Ravens Browns preview
The AFC North all lost in the first week of the NFL season leaving the division all 0-1 and all tied. It is early in the season to say the least but there was enough film to be able to see what teams did well and what teams did not do well. First off if you want to place a bet on the game and want more in depth information on NFL gambling check out this site http://www.onlinefootballbetting.net/.
Lets make a quick recap of the Baltimore Ravens and Cleveland Browns first game and look at their flaws and what they did right. The Ravens lost 49 to 27 to the Denver Broncos and the Browns lost 23 to 10 to the Miami Dolphins.
The Ravens looked good in the first half of the Broncos game and were actually leading at half time. Joe Flacco played a lot better than any of his stats will show and helped lead the Ravens to scoring 27 points. The rest of the offense has been graded in my report card found here. In short the offense had problems but was not the biggest reason that the Ravens had a downfall in the second half.
The defensive backs were by far the Ravens biggest flaw, they allowed seven passing touchdowns by Peyton Manning.
A big blown call on a pass that was incomplete to Wes Welker was probably the biggest reason the Ravens lost. The Broncos got a free first down and completely wore out the Ravens defense and the floodgates came pouring down after that. Being on the road in Denver with the thin air played a big part in the defense running out of gas so quickly.
Taking a look at the Browns, the Browns offense was the biggest flaw for the Browns. Quarterback Brandon Weeden looked horrible and threw three bad interceptions and only going 26/53 passing. I do not understand why the Browns went through the air so many times and only rushed the ball 13 times with a Trent Richardson.
The Browns defense played well and kept the Browns in the game despite all the turnovers. That said the Browns were going against the Dolphins offense not the Broncos offense, Ryan Tannehill is no Peyton Manning.
So the Ravens Browns game might come down to this…. a bad pass defense against a bad passing offense. Honestly I do expect the Ravens to clean up their pass defense, their is a lot of talent there and it will not be hard to fix.
The Browns passing game starts and ends with Weeden and that is not easily fixed, which is why the Ravens have the advantage. Weeden is old for a second year player and is already in his prime. Weeden has not shown me much to make me believe that he can be a successful quarterback in the league, much less take on the Ravens.
The Ravens will have home field advantage and that will play big as the Ravens rarely lose at home and will be celebrating their first game back since their Super Bowl win. The crowd will be absolutely crazy give give the Ravens a huge edge. Which again will hurt the Browns already questionable offense.
If I was a betting man I would pick the Ravens over the Browns and I do not think this game will be close. The Ravens offense has some things to clean up but Flacco should be able to pick the Browns apart. I also expect the defense to improve for the Ravens.
Another thing to the Ravens advantage is that they played on Thursday and have a few more days to rest up than the Browns.
I pick the Ravens to win big 38-7.
