NFL Week 1: Ravens vs. Broncos AFC Divisional Playoff Rematch
National Football League schedule makers sure set up a beauty for us as the 2013 NFL regular season schedule opens tonight. In a rematch from the 2013 AFC Divisional playoff round, the Baltimore Ravens and Denver Broncos lock horns to get the new season underway. Kickoff for this AFC grudge match in slated for 8:30 PM ET on Thursday, September 5, 2013, from Sports Authority Field at Mile High. We see another tight battle in the rematch in the Rockies tonight.
Baltimore Ravens: Road trip opens Super Bowl defense
Baltimore won that playoff thriller in Denver at Mile High Stadium back in January, then they defeated the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium, before holding off a hard charging San Francisco 49ers squad in New Orleans to capture the Super Bowl XLVII Championship. While we love this match-up, we are of the opinion that the Super Bowl Champions should always open their title defense at home – this will be the Ravens fourth straight game on the road.
Denver Broncos: Open as AFC Championship chalk with Welker in town
A lot has been made about the pairing of QB Peyton Manning and WR Wes Welker. Manning, who is a master of the dink and dunk passing game, is set to team up with Welker who jumped the New England ship after catching 672 dink and dunk passes in 93 games for the Patriots. While they should be decent together, neither player is a spring chicken and the Broncos (+237 AFC Championship chalk) have a lot of hands to feed in the run/pass split offense they employ.
Defending Super Bowl Champions aren’t getting much love from the SportsInteraction bookmakers
Denver also has issues on defense especially since pass rush specialist Von Miller is sitting out the first six games for an NFL imposed drug suspension. Being the Champs isn’t getting Baltimore much respect as the bookmakers at the sportsinteraction.com sportsbook have Baltimore as the ninth favorite to go back-to-back with a +2500 Super Bowl line. The Ravens are +8 (-110) point road chalk tonight – showing even less respect. Over/Under bettors get a 48.5 game total line. Load up on Ray Rice and the Ravens with the +8 (-110) point spread!
