Daily Newsletter: NFL Week 10 TNF Preview! (Nov. 7th)
Welcome to our Daily Newsletter! Week 10 kicks off on Thursday night with a huge divisional match-up between the Bengals and the Ravens. Cincinnati is still in must-win territory as they fight for their play-off lives while the Ravens have been an absolute buzz saw on offense and will be tough to slow down. The game is set to begin at 8:15 ET and will be broadcast on Prime Video.
Cincinnati Bengals
The Bengals travel to Baltimore tonight as 6 point underdogs, in what should be a high-scoring affair given the 52 point total. These teams played around a month ago – a game that finished 41-38 in overtime and was one of the best games of the season thus far. Cincinnati started slow offensively as they’ve tended to do the last few seasons – but that slow start is in the rear-view mirror. They’ve been great on offense the last month and a half, and they’ve skewed extremely pass-happy over that time-frame as well. Tee Higgins will once again miss tonight’s game, as well as Zack Moss. It should be a consolidated offense much like we saw last Sunday – with Ja’Marr Chase, Chase Brown and Mike Gesciki garnering most of Joe Burrow’s attention. One storyline that sticks out to me is the potential involvement or lack thereof of rookie Jermaine Burton. Burton was slated to be the “focal point” of last week's game plan before he missed a Saturday meeting and ended up being inactive for the game. We saw a similar situation with Ja’Marr Chase in his rookie campaign – having his best game of the season after getting in trouble for missing a meeting. I’m not sure how much, if any, Burton will see the field tonight – but betting on uncertainty can favor the bold. His prop lines are set under 20 yards – and he is a deep threat meaning he could clear that on just one catch (20+ yard aDOT this season). I wouldn’t mind buying into his potential increase in looks tonight in the off chance they try to get him going.
Baltimore Ravens
As I noted above, the Ravens have been an absolute wagon on offense this year and nothing can seemingly slow them down. Lamar Jackson popped up on the injury report this week, but he was a full-go in practice yesterday and I don’t anticipate him having limitations tonight. Derrick Henry is the current favorite for Offensive Player of the Year – and the team should have a more ready Diontae Johnson tonight after another week of practice with the team. The only con tonight is that Isaiah Likely will miss this game – Baltimore didn’t call up another TE to the active roster for this game so it will be exclusively Mark Andrews and Charlie Kolar in 2 TE sets. Kolar is an athletic playmaker, and was a fourth-round pick by the Ravens. I’m sure they are eager to see if he can take a leap in a bit of an expanded role tonight. He caught 3 passes for 30 yards in the Ravens last game vs the Bengals and also has low prop lines tonight set around just 13.5 yards. Given his playmaking ability I don’t hate betting on him here, given that he can clear that line on one catch.
Cincy will be without their LT Orlando Brown Jr tonight which is huge for the Baltimore Ravens defense. Joe Burrow’s efficiency and YPA plummet with Brown out, and the odds are already stacked against them with a huge threat in Tee Higgins down. I would lean towards the Ravens at home here if picking a side.
Touchdown Prediction: Charlie Kolar
I don't ever want to be too chalky with these touchdown picks, so I'll ride with Kolar for the reasons I stated above. He is athletic enough to make plays with the ball in his hands, and the Ravens do like to target their TEs a lot in the red zone.
Written by Ben Hossler