Week 15 rooting guide: Ravens need a little help to lock up top playoff seeding

The Baltimore Ravens need a little bit of help from other teams to lock in the top seed in the AFC playoff picture. Here’s who to root for.

The Baltimore Ravens have already played their Week 15 game, defeating the New York Jets 42-21 on Thursday night. That gives them and all Ravens fans a chance to sit down on Sunday and watch the rest of the league.

With the playoffs getting sorted out, Baltimore has quite a few teams to root for this week. From who they could see in the postseason to potentially locking up the No. 1 seed this week, it’s a great week to watch football.

Here are the three teams you should be rooting for in Week 15

New England Patriots (10-3) at Cincinnati Bengals (1-12)

Rooting for: Bengals

Photo by Jim Rogash/Getty Images

This is a tall order to ask a team that has won just one game this season to dethrone one of the best teams in the league. But we’ve seen odder things happen before and Baltimore could really use this game, so we’re stuck rooting for Cincinnati.

A New England loss would guarantee the Ravens a top-2 seed. But it’s also just one part of what Baltimore needs to lock up the No. 1 seed. Not to mention, seeing the Patriots drop yet another game right before the playoffs is never a bad thing. It could help give the Ravens more positive game film to base any potential rematch on.

New England’s offense has been pretty cold this season, failing to get much momentum going on the ground or through the air. The Patriots have yet to see one of their running backs top 100 rushing yards in a game. Meanwhile, quarterback Tom Brady has seen 29 drops from his targets this season, topping last year’s total already.

The Bengals might not have a lot going for them, but they seem to have a better hold on what talent they do have. Finally switching back to Andy Dalton at quarterback, Cincinnati topped 450 total offensive yards last week and could be a good test against the Patriots’ defense.