Late in the season, the NFL's scheduling authority moves key games to Saturday dates to increase viewership and attention.
So when a team gains a 20-point advantage, it raises even more eyebrows.
Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and the Ravens host the Browns with playoff implications.
Baltimore must win to clinch the AFC North title and clinch the AFC No. 3 seed.
So while the Ravens will use their starter for the final game of the regular season, Cleveland has selected a fourth different starting quarterback this year.
It's actually important to me that Bailey Zappe starts in place of Dorian Thompson-Robinson.
This past week, I was preparing to help Baltimore in a big way.
DTR is, without a doubt, the worst quarterback I've ever had as a starter in a regular season game, and that proved to be true again this year, with 6 interceptions in 6 games and no touchdown passes. There wasn't even one.
Although he has not played a single game this season and only joined the team in October, Zappe has looked capable so far this season. I don't have high expectations, but when a point spread of this historical scale is involved, you need to be very prepared.
“We bet on the Ravens -17.5 on Wednesday from a man we respect,” Las Vegas Superbook Vice President and Oddsmaker John Murray told Only Players:hinting that the point spread has moved in one direction to its current value of 20. “We just move the line to 18.5 and keep moving with the market from there.”
Week 18 will inevitably be tricky. Teams that have already been eliminated from playoff contention often play as reserves, and games can play out like preseason NFL games or meaningless college bowl games.
“We're going to keep going up until we finally see resistance, and right now we're not seeing any resistance, so we're going to keep going up,” Murray said. “We don't think we've gotten too high until we find stakes from respected accounts.”
When the point spread for a game is close to 3 touchdowns, garbage time can have a big impact on the outcome.
In the end, at some point in the fourth quarter, Baltimore appeared to have secured the victory and likely shifted its focus to next weekend's playoffs.
Do you want to bet on the NFL?
Despite this, I am very confident that the Ravens are the dominant team throughout the first half, and therefore feel there is line value even if they trail Baltimore by -11.5 in the first half.
That's what I'm betting on this game.
Why trust New York Post Betting?
Doug Kezirian is a contributor to the New York Post and currently serves as chief content officer at sports betting media company Only Players. Doug has over 20 years of experience in the betting field, including 11 years at ESPN as a host, columnist and betting analyst. He is also a rare record of success, finishing 14th in the 2023 Circa Million and Las Vegas Supercontest ($37,000) and finishing in the top 10 twice in the 2022 William Hill College Football Challenge. ($58,000), and also made headlines for winning $297,000. About the 2021 NFL Draft.
