Ravens vs. Lions Free NFL Picks for Week 3

Having had two of the toughest games on their schedule the Lions come in at 0-2, they take on the 1-1 Ravens in what might is the toughest start of any team in the league this year, will their fortunes change here? Let's see their NFL odds.

Baltimore Ravens vs. Detroit Lions

Sunday, September 26, 2021– 1:00 ET at Ford Field

How Are the Ravens 1-1?

The weeks leading up to the season were terrible for the Ravens, and it didn’t get much better coming into last weekend’s matches. They lost JK Dobbins and Gus Edwards from their running back room before the season started, then LT Ronnie Stanley went down in the lead up to their game against the Chiefs.

That game didn’t start well either and I thought they’d fall apart again after Lamar Jackson threw a pick-6 after just 30 seconds of the game, but in a fantastic game Lamar got his team back into it and converted a late 4th down attempt in their own half to close out a 36-35 win for the Ravens.

The running back room has been decimated but thanks to Lamar Jackson’s talents it doesn’t matter, they’re all second fiddle to him anyway and Latavius Murray and rookie Ty’son Williams have done good jobs having been thrust into the limelight. Murray has scored in both of his games with the team and Williams has been moving the ball well for them.

https://youtu.be/qshCbaj_71Q

Can the Lions Keep This Close?

The spread line for this has the Ravens as nearly double-digit favorites in this one, it’s fairly insulting to the Lions, but the lack of talent on this roster means it’s justified. It took garbage time to make their result in the opener against the 49ers look closer than it was, but they lost convincingly in division to the Packers on Monday night and a shorter week coming into this one won’t help them.

Anthony Lynn has come in as the offensive coordinator and whether it’s been the game-plan from the off or that they’ve been losing so convincingly it’s been a good things for D’Andre Swift in both the running and passing game. He’s racked up 200 combined yards in the two games so far. Jamaal Williams has been getting a lot of use from the backfield as well.

The passing game is being forced to run through TJ Hockenson who’s looked good and will have to do a lot of the work this season as the pass-caching group outside of him is weak. Tyrell Williams leads the group but he missed out on Monday, so it ended up being Quintez Cephus and the running backs getting the bulk of the targets with rookie Amon-ra St. Brown best of the rest.

The Lions defense suffered a hit after week 1 as well with second year Jeff Okudah out for the season and the Packers took advantage of the youth at cornerback in their win on Monday.

T.J. Hockenson #88 of the Detroit Lions in Jacksonville, Florida. James Gilbert/Getty Images/AFP

A Lot of Points in This One Then?

Lamar Jackson probably won’t be the guy to take advantage of the poor secondary but it doesn’t matter with the Ravens, they tend to put away weaker teams without too much effort.

The Lions have been involved in a 74 point game and a 52 point game from Monday. They have shown they are able of putting up points in games, whether that’s first halves or garbage time, even with Quintez Cephus as the main man.

So Baltimore to Cover, or Over the Total?

I would expect the Ravens to win this one quite comfortably but my worry is that they may be concentrating on their week 4 game against the unbeaten Broncos.

So I’m going to be taking the over on the total as my NFL pick in the expectation that the Lions will be about to put up 14+ points in this one.

NFL Pick: (visit our Sportsbook Review)

*The pick reflects the line at the moment the writer made the play, the odds at the beginning of this article show the live line movement. Since the lines might vary, don’t forget to refer back to our live odds.