The Baltimore Ravens covered as 1.5-point road favorites on Monday Night Football as they ran over the New Orleans Saints 27-13 to wrap up NFL Week 9.
The Ravens relied on the running game with 40 rushes for 188 yards (4.7 yards per carry), led by RB Kenyan Drake’s 93 yards and two touchdowns with QB Lamar Jackson adding 82 more on the ground. Jackson only completed 12-of-22 passes for just 133 yards, but spread the ball around to nine different teammates with none having more than two catches.
The Baltimore defense also played its best game since the 24-9 season-opening victory over the New York Jets in the debut of newly acquired LB Roquan Smith as fellow LB Justin Houston had 2.5 sacks and an INT. The Saints didn’t score a touchdown until garbage time when they were trailing 27-6 late in the fourth quarter.
With the Ravens’ emphasis on the run game and the Saints not contributing much, the game stayed Under the closing betting total of 46 points.
NFL betting stats
Favorites went 9-4 straight-up in Week 9, but underdogs led again at 7-4-2 against the spread. Home teams went 7-6 SU and 7-4-2 ATS. Unders dominated again at 9-4 with primetime Unders going 2-1 in games on Thursday, Sunday and Monday night.
Week 9 is the mid-point of the 18-week NFL season (and 136 of the 272 regular-season games have been played). Faves are 81-52-1 SU so far with 2 games closing pick-’em while underdogs still lead 74-54-6 ATS (57.8%). Home teams lead 73-59-1 SU with 3 neutral-site games, but road teams lead 65-62-6 ATS (51.2%). Unders improved to 79-55-2 (59%) while primetime Unders improved to 17-10-1 (63%).