THE Baltimore Ravens will look to roll into a kinda month of football when they take on the Indianapolis Colts at M&T Bank Stadium.
The Ravens have bounced back well from their Week 1 OT loss in Vegas by rattling off three straight wins.
The team’s injury list is mind-boggling and they certainly deserve credit for the way in which they’ve been able to get positive contributions from their replacements.
The team remains a force on the ground despite all three RB’s going down with season-ending injuries in pre-season and that will be the focal point once again here.
Ground and pound
Baltimore can set the NFL record for consecutive 100-yard rushing games in front of their home fans, and it’s a record that clearly matters to them based on coach John Harbaugh’s decision to run for extra yards rather than take a knee at the end of last week’s game against the Broncos.
Running on this Colts defence shouldn’t be a problem for them either; they currently allow 114.0 rushing yards per game (17th in the NFL) with opposing teams rushing the ball on over 48% of snaps against them.
This is game is going to depend entirely on how the Colts defensive line holds up and while they were much improved in their win agains the Dolphins last week that still seems to be the exception to the rule for this team.
If the Ravens are able to clear 5.0 rushing yards per attempt in this game they’ll simply grind away in moving the chains and wearing down the Colts defence; essentially a mirror of what happened last season.
Market watch
This game has taken some firm support in favour of the home team with 7.5-point lines popping up across the board after sitting at a flat 7.0 since opening.
Your best price on the Ravens has likely gone as I don’t see any buyback coming for the Colts that pushes this off the hook.
My best value here is on the total and siding with the Under 48.5 point margin makes sense with how I envision the game script to go. Baltimore will be happy to pound the rock and I can see them playing keep away in the second half and sitting on an established lead.
Carson Wentz playing catch up is likely to force his hand and that should allow the Ravens defence to force turnovers on deep shots as a result. Despite moving down a tick from its opener there’s still some value here for punters.
Our best bet: Under 46.5 points
