NFL pick ’em Week 1: Experts unanimous in Ravens over Browns
We’re finally back to real live football again, which means it’s time for pundits around the league to predict who will win games. The Baltimore Ravens open the 2020 NFL regular season against the Cleveland Browns in a divisional showdown that could just as easily be prime time worthy.
But with how both the Ravens and Browns finished the regular season last year, the experts are taking the safer bet to begin this season. Baltimore has reigning MVP Lamar Jackson returning along with the league’s best rushing offense and a stout defense. Cleveland has been bit by the injury bug, and once again feature a new coach and general manager.
Let’s take a closer look at what each analyst is predicting for Week 1 in the Ravens vs. Browns.
USA TODAY Sports: Ravens
All seven of USA TODAY Sports’ experts have Baltimore beating Cleveland this week. There is some serious variety in the scores, however. Some have it coming down to just four points while Mike Middlehurst-Schwartz has an 11-point difference in favor of the Ravens. Only one expert, Lori Epstein, has this game as their lock of the week
ESPN: Ravens
Baltimore goes 10-of-10 with ESPN as everyone predicts the Ravens will beat the Browns in Week 1.
NFL.com: Ravens
Writer Gregg Rosenthal expects this one to be close, coming down to a field goal point differential. But he does have the Ravens pulling out the win this week.
Can Baltimore run it back? It’s one of the questions of this NFL season, one that comes with a high degree of difficulty. The Ravens not only fielded one of the best offenses in NFL history — they did it with a style that runs counter to most league trends. Entering a season hoping to be 90 percent of what you were a year ago is an awkward place to be, one that the Browns don’t have to worry about. Can Cleveland possibly squander all this talent again? That’s the Browns’ existential question. With an improved offensive staff ready to take advantage of football’s best backfield (Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt) and a suddenly deep tight end group, the answer should be no. A tight loss for Cleveland would be a moral victory, if such a thing is possible in the stadium that Art Modell built.
New York Times: Ravens
Writer Benjamin Hoffman not only picks Baltimore over Cleveland in Week 1, but he’s going with the Ravens on top of their ridiculously-high point spread.
