By Travers Cummings
Bengals over Ravens (Sunday noon): I have officially washed my hands of the Baltimore Ravens, and more specifically, Lamar Jackson. I don’t know if he’s more hurt than the team wants to say, but he just doesn’t have any of the explosiveness he once possessed that made him one of the most feared quarterbacks in the league. Losing to their division rival Pittsburgh Steelers last week hurts, but it also dealt a blow to their playoff aspirations. A date with the Bengals is up next, and what was once an easy win is now going to be a tough matchup. Joe Burrow has brought a spark back to Cincinnati’s offense as they went toe to toe with Buffalo last week in the snow. A couple of turnovers at the end cost them the game, but they were right in it up to that point. The Bengals won’t be seeing the postseason unless they can somehow run the table and have the Steelers and Ravens lose the rest of the way, but they sure as heck can play spoilers.
Bills over Patriots (Sunday noon): After winning a game filled with snow, the Bills will travel to New England to take on the Patriots where the weather may factor in once again. Josh Allen put on his one-man show against the Bengals and stated his claim to being the best player in the NFL, period. Totaling four touchdowns (three in the air, one on the ground), Cincinnati’s defense had no answer for him as he pretty much did whatever he wanted. The Bills are still two games behind the Patriots, so the division title is still in reach, but they’ll have to win this matchup seeing how they lost the earlier meeting between them in Week 5. The Pats are coming in fresh off their late-season bye week and will look to extend the 10-game winning streak they’re riding.
Seahawks over Colts (Sunday afternoon): Well, this HAD potential to be an excellent game, but then the inevitable happened with Daniel Jones (sorry Derek Corbel). I don’t know how many people out there have suffered any sort of leg injury, but usually what happens is you start overcompensating with your good leg to take pressure off of your bad leg. So, then you end up with a bad leg on one side, and an overused leg on the other side, and that’s exactly what happened to Daniel Jones. He was already trying to play through a broken fibula, which I don’t understand how that was even possible, but overcompensating on his “good” leg caused him to blow out his Achilles tendon. So now he has two bad legs, and the Colts have zero good quarterbacks left. They’re getting so desperate that they put out the bat signal and asked 44-year-old Philip Rivers to come out of retirement to try and salvage their season. Rookie quarterback Riley Leonard, who’s nursing a strained knee ligament of his own, will probably get his first career start, but it’s going to be a tough task for him going into Seattle and playing against their defense.
Last week: 0-3
Season overall: 27-15