The second match of the three in the NFL 2022 action on Saturday evening comes from the FirstEnergy Stadium where two AFC North sides clash as the Cleveland Browns take on the Baltimore Ravens.
The Ravens are battling with the Bengals in the race for the AFC North title and a win here will put the pressure on Cincinnati later in the weekend but a defeat leaves the door open. Cleveland are probably playing the role of the spoiler.
Cleveland Browns
This hasn’t been the season that the Cleveland Browns would have wanted but I think once the Deshaun Watson suspension was confirmed it was the one they were going to get. Watson is back now but as you would imagine for a quarterback who has missed more than three months of action, he is still finding his feet and getting to grips with being suited up and everything that a game day brings once again. He’ll improve over the final four weeks but it might well be too late to matter.
The Browns are 5-8 for the season so technically if they win out they could snatch a wildcard spot but with two teams in their division already 9-4 records and Miami having an 8-5 record it is extremely unlikely that nine wins gets you in from this division. With that in mind, this match could be about preparing for next season and if they happen to knock off a rival in the process then they would certainly settle for that.
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Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens are enjoy a decent season. They head to Cleveland with a 9-4 record and whenever you play a match to record a 10 win season you know you are in pretty good shape, especially when there are still three weeks left after it. That is the case with the Ravens but they are going to have to try and pick up that milestone win without their starting quarterback Lamar Jackson who isn’t expected back from injury until next week.
That is clearly going to impact them offensively here even though they have been without him for a couple of weeks. The positive is that their defence has really come good since Roquan Smith arrived in Baltimore and while they might not be likely to blow teams away while Jackson is hurt, that defence means that they don’t necessarily need to put up as many points as they might have had to which is obviously a huge help.
Betting
I think that it is safe to expect to see some old school football from the Baltimore Ravens here with the run game being used and then their defence being asked to get the job done for them. They will split the carries between Gus Edwards and J.K Dobbins but the latter went off in some style last week which might just have got him a few extra carries this week and as such I suspect he could cover his 48.5 rushing yards line in this one.
Dobbins returned from injury last week and with 15 carries he rushed for 120 yards so he certainly came back with a bang and with no Lamar Jackson to control the plays here and the Ravens being on the road we can expect Dobbins to be quite active throughout the course of this match. This is a Cleveland defence which coughs up yards to the run so in that regard it is a good matchup for Dobbins and so I like him to cover his line here.
Tips
Back J.K Dobbins – Over 48.5 rushing yards for a 3/10 stake at 1.87 with Boylesports
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