CLICK GRAB OUR BEST Expert NFL Picks for 2012 FOOTBALL GAMBLING season!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\nIf history is any kind of a teacher, the Bengals should go belly button to the wall in this one. As the Cincinnati Enquirer notes, in recent years (2005, 2009) the Bengals have twice in a similar situation \u2013 heading into Week 17 and the playoffs with nothing to gain. Both times they rested starters, and both times they were crushed in the playoffs \u2013 37-3 (Chiefs) and 37-0 (Jets).<\/p>\n
\u201cI don’t really have any beat-up guys,\u201d noted Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis when asked about resting his starters against Baltimore. \u201cSo, the only thing that is at stake is you go out and play to win the game every time. It’s a different team, different group, different people. Playing different teams, different situations, different circumstances.\u201d
\nDifferent. <\/p>\n
We get it.<\/p>\n
OK, so Cincy\u2019s big guns will play. But will they care enough to go all out against a Ravens team that last week crushed the Giants, ending a three-game losing streak, and once again appears to be smelling blood in the AFC waters? The urge to just get through 60 minutes without any major injuries and be ready for the playoffs is overwhelming.[soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n
Just ask the Patriots, who lost Wes Welker for the playoffs when he tore up a knee in a meaningless Week 17 game against the Texans in 2009.<\/p>\n
Free NFL PICK\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\nMotivation wins in this one. Baltimore should win outright, so avoid the points here and take the Ravens on the money line for a few extra bucks.<\/p>\n
Baltimore\u2019s defense has finally adjusted to the rash of injuries, and its offense looks like it\u2019s rounding into shape for the playoffs. The Bengals will be reluctant to show the Ravens too much, because the teams might be facing off (for the third time) in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
And, as Ravens coach John Harbaugh pointed out this week, your team doesn\u2019t get better by losing. \u201cWe’ve got to continue to improve to be our best that we can in the playoffs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis week’s an opportunity to do that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ravens vs Bengals Betting \/ Handicapping Oddsmakers pay close attention to two factors when considering numbers: 1. Every game is unique. What happened in the past has little meaning. 2. Which team is more motivated?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":24060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[19636,57552,463,4380,9804,57407,830,57553,57554,19640,7010],"class_list":["post-58681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-baltimore-ravens-vs-cincinnati-bengals","tag-baltimore-ravens-vs-cincinnati-bengals-odds","tag-free-nfl-picks","tag-nfl-betting-picks","tag-nfl-betting-prediction","tag-nfl-football-prediction","tag-nfl-handicapping","tag-ravens-bengals-free-prediction","tag-ravens-bengals-picks","tag-ravens-vs-bengals","tag-week-17"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58681"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58852,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58681\/revisions\/58852"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}