The Cleveland Browns are 9-3, winners of four in a row. They’re at home. Quarterback Baker Mayfield is playing the best football of his NFL career. They have the NFL’s top 1-2 punch in Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt to lean upon.
The Baltimore Ravens, meanwhile, have dropped four of their last six since their bye week to fall to 7-5. Their roster has been ravaged by COVID-19 issues and injuries in key spots. And while they’re getting healthier on those fronts, it’s still not a team trending in the right direction.
Despite all that, the Ravens are slight favorites in Cleveland for Monday night’s AFC North matchup. At BetMGM, the Ravens are favored by one point over the Browns. That line carries over most sportsbooks, as does the relatively low over/under of 45.5 points.
There is the matter of the Week 1 outcome. The Ravens trounced the Browns, 38-6, in Baltimore in Kevin Stefanski’s debut game as an NFL coach. Recent trends suggest that outcome is in the distant past for both teams, but it’s hard to ignore. For confident Browns fans, it’s an opportunity to show faith in the team that has gone 9-2 since then.
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