Will Justin Herbert keep his cool in Baltimore?

Throwing genius against running monster is the name of the game on Sunday night when the Los Angeles Chargers take on the Baltimore Ravens live on ProSieben Maxx. The big question will be which philosophy will prevail.

From a purely tabular point of view, both teams have nothing in common so far, as they both lead their divisions with 4:1 victories. The Ravens are ahead in the AFC North, the Chargers in the AFC West, even ahead of the more highly rated Chiefs.

Also based on almost all statistics, we expect a duel on equal terms. Jackson and Herbert, for example, are nearly tied with passer ratings of 104.4 and 104.7, as are the two defenses with 23.4 and 23.2 opposing points per game.

Offensively, the Ravens score a few more yards per game, but the Chargers score 1.2 more points. It could hardly be closer, which is why our prediction for Ravens vs. Chargers is also an even game – with a completely open outcome.

Kickoff of the Sunday night game is at 7:00pm and the game will be broadcast live on ProSieben Maxx and on DAZN’s Redzone.

Baltimore Ravens – Statistics & current form

The Ravens love drama this season. Already twice they went into overtime. Once it took an NFL-record field goal by Justin Tucker to win the game and then there was the shootout against the Chiefs in the Sunday Night Game of Game Day 2.

That means that instead of a 4-1 record, Baltimore could have easily been 1-4. Just beating the Colts last Monday was a minor miracle, as they still trailed by 16 points well into the fourth quarter.

Ravens with nerves of steel

There’s one thing you can’t accuse the franchise of: That they don’t have nerves of steel. Although the Ravens lost to Las Vegas after overtime, they subsequently won every single close game, sometimes even after trailing by a large margin.

However, this also shows that the Ravens have not been particularly superior so far. Anyone who needs a record field goal against the still winless Lions to win is certainly not doing everything right.

On the contrary, the O-line in particular is not yet protecting Lamar Jackson enough to give him a quiet evening. 2.6 sacks allowed per game mean the tenth weakest value in the league.

Little things will decide

So that’s exactly where we need to start for Sunday. With the Chargers having a bearish defence (including Bosa and James), it could be an uncomfortable night for Jackson. If their O-Line doesn’t step up, we’ll see them lose to LA in the end.

With both of these high class offenses expected to score some points as well, any mistake could be doubly costly. A fumble in front of the end zone, for example, like Jackson had in his repertoire again against the Colts. It will take a lot of passing for Baltimore to put these hot Chargers in their place.

Thus, for Baltimore vs. Chargers, a bet on the away team is our slightly favoured betting option. However, since the Ravens can also put up well over 30 points on a good day, we would consider a bet on over 24.0 Chargers points as the absolute top bet. This would also cover a Ravens win via a high scoring game.

Key Players:
QB: Lamar Jackson
 – RB: Latavius Murray
 – WR: Marquise Brown
 – WR: Mark Andrews
 – K: Justin Tucker

Los Angeles Chargers – Statistics & Current form

Justin Herbert is now in pole position for MVP this season by most experts. Sure, it’s only five game days played, but that’s saying a lot. The betting companies also list him among the top 4, although the more experienced Allen and Prescott have a little more reputation there, of course.

Now it’s against the Ravens, who so far can be described as a surprise package. Sometimes the running game works for them, sometimes not. Sometimes Jackson has a monster game, sometimes he doesn’t. It’s certainly going to be tough to adjust to.

Chargers’ weak spot against the run

The main problem for LA will definitely be on defense against the run. They allow 157.6 rushing yards per game here – more than any other franchise in the NFL. Now, of all times, they face the fourth-best rushing offense in the league, the Ravens (148.8 yards per game).

The matchup doesn’t suit them very well, which is why we don’t see their favourites being particularly high. The bookies even take this as an opportunity to see them as complete underdogs, which we think is bold given their current form.

High or low scoring game?

We also expect more points than are set due to the potent offenses. Since the bookmakers see the Chargers in the underdog role, they give them an average of only 24.5 points as a mean value. Far too few, if it goes according to the betting basis.

Thus, the odds on over 24.0 points for LA are clearly to be taken advantage of in Ravens vs. Chargers. Over 51.5 total points is also an option, though the Ravens have to play in that one too.

Key Players:
QB: Justin Herbert
 – RB: Austin Ekeler
 – WR: Keenan Allen
 – TE: Jared Cook
 – K: Tristan Vizcaino

Baltimore Ravens – Los Angeles Chargers Head-to-head comparison / H2H record

The Ravens have won three of their last five head-to-head meetings. The most important one, however, in the 2019 AFC Wild Card Game went to the Chargers. Also at the helm for the Ravens back then: Lamar Jackson, who didn’t have a brilliant day with a 78.8 passer rating.

That home defeat really hurt the Ravens and they will be looking for revenge. Thus, a hot battle could develop, which will cause both the total number of points and the touchdown number to shoot up. We do not expect many field goals, however.

For betting, this means: For Ravens vs. Chargers, a bet at good odds on the Chargers +3 is recommended or that they score over 24.0 points. With a little more risk, even pure win bets on LA are worth considering.

Baltimore Ravens – Los Angeles Chargers Tip

Summarize: The Ravens will be out for revenge and have the home field advantage behind them. The Chargers, however, are one of the teams of the hour and were able to hold their own in Kansas City.

Since the rest of the stats are on point, we do not recommend a win bet as betting option number one. Our favourite option for the Ravens vs. the Chargers is to bet on LA to score more than 24 points, as they have exceeded this figure three times in a row, most of the time by a considerable margin.

We had also already explained other betting options such as Over Points. However, there is one more we can recommend: a touchdown by Austin Ekeler. He scored three against the Browns last time, two on runs and one on catches.