Late within the season, the NFL scheduling workplace flexes marquee video games to the Saturday slates to extend viewership and a spotlight.
So it raises much more eyebrows when a crew is favored by 20 factors.
Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and the Ravens host the Browns with playoff implications.
Baltimore should win to clinch the AFC North title and lock up the AFC’s No. 3 seed.
Thus, the Ravens will play their starters within the regular-season finale, whereas Cleveland is choosing its fourth completely different beginning quarterback this 12 months.
Bailey Zappe beginning over Dorian Thompson-Robinson truly issues to me.
All week I used to be able to again Baltimore in massive trend.
DTR is arguably the worst quarterback I’ve ever seen begin a regular-season recreation, and that has proved true this 12 months with six interceptions in six video games with out a single landing move.
Although he has but to play a single snap this season and solely joined the crew in October, Zappe has appeared competent in earlier seasons. I’m not anticipating a lot, however when a degree unfold of this historic magnitude is concerned, one should break up hairs.
“We did take a wager from a man we respect on the Ravens -17.5 on Wednesday,” Las Vegas SuperBook VP and oddsmaker John Murray instructed Solely Gamers, alluding to the purpose unfold shifting in a single path to the present variety of 20. “We moved the road to 18.5, and from there, we simply preserve shifting with the market.”
Week 18 is inevitably difficult. Groups already eradicated from playoff rivalry typically play backups, and video games typically unfold like preseason NFL video games or meaningless school bowl video games.
“What you do is you progress the quantity up till you lastly see some resistance. For now, we don’t see any resistance, so we preserve shifting it up,” Murray stated. “Till we see a wager from a revered account, then we don’t assume we’ve gone too excessive.”
When a recreation’s level unfold is close to three touchdowns, that permits rubbish time to have an excessive amount of affect on the end result.
In spite of everything, sooner or later within the fourth quarter, Baltimore figures to have secured the win and certain can have shifted its focus to subsequent weekend’s playoffs.
Betting on the NFL?
Nonetheless, I’m fairly assured the Ravens are the dominant facet all the first half and thus really feel there’s line worth with backing Baltimore -11.5 within the first half.
That’s what I’m betting on this recreation.
Why Belief New York Submit Betting
Doug Kezirian is a New York Submit contributor who at the moment serves because the Chief Content material Officer for Solely Gamers, a sports activities betting media firm. Doug has over twenty years of expertise within the betting house, together with spending 11 years at ESPN as a bunch, columnist and betting analyst. He’s additionally the uncommon character who has documented success — 14th place in 2023 Circa Million and Las Vegas SuperContest ($37K), two top-10 finishes in 2022 William Hill Faculty Soccer Problem ($58K) and likewise grabbed headlines with a $297K win on the 2021 NFL Draft.