Thursday Night Football picks and live discussion: Bengals at Ravens

Our Thursday Night Football thread is now open. Are you taking the Bengals or Ravens?

Tonight’s Thursday Night Football game features a clash between the visiting Cincinnati Bengals and the host Baltimore Ravens.

DraftKings Sportsbook has the Ravens as 3.5-point favorites over the Panthers.

This is an open thread for game chat.

Below some of the BTB staff made game picks using Tallysight. Check them out and the explanation for the picks.

Dave Halprin: This should be a good game, but the trust with the Bengals just isn’t there, and the Ravens are at home. Take the Ravens to cover.

Tom Ryle: While Baltimore stumbled last week, overall I just feel they are the better team. Points per game is an interesting way to look at this, because the Ravens score 27.0 and yield 15.7 on average, while the Bengals put 20.2 on the board and surrender 21.3. That just looks like a Ravens win to me.

David Howman: The Bengals have been a hard team to predict this year, but the Ravens haven’t been. With the exception of last week’s stumble, they’ve been one of the best teams in the league. I’ll take Baltimore at home on a short week, even though it’s hard to know which Bengals team will show up.

Matt Holleran: The Bengals have let me down plenty of times this year but I’m going to the well once again. Cincinnati desperately needs to win this game to avoid failing further out of the playoff race. In the teams first matchup back in Week Two, the Bengals’ offense played well enough to win but their defense could not get any key stops. Tonight they flip the script and stop Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore’s offense on the last drive of the game to seal a win. Give me the Bengals, 24-23.

Brian Martin: Both the Bengals and Ravens lost last week and will be looking to bounce back in this Thursday night matchup. Only one of them will succeed of course and I think it will probably be Baltimore in large part because of Lamar Jackson and what he can do with his legs.

RJ Ochoa: My hope is that this game truly does deliver and gives us a TNF game to really enjoy, but the power of Thursday nights may be too much to overcome. Either way as much as I respect the Bengals this just feels like a moment for the Ravens. I’ll take Baltimore along the lines of 27-23.

OCC: Both the Ravens and Bengals lost last week, and neither team looked good on defense. If that trend continues, the offenses should carry the day and I trust Lamar Jackson at home a little bit more than Joe Burrow on the road. Ravens in a shootout.