Bengals vs Ravens: ‘Thursday Night Football’ picks and open thread

Welcome back to Thursday Night Football

The NFL is apologizing to fans the world over this week by following up last week’s Carolina Panthers at Chicago Bears Thursday Night Football stinker with an actual professional football game between the AFC North rival Cincinnati Bengals and Baltimore Ravens.

Joe Burrow has real receivers while Lamar Jackson has a whole damn team around him. Perhaps Bryce Young should take notes tomorrow night on how, uh, to get drafted to a better roster and/or organization.

I kid, I kid. It’s too late for him.

As for tonight’s game, the Bengals are fourth in the AFC North with a 5-4 record. Imagine lagging your division while still being above .500, couldn’t be an NFC South team. They’ll be playing with chips on their shoulders for the rest of the season as they claw their way towards a playoff spot that they expected to have back in August.

The Ravens, meanwhile, have the opportunity to tighten their grip on their lead in that division with a head-to-head win over one of their rivals.

Thanks to a partnership between our friends over at Tallysight and the folks at DraftKings Sportsbook (where you can check out odds for tonight’s game), we can bring you a helpful widget* to keep track of the staff picks here at CSR for each game this season.

*It’s just a table, but it’s a pretty table.

This is now an open thread for tonight’s game!