Ravens, Lamar Jackson Open As Rare Underdogs at Home to Bills
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OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens opened as 4.5-point underdogs to the Buffalo Bills for their Week 4 matchup at M&T Bank Stadium.
It's just the third time the Ravens have been underdogs at home since Lamar Jackson took over the job as the starting quarterback. Jackson won both of those previous matchups, beating New England 37-20 in 2019 and Kansas City 36-35 last year.
Jackson is off to one of the best starts in the NFL and he will match up against another MVP candidate — Bills quarterback Josh Allen.
Jackson leads the league with 10 touchdown passes and Allen ranks second with nine. They are the only two players in the NFL’s 103-year history to reach both nine touchdown passes and 100 rushing yards over the first three games of a season.
Allen (No. 7 overall) and Jackson (No. 32) were each selected in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft and they’re two of just four quarterbacks in NFL history to record at least 20 rushing touchdowns and 90-or-more touchdown passes over their first 61 NFL games, joining Daunte Culpepper and Dak Prescott.
This season, the Ravens lead the NFL with 33.0 points per game while the Bills’ defense has allowed the league’s fewest yards per game, 214.0.
"[They’re] a very physical offensive line; [they have] playmaking receivers, especially No. 14 [Stefon Diggs] and No. 88 [Dawson Knox] and No. 6 [Isaiah McKenzie]," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "They’ve got some downhill, elusive backs [and] hard runners. So, that’s just starting [to] look at them – some of it being TV scouting, even; [when] you watch them on TV, you get a feel for them, too. But I saw two games last week – offense and defense. So, [it’s a] big challenge.”
