Going into the Thanksgiving holiday, the Baltimore Ravens had a 7-3 record to leave them as the top team in the AFC North through 11 weeks.
The Ravens are one of the teams seen as potential contenders for the Super Bowl and are a regular pick for many when NFL betting each week.
At the time of writing, the Ravens are odds of +1200 for Super Bowl glory with the Bovada online sportsbook, with the same odds on popular offshore betting site BetOnline.
Despite their good start to the season, there have been some worrying signs for the Ravens of late, with them having lost to the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins and just narrowly squeezing past the Minnesota Vikings and Chicago Bears over the past month.
It’s little wonder the Ravens have experienced indifferent results in recent weeks, with the roster being stretched by a number of different injuries to players on both offense and defense.
Lamar Jackson Out
More recently, Ravens QB Lamar Jackson was ruled out of the recent 16-13 win over the Bears because of an illness.
Jackson is clearly crucial to Baltimore’s hopes and is on pace to set career highs in passing yards with 2,447 in nine games this season to date. He is also on track to reach 1,000 yards rushing for the third straight season, having registered 639 so far.
The Ravens clearly need a healthy Jackson, but Tyler Huntley stepped up for his first NFL start and helped Baltimore secure victory with a 30-yard pass to Sammy Watkins in the final minute, leading to the game-winning 3-yard touchdown run from Devonta Freeman with 22 seconds remaining.
In addition to Jackson, the Ravens were also without a number of other injured players against Chicago –
- WR Marquise Brown (thigh)
- NT Brandon Williams (shoulder)
- WR Miles Boykin (finger)
- CB Jimmy Smith (hip/neck)
- CB Anthony Averett (thigh)
- OT Cedric Ogbuehi (thigh)
The Injured Reserve (IR) list includes several players who were ruled out before the 2021 regular season had even started.
The IR list currently contains the likes of Derek Wolfe, Marcus Peters, DeShon Elliott, L.J. Fort, J.K. Dobbins, Justice Hill, Ronnie Stanley, Gus Edwards, Iman Marshall, Xavier Kelly, and Khalil Dorsey. Now Ar’Darius Washington is expected to join them with a broken foot.
Week 12 Matchup
Ahead of the Week 12 matchup with the Cleveland Browns, defensive lineman Calais Campbell has been unable to practice due to a concussion, although he could yet feature in the game.
The Ravens are well placed to progress to the playoffs and, ahead of the game with the Browns, favored in the betting odds to top the AFC North.
However, although they’ve been able to scrap their way through the regular season of late, once the postseason arrives, they can ill afford to suffer any further losses to injury and illness if they are to maintain realistic hopes of appearing at Super Bowl LVI on February 13, 2022 at SoFi Stadium, Inglewood, California.
