Bills And Ravens Will Put On Offensive Showcase Sunday Night

Bills vs. Ravens, 8:20 ET

Bills vs. Ravens, 8:20 ET

Sunday Night Football has brought us some decent success already this season and I think we are likely to get another one here. After a long day of football where you’re trying to watch all of the games, it is nice to focus on just one game. Right now we get a battle between two teams who have had very different starts to their seasons. The Bills come into the game looking like the best team in football and the Ravens are looking to find their footing.

The Bills, as mentioned, look great so far, and have a 3-0 record. They traded away their best receiver in the offseason and have numerous injuries to key positions on defense. The Bills shouldn’t look this good with those two things happening to the team. I have said a few times that Josh Allen needs to be perfect for the team to win. That may not be true now that they have a running game. However, Allen has been nothing short of spectacular this season, throwing for 634 yards, seven touchdowns, and completing 75% of his passes. On the ground, James Cook is up to 188 yards and three touchdowns on 41 carries. While that doesn’t seem like a ton, and it isn’t, it is important that the entire team has 88 carries compared to just 73 attempts. Now, 17 carries have come from Josh Allen, but that still means the rest of the team is providing a bit more balance to the clubs offense. The Ravens are actually the best against the run in the NFL, but some of that is due to last week’s game against the Cowboys where Dallas had to abandon the run to get back into the game after going down big. Allen could have a big game through the air considering that Baltimore is last in yards allowed to opponents through the air with 35 more than the next closest team.

Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson is tackled by Kansas City Chiefs LB Leo Chenal during the 2024 NFL Kickoff Game. (Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images)

The Ravens have been an odd team to start the season. They came out against the Chiefs and looked good through the first half of the game before getting very little going offensively. Then they almost tied and potentially won the game had Isaiah Likely’s toe not been out of bounds. The next game against the Raiders I can only describe as them being unprepared. They looked like they knew they were going to win and didn’t take it serious enough. The Raiders took the game and put the Ravens in a bad spot. I said on the Outkick Bets podcast with Geoff Clark that the Ravens would likely come out and score first against the Cowboys to try and get back on track. They did, and they put together a very strong half of football before giving up a lot of points in the fourth. Ultimately they escaped with their first win of the season. Derrick Henry looked great, but Lamar Jackson remains uninspiring when throwing the ball. This could be a good thing for the Ravens anyway because the Bills have one of the best pass defenses at the moment and just a middle-tier running defense. Obviously Baltimore wants to attack on the ground, so my guess is that Jackson will need to do embrace play action and try to give his receivers a bit more separation.

I don’t think it would be smart to bet against the Bills right now. They are playing good football, and before we say it is a schedule thing or a fluke, they were winning big against the Dolphins in Miami when Tua was on the field. Sure they looked shaky in the first game of the season, but they still won with relative ease. However, this does feel like a game the Bills tend to lose, at least in past seasons. I’m not taking a side, but I’d lean toward the points with Buffalo. Instead, I think this game will go over the total. Both are good and have decent defenses, but I think they both should score at least 20 and we should sneak over the total sometime midway through the fourth quarter. 

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