The third part of the triple header of Super Wildcard weekend action in the NFL 2022 Playoffs comes from the AFC where two teams from the AFC North meet for the second successive week as the Cincinnati Bengals host the Baltimore Ravens
They met in what was little more than a dead rubber in terms of the AFC North title last week with the Bengals running out very easy winners but with more at stake Baltimore will expect to be a lot more competitive.
Cincinnati Bengals
After missing out in the Super Bowl last season, the Cincinnati Bengals will be double motivated to get back to the big dance and put things right and come away with the Vince Lombardi Trophy. They are one of the form teams in the league and come into this match having won eight on the bounce and look like a better version of the team that got so close to glory last year. Given that they had a tricky start to the campaign they deserve a lot of credit for turning it round in the way they have.
In this eight game winning run, in six of them they have beaten teams who are either in the playoffs or who were in contention to make it going into the last week of the regular season so there is nothing padded about their record. Their defence has really stepped up over the last six weeks or so, keeping four of their opponents in that time below 20 points. They are steadily getting the running game up to speed and the form of Joe Burrow is good. They are in a good place.
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Baltimore Ravens
The Baltimore Ravens found themselves 9-4 for the year at one stage this season but then the injury to Lamar Jackson came along and predictably they were unable to maintain their momentum and head into this match having lost three of the last four matches, all of which were in his absence. The bad news then is that Jackson has once again been ruled out of this game so the Ravens are going to need Tyler Huntley to really step up.
He isn’t completely inexperienced. He has played a number of matches this season and in the past when Jackson has been injured but he has experienced nothing of this magnitude which is an issue. We can expect the Ravens to look to spend plenty of time running the ball to keep Burrow and the Bengals offense off the field and then to their defence to make enough plays to keep them competitive enough to have a chance.
Betting
I don’t think we can take too much from last week because Baltimore Ravens rested a number of players who will start here but the one thing we can use is that the Ravens defence restricted Joe Burrow to little. The problem was their own offense couldn’t stop turning the ball over but that was with a number of backups playing. They will be much stronger in personnel here so you would imagine Baltimore will be able to protect the ball better whatever else happens.
The Ravens are getting a 9.5pt start which looks a little too big to me. I don’t dispute that the Bengals are the favourites for this match but their offense stuttered a little last week and the Ravens defence will play enough tougher with everything on the line in this one. I expect the Ravens to play true playoff football by running the ball hard and controlling the time of possession strongly and if they keep turnovers off the board they can stay within the spread at the very least.
Tips
Back Baltimore Ravens (+9.5) to beat Cincinnati Bengals for a 3/10 stake at 1.91 with BetVictor
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