The Cincinnati Bengals entered last week as major favorites over the Baltimore Ravens and do so again for the win-or-go-home showdown in the opening round of the playoffs.
Over at NFL Pick Watch, which compiles the list of expert picks everywhere, a resounding 99 percent pick the Bengals as of this writing.
That number does drop to 66 percent when experts pick against the spread, but only because the spread is huge and keeps growing with Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson looking like he’ll miss the game.
Cincinnati won the Week 18 matchup 27-16 while benefitting from multiple Ravens turnovers. That compensated for a sloppy offensive day while the Bengals ran a vanilla playbook knowing they’d see the Ravens again to start the postseason.
The Bengals will have to avoid turnovers and have more offensive consistency to win the rematch, but it’s not hard to see why experts like their chances.
