We have a Week 5 AFC North showdown. The Browns, Bengals, and Ravens are all tied for 1st place at 2-2 through 4 weeks. The Ravens can honestly be 4-0, but they allowed the Dolphins and Bills to claw back from big deficits in the last 2 weeks. The Bengals on the other hand started off 0-2 and have won in back to back weeks to get back to .500 on the season.
I think the Ravens are the better team as I think the Ravens offense is just scoring at will, while the Bengals have really only beaten a Jets team and a Dolphins team that lost Tua to an injury mid-game.
The Ravens have the best ranked offense in the league via DVOA stats as they are #1 in Pass offense and #15 in rush offense. The Bengals offense ranks 27th overall with the 20th ranked passing offense and 28th ranked rushing offense. On the defensive side of the ball, the Ravens rank 16th with the 14th best passing defense and 22nd best rushing defense. The Bengals have the #7 ranked defense in the league with the 8th best passing defense and 7th best rushing defense.
This Ravens team has been torching defenses with their high powered offense led by Lamar Jackson, while the Bengals have been holding teams to 17.5 points per game this season with their great defense. This is a primetime divisional game and I think the Ravens have no trouble moving the chains and getting into field goal range. However, I do think the Bengals keep them out of the end zone a few times. I am going to bet Justin Tucker over 1.5 field goals at -127 on Caesar’s. The Bengals have allowed over 1.5 field goals in every game this season (4-0) and I think the Ravens touchdown scoring comes back to reality for a little bit.
