AFC North leaders Baltimore Ravens play Cleveland Browns this Sunday – NFL Preview
The Baltimore Ravens (8-3) are playing the Cleveland Browns (4-7) this Sunday looking to record their sixth straight win in the American Football Conference (AFC) north division, and seventh over the Browns in a row.
In one of their crucial ties of the American football’s professional league, National Football League (NFL), the Ravens will be aiming to further consolidate their lead over their divisional rivals the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They are tied with the Steelers (8-3) but hold tiebreaker advantage. Both the teams however are closely watching progress of their other rival the Cincinnati Bengals. They are (7-4) in the division chasing them.
Both the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals are also playing this Sunday and win for either side will determine the difference between them and the leader Baltimore Ravens on the points table.
In case the Pittsburgh Steelers who historically hold an advantage of more wins over the Bengals, stage a win and the Ravens lose against the Cleveland Browns, the Ravens will stand losing their lead to Steelers in the north division.
While all the odds are seen in favour of the Pittsburgh Steelers over the Bengals for this weekend’s game, the problem for the Ravens will be their weakness of losing against smaller teams.
They however said to be aiming for overcoming this trend and inflicting a defeat on the Browns. There are few things that will prove to their advantage and ensure that they remain the winner this Sunday.
One of the key points to come to their advantage is their win over San Francisco 49ers on past Thursday. The confidence and moral of John Harbaugh’s side is really up from their big and historically victory over the 49ers. John,
whose brother Jim Harbaugh is head coach of the 49ers, acknowledged this.
"It's just a big win for us," John Harbaugh said. "It's an opportunity going forward. It positions us really well. Now we have to conquer a game in Cleveland, one that's been plaguing us all year."
John Harbaugh said that he did not buy the theory that the Ravens were not simply ready to take on comparatively smaller units. He added that it was just a matter of fact that his side did not play well in those matches.
Meanwhile the Browns are also capable of pulling off upsets, despite that their historical record against the Ravens is not in their favour. They almost had beaten the Cincinnati Bengals in their last match but Bengals’ ability
to stage a comeback later in the game ruined their chances and they lost 20-23.
"We didn't finish it off," Browns head coach Pat Shurmur said. "The Bengals did a good job of coming back on us. Just like if we had won the game it'd be a team victory, we lost the game and it was a team loss."
The Baltimore Ravens have won each of last six games against the Browns, holding the lead advantage of 17-7.
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