Las Vegas Raiders should be favored against Baltimore in Week 1
By Brad Weiss
The hits keep coming for the Baltimore Ravens, and after a rough go on Thursday, the Las Vegas Raiders should be favored Monday night.
Another day, more injuries for the Baltimore Ravens, who are preparing for their Week 1 Monday night matchup against the Las Vegas Raiders. The Ravens are already short-handed, as guys like Rashod Bateman, Miles Boykin, and J.K. Dobbins are out, and now two more of their key players are likely done for the season.
On Thursday, both Marcus Peters and Gus Edwards appeared to suffer significant leg injuries, and they will definitely not be playing in Week 1. With all of these injuries, the suddenly healthy Raiders team should not only be very competitive against the Ravens, a perennial playoff team on Monday night, but they should be the favorite at this point.
Raiders going into Week 1 relatively healthy
On the flip side of the coin, outside of some issues with the linebacker group, the Raiders are going into this matchup pretty healthy. They have not suffered any significant injuries to their stars leading up to Week 1, and they should welcome the Ravens to town with a full deck.
Josh Jacobs, who has not been going in practice, dressed out on Thursday, and he should be ready to go against the Ravens defense. The combination of he and Kenyan Drake should be one of the best running back duos in the league this season, and they should have room to operate against a suddenly short-handed Ravens defense.
This is Week 1, and you never know how teams are going to come out of the gate, and who will live up to expectations. Sure, Lamar Jackson is going to be a tough matchup for any team, but he is playing with a Ravens team that has a ton of weapons out, and it just may be too much to overcome on Monday night.