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TenRingsSTL said 11/06, 09:56 AM
The Ravens will beat the Bengals and here is why:

First, the Ravens 4-3 record is a little misleading. They lost 3 straight games by a total of 11 points. The Bengals loss was sandwiched around a 6 point loss on the road at New England and a 2 point loss at Minnesota when they missed a FG at the end. Baltimore had that game won and let the Vikings off the hook.

Second, yes the Bengals won the first game, but they won it on the last drive, helped by a couple of VERY questionable flags on the Ravens...particularly the pass interference call that set up the winning TD pass by Palmer.

The Ravens could and I would argue SHOULD be 6-1 at the worst.

The primary reason though, that Baltimore will win is that the Raven D will come to play. The Ravens defense to a man was ticked off after allowing so many yards at Minnesota, and after a bye week they came out and completely dominated Denver' offense last week, holding them to only 200 yards.

That is a Broncos team that beat Cincinnati on the Bengals home field earlier in the year, by the way.

Look for the D to be dominant again. This will be another defensive struggle, but this time the Ravens come out on top

TenRingsSTL said 11/07, 03:07 PM
I'm not going on a hunch, the Ravens D by all accounts did some soul searching during the bye week and came out against Denver and played Ravens D again. Proven experience? The Ravens D crushed the previously unbeaten Broncos last week.

Not sure why you think the Ravens offense sucks. They are averaging 378 yards per game, good for 7th in the NFL. The vaunted Bengal offense that you keep referring to averages only 345 ypg. Ray Rice is on a roll, averaging 5.7 ypc in his last four games. Look for him to continue to run the ball well Sunday, which will set things up for Flacco to take advantage of the 30th ranked passing defense of the Bengals.

Furthermore, the Ravens are one of the better road teams in the NFL, going 5-3 last year with the only losses being at Indy, Pitt and the Giants. All upper echelon teams in the league. This year, they've already won at San Diego and suffered the close losses I mentioned earlier at New England and Minnesota. They'll hardly be intimidated to play at Cincinnati, and if anything will be more pumped up than usual considering how the last matchup ended.

It'll be a tight one, but the Ravens D will make the difference.