Baltimore Ravens (4-3) at Cincinnati Bengals (5-2)
The Baltimore Ravens might have saved their season with last week’s impressive 30-7 win over Denver. That ended Baltimore’s three-game losing streak and kept Baltimore from falling to 3-4 in the deep AFC.
But the Ravens can probably kiss the AFC North title goodbye if they lost Sunday at Cincinnati, which is a 3-point betting underdog on WagerWeb.com. The Bengals have already handled the Ravens once this season. On Oct. 11, Carson Palmer led the Bengals on a late 80-yard drive with the help of three Ravens penalties that accounted for 30 yards and a couple of first downs. Andre Caldwell caught a 20-yard TD with 22 seconds left for the 17-14 win.
In that game, Cedric Benson became the first player to rush for over 100 yards against the Ravens since 2006. Coming off a career-high 189 yards on the ground against the Bears two weeks ago (Cincy was on a bye last week), Benson joins Tennessee’s Chris Johnson as the only players averaging more than 100 yards per game.
The Ravens rank 13th overall defensively but looked much better last week, holding Denver to season lows of 66 rushing yards and 134 passing. That unit could be missing a key player. Nose tackle Haloti Ngata sat out his third straight practice of the week on Friday with an ankle injury, and he is questionable. Ngata has started all seven games this season and every game of his four-year career.
On offense, Ravens QB Joe Flacco has thrown a touchdown pass in seven straight games and needs just two touchdown passes to match his total of 14 as rookie last season. In their three losses this season, the Ravens are passing the ball on 69.5 percent of their offensive plays. In their four wins, they are passing the ball just 49.3 percent of the time.
The Bengals have won seven of the past 10 meetings with Baltimore. The team that usually wins the first meeting ends up sweeping the season series. In three of the previous four years, one team has swept both games, with the Bengals doing it twice (2005 and ‘07) and the Ravens once (’08).
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