Monday Night Football
Last season these two teams met on Thursday Night Football, as the Cincinnati Bengals kept the aged Baltimore Ravens team on the other side of the 50 yard line for three straight quarters on route to a 13-7 win.
The lone touchdown from Baltimore came with 1:01 left in the game. This year tells a different story as Baltimore has upgraded the talent level, including replacing Jamal Lewis with a younger and quicker Willis McGahee at running back. They also have a solid receiving corps for Steve McNair to target.
The big concern for the home town Bengals are the suspensions of middle linebacker Odell Thurman, wide receiver Chris Henry, and defensive end Frostee Rucker. The remaining starters for Cincinnati will have to come big considering the Ravens defense finished 2007 #1 in points, interceptions, takeaways and completion percentage.
The lone bright side for Bengal’s fans is Carson Palmer is one of the best at exploiting cornerbacks and should target Raven’s defender T.J. Houshmanzadeh all night long.
Backers of the Ravens in this game have to love the fact underdogs have covered 20 of the last 28 Monday Night Football openers. Despite the “underdog” trend, oddsmakers still like the home team Bengals and have made them 3 point favorite to win this game.
Even though it is only the first game of a young season, it will have the attention of everyone who backed the Ravens at 10-1 to win the Super Bowl
By: Staci Richards – theSpread.com – Email Us
More NFL Football coverage from theSpread.com
– Las Vegas Hilton Contest
– NFL public betting chart
– NFL teams
– NFL standings
– NFL schedule
– NFL injuries
– NFL matchups
– NFL stats
– NFL odds
– NFL news wire
– NFL top stories
– Accuscore NFL predictions
– NFL scoreboard
– Expert NFL Picks
– NFL trends
– Comments and discussion
– Signup for theSpread.com daily newsletter
– NFL Home