Thursday Night Football: Bengals-Ravens betting preview (odds, lines, best bets)

2YC8H5Y Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Zay Flowers (4) smiles after a touchdown during an NFL football game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Monday, Oct. 21, 2024, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Peter Joneleit)

WR Zay Flowers, Baltimore Ravens — over 59.5 receiving yards: Since these teams faced off in Week 5, Flowers has generated a league-best 90.8 PFF receiving grade and racked up the most receiving yardage in the NFL (496).

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Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes


Cincinnati Bengals vs. Baltimore Ravens (-6.5) [Total: 53]

Game Overview

Week 10 gets started with a bang in this divisional matchup between bitter AFC North rivals. The Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens will do battle again after their Week 5 bout in which the Ravens secured a nail-biting three-point overtime victory in Cincinnati.

Their last face-off was a track meet, netting 79 total points as Lamar Jackson and company traded blows with Joe Burrow’s Bengals and stormed back from a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to force overtime. From there, the game went off the rails. The Ravens started overtime with the ball just to cough it up on a snap that hit Jackson in the face mask. The Bengals responded by missing the game-winning field goal off a mishandled snap and hold. That made all the difference, as Baltimore closed out the game with a chip-shot field goal to win.

Jackson and Burrow have been dealing all season long, with the pair ranking Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in PFF passing grade this season — separated by just 0.1 points on the grading scale. And their last matchup was some of their best work all year. The pair of talented passers combined for 740 yards and nine touchdowns through the air, buoyed by three big-time throws each.

Although they fell short, the Bengals have gone on to win and cover three of their past four. And despite an underwhelming 5-4 overall record against the spread, this team holds a perfect 4-0 against-the-spread record on the road. This past week, the Bengals threw up 41 on the Raiders, covering their largest spread as a favorite (-7.5) this season.

On the other sideline, the Ravens have looked like one of the NFL’s strongest teams all season, despite a recent stumble. The team won five straight before dropping its Week 8 divisional matchup in Cleveland, but Baltimore returned to form this past week, thrashing Denver by more than 30 points and securing its third game 40-plus-point game.

That offensive output has led Baltimore to the league’s highest game total over percentage (88.9%), landing the over in eight of their nine outings. Their last under came in Week 4 against the Bills, a game in which they scored 35.

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WR Zay Flowers, Baltimore Ravens: Over 59.5 receiving yards (-113)

The last time these teams faced off, Flowers erupted for his biggest performance of the season to that point, hauling in seven of his 11 targets for 111 yards. That outing sparked something inside of the second-year receiver, as he’s gone on a tear in the four games to follow, setting career marks in PFF receiving grade not once, but twice, culminating in his phenomenal 94.5 grade this past week against a strong Denver secondary.

Since that Week 5 matchup, Flowers has generated a league-best 90.8 PFF receiving grade. Over that span, the young receiver has racked up the most receiving yardage in the NFL (496), powered by an incredible 3.31 yards per route run and 15 receptions of 15-plus yards — both of which rank second in the league.

Diontae Johnson is one more mouth to feed in this offense, but it's safe to assume that Jackson isn’t going to forget about one of the NFL’s most dangerous receiving threats.

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