It was supposed to be the year of the Ravens, the highest flyers of the regular season with a stunning 14-2 record.
Sadly, and especially for quarterback sensation Lamar Jackson, it’s not going to be.
The shock news of the weekend’s Divisional play-offs is that Tennessee Titans, the universal underdogs, have done it again. For the second week in a row, against all odds, they pulled off another stunning upset.
Last week it was the great Tom Brady and his reigning Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots, who unexpectedly got the chop. They went down 20-13 to the Titans in Wild Card Weekend.
On Saturday it was the highly favored Baltimore Ravens who were given their marching orders. The Titans whipped them 28-12 and are now set to play Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC final on January 19- and guess what!
But they remain NG sports betting underdogs
They remain the underdogs for this game too! BetAmerica, for example, had the money line odds on the Titans at +275 as against -255 for the Chiefs. And it was a good reflection of the odds being offered by most New Jersey sportsbooks
Most of the money last week was on the Ravens (-420) but not all New Jersey punters are going to be unhappy with this result. The fewer punters who backed the Titans (+340) will be jumping with joy and the NJ bookies won’t be too unhappy.
When Titans beat Patriots the general feeling was that the Patriots were on the way down and Brady was no longer the force he used to be.
Maybe not enough credit was given to the Titans and their new, never-give-an-inch physicality.
The same mistake could be made after their latest play-off triumph.
“We just beat ourselves” – but did they?
The Ravens were slow starters, to be sure – and they did make mistakes. There was an early intercept, a failed fourth down, a missed tackle and a missed pass. Then came two more failed 4th downs and a missed tackle
“We just beat ourselves,” a disappointed Lamar Jackson complained afterwards. “We had ….well I had a lot of mistakes on my behalf. Three turnovers, that shouldn’t happen. They came out and played. We just started off slow. We just got to do better next time.”
The brilliant regular season they had can never be taken away from Jackson or the Ravens. On Saturday they didn’t do enough and he tried to do too much and it didn’t work out.
His 59 passes totaled 365 yards, but he completed just 31 of them. He also charged 143 rushing yards with 20 carries, but so much of his work was spoilt by mistakes. For example, there were the two interceptions he gave away in scoring range and his fumble that led to a Titans short-field tough down that finally closed out the Ravens.
The question is did the Ravens really beat themselves? Did the Titans’ great game plan and their fiery attitude, perhaps, not have a great deal more to do with what transpired on the day?
After all, you can only play as well as you are allowed to and the Titans never allowed the Ravens to get into their stride.
After their heroics of the past two weeks can either the Chiefs or the New Jersey sports betting industry afford to underestimate them again?
Chiefs, 49ers and Packer were also winners
In Saturday’s other Divisional playoff, the favorites at about -310, San Francisco 49ers, comfortably beat the Minnesota Vikings (+260) 27-10.
In one of Sunday’s two Divisional finals, Kansas City Chiefs (-400) also won by a comfortable margin at home. The big difference is that it was a much higher-scoring game than any of the other three. Both offences over-powered their opposing defenses with Chiefs winning 51-31.
In Sunday’s second game the Green Bay Packers (-216) also won at home, but this was a much tighter, lower-scoring game. The Packers eventually beat the Seattle Sea Hawks 28-23.
11THDIVISIONAL PLAYOFFS
Saturday, January 11th
- Minnesota Vikings 10, San Francisco 49ers 27
- Tennessee Titans 28, Baltimore Ravens 12
Sunday, January 12th
- Houston Texans 31, Kansas City Chiefs 51
- Seattle Sea Hawks 23, Green Bay Packers 28
CONFERENCE CHAMPIONSHIP
- 3.40 pm (ET) Titans @ Chiefs
- 6.40 PM (ET) Packers @ 49ers