Honestly, we don’t know what to make of this prime-time contest tonight. Except, with Cincinnati and Cleveland both winning Sunday, the Ravens need a win to keep pace with everybody else in the division—all remarkably, including Pittsburgh, separated by no more than a half-game.
Here’s just one of the weird things about this match-up: The Ravens, at 6-4, are currently last in the AFC North, while the Saints, at 4-6, sit atop their division.
Also, the Saints, normally very tough at the Superdome, have dropped their last two at home. And, the last time the Ravens played in the Superdome, we won, but didn’t beat the Saints. We knocked off the 49ers in the Super Bowl.
Normally, the easy bet, if you’re not a Ravens fan, would be to take Drew Brees and the high-powered Saints offense indoors, especially with Ravens star cornerback Jimmy Smith out with a foot injury. To that point, the bookies have installed the Saints as 3.5-point favorites, setting the total over-under points at 50 or 50.5, indicating they expect a high-scoring game. Then again, word from Vegas is that while general public is betting on the Saints, the “sharpies” are loading upon the Ravens.
We’re optimists at heart at Baltimore magazine, so here are two things we like about this game: The Ravens are coming off a bye, have had time to prepare for Brees, and (other than Smith) should be healthy. Also, we’re not bad indoors—for an outdoor team. We’ve played one indoor game this year, losing to Indianapolis, but it was a game we could’ve won. Last year, we won inside at Detroit and again, we earned those Super Bowl rings two years inside.
Against the diminished Saints’s secondary—they’ve got a couple of safeties out with injuries—Flacco could throw for 300 yards and three TDs, who knows?
If you want to keep sorting through this, CBSports.com’s come up with a list of “15 things to know” about tonight’s game. For us, it’s time to stop over-thinking this and decide what we’re going to eat, what we’re going drink, and where we going to watch the game.