The Cincinnati Bengals enter Week 5 as underdogs for the first time this season ahead of a “Sunday Night Football” clash with the Baltimore Ravens.
It would appear experts in charge of making picks agree with that consensus, too.
According to the numbers compiled by NFL Pick Watch, a big 74 percent of the experts polled so far would pick the Ravens straight-up. That shifts to 55 percent for the Ravens when those same experts get asked to pick the game against the spread.
As always, this is a grain-of-salt thing as the Bengals didn’t feel like heavyweight favorites against the Ravens last year, yet won both games by 41-17 and 41-21 margins.
Much has changed since, but it’s a good reminder of how unpredictable things can get. The Ravens and a red-hot Lamar Jackson are by far the toughest opponents the Bengals have faced so far this season, so it’s a big hurdle to leap and something most experts seem to think won’t happen.
