Bengals vs Ravens Picks: 4 Sunday Night Football Best Bets
- The Ravens are favored by a field goal against the Bengals tonight.
- Cincinnati has won two straight, while Baltimore is coming off a Week 4 loss vs. Buffalo.
- Our staff of betting analysts lay out its favorite bets for the game below.
Bengals vs. Ravens Odds
| Bengals Odds | +3 |
| Ravens Odds | -3 |
| Moneyline | +140 / -159 |
| Over/Under | 47.5 |
| Time | Sunday, 8:20 p.m. ET |
| TV | NBC |
| Odds via BetRivers. | |
Bengals vs. Ravens Picks
 | |
Derek Farnsworth: Scoring is down across the league this season, largely due to the fact that most teams are playing a lot of two deep safeties on defense in an attempt to avoid giving up big plays.
While that's a concern, these teams combined to score 58 and 62 points in their two meetings last season. Joe Burrow threw for nearly 1,000 yards in those two games and the Ravens continue to have issues in their secondary.
For the Ravens, they have been extremely aggressive on offense. Lamar Jackson has averaged 301 air yards and 79 rushing yards per game. This has led to a lot of splash plays for the offense as a whole, and those types of plays are obviously great for the over.
Click Here Bet the Over for Sunday Night Football at FanDuel
| |
John LanFranca: There is not much evidence in recent history suggesting that this total is high enough. When these two teams met in 2021, they combined for 58 points in their October meeting and 62 points in their December matchup. Bengals head coach Zac Taylor understands the way to attack this Ravens defense is through the air and will come out with a much more aggressive gameplan.
The Ravens have allowed a league-high 1,261 passing yards, as teams have moved the chains on 37.3% of all their attempts against their secondary. Only three defenses have allowed more 20-plus yard passing completions than the Ravens, and Joe Burrow happens to be coming off his most efficient game of the season (9.4 yards per attempt).
A little bit of self-scouting on the part of the Bengals should also deter them from playing conservatively on early downs. Cincinnati is the worst team in the NFL in terms of first-down rushing plays (3.0 yards per carry). I am not concerned with Lamar Jackson's ability to light up the scoreboard (25.75 implied team total) and I once again expect a back-and-forth affair in which 50-plus total points are scored.
 | |
Nick Giffen: Our new Luck Rankings have the Ravens as the eighth-luckiest team while the Bengals are eighth unluckiest. Baltimore has scored 8.2 more points per game than expected, so its touchdowns are probably overvalued.
I project Justin Tucker for just 2.4 extra points made with a 56.6% chance of going under 2.5. I wouldn’t bet shorter than -120.
| |
Billy Ward: While my colleagues are on the full game over, I’m going to take a slightly different angle.
Baltimore has played slower in the first half of games in both 2021 and 2022, with about a three-second gap this season. This makes sense, as the Ravens generally want to be a run-first team when they can, only opening things up later in close games. They’ve been far better throwing the ball though, with the highest passing DVOA in the league while ranking 15th in the run.
The Bengals go in the opposite direction pace-wise, but only slightly — the gap is only about a second this year. Additionally, the Bengals have struggled early in contests this season, scoring just 10.8 points per game in the first half.
Finally, my lean is generally towards the under in divisional games. These teams know each other well, and have had plenty of practice at stopping the explosive pieces of their opponent.
While it wouldn’t be shocking to see some late action — pushing the full game total to the over — I’m anticipating both teams to try to control the ball and clock early on.
 | |
Sean Koerner: The Bengals rank 25th in our Luck Rankings while the Ravens rank 8th. That’s why it makes sense the public is all over Baltimore, with 56% of the action and 76% of the money on the home team.
However, the Bengals are much better than their 2-2 record indicates as they are one of six teams who have a point differential of +20 or better. Both of their losses were by a field goal.
With average one-score luck, Cincy would be a 3-1 team right now and their public perception would likely be much better. Meanwhile, Baltimore is 2-2, but have benefited from having the second-highest turnover margin (+5) on the season.
The Bengals also matchup well against their AFC North foes as they beat them by 20-plus points in both meetings last year.
The Ravens will be without top WR Rashod Bateman (foot) and edge rusher Justin Houston (groin), while the Bengals are expected to be at full strength.
The public perception of both of these teams is off and we should not be getting a key number of +3.5 here.
How would you rate this article?
Follow Us On Social
