Week 13 saw the rampant Baltimore Ravens boost their chances of winning the 2019-2020 Super Bowl. They once more were unstoppable as they stretched their victory march to 8 games.
This was certainly not the case for the ailing reigning champions New England Patriots.
For while the Raven beat a team that may well have the NFL’s stoutest defense, the Patriots went down – again.
Baltimore, a pre-match -250 shot to win, narrowly beat the tough San Francisco 49ers 20-17 on Sunday afternoon. This before Patriots were defeated 28-22 to the Houston Texans on Sunday night in their second loss this season.
Week 13 will be completed Monday nights with the Minnesota Vikings taking on the Seattle Seahawks at home.
Meanwhile the NFL curse of the cats continued with one exception, the Cincinnati Bengals managed to break it with their comfortable 22-6 victory over the New York Jets.
Otherwise the Lions, the Panthers and the Jaguars all went down again.
A Black cat initiated the curse
This weird curse seems to have been initiated in week nine when a black cat ran across the path of play in the Giants-Cowboy game. For the next three weeks no team with the name of a cat could win. Between them 11 games were lost.
Here’s their record:
Week 10: Bears 20, Lions 13; Ravens 49, Bengals 13; Packers 24, Panthers 16 (0-3)
Week 11: Falcons 29, Panthers 3; Cowboys 35, Lions 27; Colts 33, Jaguars 13; Raiders 17, Bengals 10 (0-4)
Week 12: Steelers 16, Bengals 10; Saints 34, Panthers 31; Redskins 19, Lions 16; Titans 42, Jaguars 20 (0-4)
Week 13 wasn’t much better. The Lions were beaten 24-20 by the Bears. The Panthers went down 20-29 to the Redskins and the Jaguars lost 11-28 to the Buccaneers. But there is gleam of hope. Perhaps the Bengals win will end the curse.
Getting back to the Ravens and their current victory march, we note that the score exceed the pre-match ‘over-an- under’ total of 46.5 but failed to make the spread of 5.5.
We also see that The Ravens are now the unanimous New Jersey sports betting favorites to win the Super Bowl. Resorts Online was pretty alone last week when it favored Baltimore as Bowl Champions.
But no longer. All 18 NJ sports betting operators have elevated the Ravens to the No 1 spot at around the +250 mark with the Patriots at+350, New Orleans Saints at +550, 49ers at +800 and Kansas City Chiefs at +1200.
Lamar Jackson is another favorite
On the subject of futures bets, we also note that Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson is another favorite. In his case it is to win NFL Regular Season MVP award.
At +250, he is followed by Russell Wilson of Sea Hawks +350, and Deshaun Watson of Texans at +1100.
In Sunday’s battle against what the 49ers, Jackson completed 14 of 23 passes for a season-low 105 yards and a touchdown by Mark Andrews.
But he again proved his worth with his legs by rushing 16 times for 101 yards and a touchdown.
He has now bettered 60 rushing yards ten times in 12 games including in each of the past nine. He is also the first quarterback in NFL history to rush for over 100 yards four times in one season.
Still on futures bets following Week 13, Ravens was are also the NJ sportsbook favorites to win the AFC Conference. The current odds on them doing it are +135 as against +160 for the Patriots and +600 for the Chiefs.
The Saints are the NFC Conference favorites at +200 followed by the Sea Hawks at +270 and 49ers at +500.
Week 13 results & schedule:
Thursday
- Chicago Bears 24, Detroit Lions 20
- Buffalo Bills 26, Dallas Cowboys 15
- New Orleans Saints 26, Atlanta Falcons 18
Sunday
- Washington Redskins 29 at Carolina Panthers 21
- Green Bay Packers 31, New York Giants 13
- Pittsburgh Steelers 20, Cleveland Browns 13
- Tampa Bay Buccaneers 28, Jacksonville Jaguars 11
- Miami Dolphins 37, Philadelphia Eagles 31
- Cincinnati Bengals 22, New York Jets 6
- Tennessee Titans 31, Indianapolis Colts 17
- Baltimore Ravens 20, San Francisco 49ers 17
- Los Angeles Rams 34, Arizona Cardinals 7
- Kansas City Chiefs 40, Oakland Raiders 9
- Denver Broncos 23, Los Angeles Chargers 20
- New England Patriots 28 at Houston Texans 22
Monday
- Minnesota Vikings at Seattle Seahawks, 8:15 p.m. ET