Ravens vs. Bills Betting Preview - AFC Divisional Round Playoffs

You can't get a more competitive matchup than this.

No need to worry about any spread.

During the course of the week, the Ravens-Bills line has sat on the 1 with either team favored depending on when you were to check.

Action was about 65% on the Bills as a +1 home dog.

It's going to be brutally cold (not so much by Buffalo standards).  We're talking teens.

Cold Weather Should Help the Ravens?

The Ravens’ rushing attack should benefit from colder temperatures during Sunday’s Divisional round matchup.

That's what Nikhil Mehta of SB Nation suggests.

These are also diehard bitter cold warriors, maybe.

Rashod Bateman and Daniel Faalele both played in Minnesota in college. Tyler Linderbaum went to Iowa, Patrick Ricard to Maine, and Travis Jones to UConn. Players like Roquan Smith, Kyle Van Noy, and Michael Pierce all had NFL stints in cold-weather states.

Even for the large contingent of Ravens who grew up and/or went to college in the south, the cold weather isn’t a threat. Lamar Jackson has played in two games at sub-freezing conditions, in which he’s completed 29 of 46 passing attempts for 299 yards, four touchdowns, and no interceptions. That’s good for a 110.69 passer rating, eight points above his career average.

December is primarily bowl season.  Most of those games are played away from the brutal cold of say a Buffalo, Iowa, Minnesota.

Sure the final weeks of regular season play in college football can get down there in temperature, but we're not really talking two or more games perhaps played in December and January as we have with the NFL. 

Ravens Player to Watch

S Ar’Darius Washington. He’s been a big part of Baltimore’s defensive improvement down the stretch this season, but the secondary did allow a couple of lengthy touchdown throws by the Steelers last weekend and now faces an even bigger challenge against Buffalo’s passing game.

Bills Player to Watch

QB Josh Allen. Though the seventh-year starter is 1-3 in divisional playoff appearances, he’s combined for 975 yards passing and six touchdowns with one interception, and 159 yards rushing and three scores in those outings. With two TDs passing last weekend, Allen increased his postseason total to 23 to break Hall of Famer Jim Kelly’s franchise record (21). In the regular season, Allen topped the 40-TD total for a fifth straight year with 28 touchdowns passing, 12 rushing and one receiving, while throwing a career-low six interceptions.