The Baltimore Ravens are still alive for the playoffs and when they face the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday in Week 17, they know they need to win to have a chance at making it, but they will need some help from the Miami Dolphins, Pittsburgh Steelers and San Diego Chargers, as they are all in line for the last spot in the AFC as well and the game on Sunday will be at Paul Brown Stadium and starts up on CBS at 1 pm and will stream online.
The team is second in the North division behind the Bengals and they come in after losing a bad game to the Patriots at home and that put the team in the situation they are in now and after the defense played well over the past few weeks, the team was beaten by nearly 40 points and now they have no choice but to try and win on Sunday to stay in the race. The Ravens have an 8-7 record on the season and went 3-2 against the division and now Joe Flacco comes in trying to get some magic back heading towards the playoffs after the team won the Super Bowl last season and they have had some up and down performances heading into the back stretch and before playing the Patriots they looked like a team no one wanted to play against and now they have to win just to have the scenario play out where they get in.
The team will lose in the five team tie breaker to the Steelers, but if it plays out a different way, they can get in with a win and the losses from other teams and they really need to get Ray Rice going, as he had a terrible season and the team could not rush the ball on a consistent basis. Riace has not been able to get going all season and the team has been averaging under 90 yards per game and he only has 645 after being over 1,000 last season and heading into next year the rushing attack will be something the team needs to address. Torrey Smith was excellent as the number one receiver for the team with over 1,100 yards and now the team must get a nice game out of their offense on Sunday to win against the Bengals.
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The Ravens defense has been very solid statistically and they are ranked ninth in the league in rushing yards allowed per game and 11th in passing yards and while the Bengals have already clinched, they can get a better playoff spot and that would be big as they make it in for the third straight season and they will be looking for a victory this time around. The Bengals come in after a huge win over the Minnesota Vikings and they have a top ranked defense, as they are sixth in the league in both passing and rushing yards allowed per game and Andy Dalton had his first career 4,000 yard season, while AJ Green had another great season for the team and now they will try and end the year for the Super Bowl champions.
