Sunday, October 11th
Baltimore Ravens @ Atlanta Falcons, 8:20 PM ET
The Sunday Night Football game in Week 5 features the Baltimore Ravens and the Atlanta Falcons. It’s not 100 percent clear at the moment if Lamar Jackson is going to play in this one, so that’s something to monitor throughout the week.
Jackson and the Ravens are now 3-1 on the season after a nice win over Tennessee and do feel like the Ravens of old. Health is really the biggest thing for this club, as they ended up starting in a major 1-5 hole last year due to injuries but still managed to finish 8-9 on the season.
I don’t necessarily think that the team needed to make a head coaching change, but the team hiring Jesse Minter does kind of feel like them course-correcting after losing Macdonald to the Seahawks.
Anyway, with as much talent as the Ravens have, it’s nearly impossible for this team to be bad, and while the Falcons have a ton of roster talent, even at full strength, they probably aren’t a huge threat to the Ravens.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski does have experience against the Ravens, though, as he was the Browns head coach for a little while. What is interesting here is that the Falcons feel well within reach in the NFC South with how much time is left in the season.
The Ravens are also right in the mix as well, so this could be quite the battle. Right now, since we can’t say for certain whether Jackson plays or not, we’re going to predict a small Ravens victory.
Baltimore also seems to love to get in these one-score games, and with a rookie head coach, there could still be some growing pains. Anyway, the Ravens win this one and move to 4-1 in our predictions for Week 5.
Prediction: Ravens win 23-22
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