We move into Week 10 of the NFL 2024 season this week and it gets underway with the Thursday Night Football which is what should be a competitive AFC North showdown between the Baltimore Ravens and the Cincinnati Bengals.
These two sides trail the Pittsburgh Steelers in the division and so neither can afford to lose the game not least because it is against a divisional rival so that should ensure that we get a decent game to get a big week of action underway.
Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens will stride out for this match with a 6-3 record for the season but when you consider that they dropped their opening two matches they are 6-1 for the last seven weeks and suddenly looking like the Super Bowl contenders that plenty thought they were going to be when the season started. A word of caution would come along in the fact that the match they slipped up in during this recent run was against the Cleveland Browns and if they end up having to go into the playoffs as a wildcard that defeat could be a reason why.
The huge positive for the Ravens is that they have one of the best offenses in football at the minute and in their last two wins they have put up 41 points in each and you’re not going to lose many games when you put that number of points on the board. Their defence is nothing like as strong as it was five or six years ago but it doesn’t really seem to matter when you consider the amount of points they score and how quickly they have the potential to score them.
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Cincinnati Bengals
The Cincinnati Bengals need a really big second half of their season. They are 4-5 going into the week and you’ve got to think to have any chance of winning the division they will need an 11-6 record at worst and probably need nine wins for a wildcard in the AFC so they are going to need to win at least five of their last eight to extend their campaign. If they lose this match they can kiss goodbye to winning the AFC North because they would have a losing record in the division.
The positive for the Bengals is that their four wins have come in the last six matches, although one of the two defeats in that time was an overtime loss to the Baltimore Ravens, a defeat they will be out to avenge here. The other loss was to the Philadelphia Eagles so that isn’t a bad defeat either but their defence has looked a little strained in the last two games so they might well be needing their offense to come to the party if they are going to leave Baltimore with a W here.
Betting
The Thursday Night Football games haven’t all caught fire this season but I find it hard to believe that this one won’t because these sides carry much stronger offenses than defences into the game and obviously there isn’t much time to put together a game plan to combat the opponent so you would think that they will both look to play to their strengths, which would mean looking to score points and take advantage of the opposing weakness.
That was certainly the case in the reverse meeting where the Ravens won 41-38 in overtime and while we probably won’t get that many points here, when you consider that in three of their last five matches Baltimore have put 41 points on the board while the Bengals matched that number last week I find it hard to think the points won’t flow here. The one trend which generally plays out on a Thursday night is that defences tire in the second half so the 51.5 point line definitely appeals from an over perspective.
Tips
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