New Orleans Saints vs Baltimore Ravens Prediction, Odds and Preview - 08/14/2021

Game Time: 7:00 pm ET, Saturday, August 14th, 2021

Venue:  M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, Maryland

Where to Watch:  DAZN, NFL Network

Saints: 0-0, first preseason game, NFL preseason (NFC South)

Ravens:  0-0, first preseason game, NFL preseason (AFC North)

DraftKings:  Moneyline odds: Ravens -130, Saints +110; Over/Under: 35.5 runs, Spread: Ravens -3

FanDuel: Moneyline odds: Saints -105, Ravens -115; Over/Under 35.5 Spread: NO: +2.5

Saints:  Tre’Quan Smith WR (undisclosed) Questionable, Ethan Wolf TE (ankle) Questionable

Ravens:  Ronnie Stanley OT (ankle) Questionable, Jimmy Smith CB (ankle) Questionable

Saints:

Jameis Winston QB
Alvin Kamara RB
Michael Thomas WR1
Marquez Callaway WR2
Tre’Quan Smith WR3
Adam Trautman TE
Terron Armstead LT
Andrus Peat LG
Erik McCoy C
Cesar Ruiz RG
Ryan Ramczyk

Ravens:

Lamar Jackson QB
JK Dobbins  RB
Patrick Ricard FB
Marquise Brown WR1
Sammy Watkins WR2
Mark Andrews TE
Ronnie Stanley LT
Bradley Bozeman LG
Patrick Mekari C
Kevin Zeitler RG
Alejandro Villanueva RT

Coaches

Saints: Sean Payton  (Still)

Ravens: John Harbaugh (2019 Coach of The Year)

The Saints are 8-2-1 against the spread in it’s last 11 games.   4 Unders, 1 Over in the last 5.
The Ravens were 11-5 in 2020 but one of the best teams at covering the spread, they were 10-6 ATS.  The 11 wins were by an average of 18.2 points

Series History:

Baltimore is 8-1 straight up in their last 9 games against New orleans.

The Baltimore Ravens came in second in the AFC North in 2020, one game behind the Pittsburgh Steelers.  2020 was an odd year. Lamar Jackson missed some time with Covid-19.  Baltimore wound up 32nd (last) in passing yards (2739)  and first in rushing yards (3071). Not exactly balanced.  They made it to the playoffs and got a win against the Tennessee Titans.

The New Orleans Saints were 19th in passing yards (3758) and 6th in rushing yards (2265). They finished 12-4, 1st in the NFC South.  They beat the Chicago bears in the Wild Card, but then lost the divisional round to the eventual Super Bowl Champs the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  For my money the best single ticket any year is for the Playoff game that the Saints lose, just to hear how they got robbed by the refs.

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A preseason opener.  Saints on the road, Ravens as host at home.  The fans will line up at the box office for the cheapest Baltimore Ravens Tickets of the season.  It’s MD in Aug?... seems ho-hum.  Yet, there is plenty of drama.

Sean Payton will have to make a difficult decision at the end of this preseason.  Does he go with likely starter Jameis Winston as the season starting QB?... Or does he fully commit to human swiss army knife Taysom Hill? This isn’t Denver, it’s not that the Saints don’t have a quarterback that they like… they have two that they like.  Both guys are flawed.  Jameis has a strong arm but serious turnover problems 121 career touchdowns comes with 88 career interceptions. Taysom Hill has 4 career passing TD’s with 3 Interceptions.  What Taysom brings to the table is unknown as a full time Quarterback… as a football player he brings freakish athleticism that has seen him used as a trick play quarterback, running back, blocking back, tight end, and slot receiver.  This upcoming game will be the start of the oddest quarterback position battle ever.

John Harbough doesn’t have a quarterback problem.  The Ravens 4th year QB is Lamar Jackson, a Pro-bowler, a League MVP, 68 passing TD’s to 18 INT’s with 19 rushing touchdowns.  He can pass, he can scramble, he can extend drives and he can score.  Will he be on the field though?  Harbough must be grinding his teeth at night, because Lamar has had Covid-19 twice in 8 months.  He has Covid now.  He also is reluctant to get the vaccine because “it’s a personal decision”.  What isn’t a personal decision is that viruses spread to other people whether you like it or not.  If Lamar keeps catching Covid like a crosstown bus he will miss games.  The respective owners of the Ravens and their official partners in the NFL might have to prepare for cancelling games due to breakouts.  A number of tickets will have to be refunded from the upper-level seats to the premium seating.  Home games could get pulled, a part of the NFL schedule could get cancelled, no one will flip a coin at the 50-yard line, the Networks could lose valuable visual content to frame their commercials in. All because Lamar is on the dummy train with Cole Beasley and Kirk Cousins.  Take this at face value, whether or not we have a season at all is TBA and it is riding partially on Lamar Jackson’s shoulders.

This is the New Orleans Saints football game to win.  Lamar won’t be playing at all while Jameis and Taysom will try to do just enough to earn the starting job.  That is until everyone is pulled for 3rd stringers. The game starts 7 PM local time… by 8 we won’t see many familiar names still on the field.  Still that first quarter or two will be all the New Orleans Saints game.

“If you want better tickets or a refund on a recent purchase or transaction of Baltimore Raven tickets or New Orleans Saints tickets… contact ticketcity at the ticket marketplace.  For any other football tickets to any NFL game, we have a number of available tickets for the best available seats.. Lower levels, club level and even VIP options!!!... Purchase today!!”  

       - Mass e-mail  titled “Do you love Football”.  I deleted it and regret opening it.

Saints vs Ravens Prediction:  Our MLB Pick for the Saturday August 10th preseason game is Saints 24 Baltimore 6

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