackson guided Baltimore Ravens. As good as these two teams are, we surprisingly have a pair of teams coming off a loss and one of them is in the AFC North Division cellar.
How can this be?
First, the Bengals are behind the other three teams in the AFC North with five wins in nine decisions. Both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns are one game better, and the Ravens lead the bunched battle with a 7 and 3 won/loss record.
What does that mean?
It means this game is a lot more important to the Bengals than it is the home team. When Burrow was still limping through the start of the season he battled Jackson and the Ravens in Cincinnati and came up on the losing side of a 27-24 final score in second week action. Had the Bengals won that game, and all the other results would have remained the same, the standings in this division would be flipped and the Bengals would be in a three-way first place tie and the Ravens would be alone in the cellar.
That’s how competitive this talented division is.
The Bengals got off to a rocky start this season while dropping three of their first four games when Burrow was most inhibited by his calf injury. After their mid October bye week, Burrow appeared back at full strength and the Bengals seemed to be making a charge to the top of the division. Then, their four game winning streak was snapped last Sunday in Cincinnati by the upstart Houston Texans.
What the Bengals didn’t know four days ago is that they were in a huge motivational trap when they hosted the Texans. Riding a winning streak and with the Ravens next on their schedule, one can not blame Zac Taylor’s team for thinking a win was inevitable when they entertained Houston. I suspect they still don’t know how difficult of a spot that was for them to succeed, and instead are doing what organizations and coaches always do, blame their personnel or game plan.
Neither of those were as important as the situation in dictating last week’s loss at Paycor Stadium. But, it is to our benefit that they think it was, because that puts them in a perfect spot tonight to achieve at their highest level and grab a huge road win to further tighten the best division race in football.
As for the Ravens, they coughed up a big lead last week at home against the Cleveland Browns, losing by two points, 31-33. Now they are back home as a favorite against a team they already beat once this season. That means, the home team is confident off a loss, and the team that may actually be better this year is both on alert with a worse record and getting points in a game that they are likely going to win straight up.
Qoxhi Picks: Cincinnati Bengals (+4) over Baltimore Ravens