An AFC showdown at Allegiant Stadium—AKA “The Death Star”—takes center stage in a Monday Night Football spectacle between the Baltimore Ravens and Las Vegas Raiders. The Raiders missed the playoffs for a fourth consecutive season last year after finishing with an 8-8 record. Meanwhile, the Ravens made it to the Divisional round of the playoffs before getting trampled in a 17-3 loss to the Buffalo Bills.
A true fact Las Vegas Raiders started the season excellent but since their 6-3 score before the ProBowl they went to 8-8 thanks to their terrible play in defense becoming the 30th team in the league in points against with an average of 29.9 PPG and on top of that they had an incredible 21 turnovers during the season. On the other side, Ravens had a great defense finishing as 2nd overall with against 18.9 PPG. They beat Tennessee Titans in the Wild Card matchup and just when it was expected they will attack the SuperBowl they have been trashed by the Bills scoring only a field goal with a final, 17-3 for the Bills.
Derek Carr will lead the Raiders for the sixth year in a row as a starting quarterback, but Carr hasn’t had a similar season as 2016. That year was his best with 12 wins and just 3 losses. In 2020 he threw for 348/517 passes completed for 67.3%, 4103 pass yards, 27 touchdowns with 9 interceptions. The Ravens, after some legal problems, continue to count on Lamar Jackson as the starting quarterback. Jackson had a brilliant 2020 with 11-4-0, 243/376 passes completed for 64.4%, 2,757 pass yards, 26 touchdowns and 9 interceptions.
Both teams are looking forward of a new good season, Raiders think they can do much much better then they did last season. Ravens looked extremely powerful but failed short in the post season. After all we have a class deference here and Ravens are above the Raiders. However, Baltimore arrives with to many missing players after they got injuries in the preseason. Missing 4 important players will have an impact on their running after their players J.K. Dobbins,Gus Edwards and Justice Hill all are sidelined .
Prediction:
As previously mentioned, Ravens are a class better than the Raiders even when they miss important players. Baltimore Ravens are 5 out of 5 in their last 5 season openings. They will count to six, covering the spread which depending of the bookmaker can go from -3.5 to -4.5. Over is also a good solution because of the mentioned analysis above.
Baltimore Ravens -3.5