Ravens better team
Ravens match up better
KC: Good at running the ball, Matt Cassell is poor at throwing the ball
Ravens D: Surprisingly worse than usual vs the pass, but they can still stop the run.
KC actually has a very strong ( run blocking) offensive line. Brian Waters is one of the most underrated ( to fans) players in the NFL in the last 10 years. He's dominant at his position. Lilja is good too, their LT... The thing is Buddy Lee and Ngata are good lineman and Ray Lewis is still a crazy animal.
I watched the Raiders/Chiefs game last week and the Ravens are a souped up version of the Raiders. Here's what happened.
The Raiders D-Line dominated the Chiefs O-Line vs the pass
Raiders defense stopped the run
Matt Cassell didn't have time to throw and when he did he was off
Matt Cassell might have had a good TD/INT ratio but that was more in the "game manager" variety. He can NOT lead a strong passing attack play after play. It's dump offs. I do NOT feel like he could exploit the Ravens secondary which is more living off of name at this point.
On the other side of the ball I'm not big Flacco fan... Jason Campbell sucks and he did OK managing the game last week. Raiders ran the ball alright... Ravnes will too... and Campbell sprinkled in a few passes here and there... and that's all Flacco will have to do to keep the machine going.
At the end of last week the Raiders got ahead, KC had to pass and Matt Cassell self distructed, threw a pick 6 and got benched. This week it might be closer but the Ravens win. Better team and better matchup.
I put 1/2 of my wager on Ravens -3
I put the other 1/2 on Ravens ML in the event they only win by 3 ( which is possible)