Bengals, Ravens Headline Overrated Week 5 NFL Favorites

Week 5 of the NFL’s regular season is set to kick off, and multiple favorites appear overrated headed into their matchup.

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Below, we’ll dive into three favorites we believe are overrated this week.

Baltimore Ravens (-4) vs. Pittsburgh Steelers

Another AFC North rivalry matchup will headline the early matchups on Sunday, with the Pittsburgh Steelers hosting the Baltimore Ravens. With question marks at the quarterback position due to an injury in Week 4 for Kenny Pickett, veteran Mitch Trubisky could be in line to start this matchup for Pittsburgh. Regardless of who’s at quarterback, the Steelers need to figure things out offensively.

The good news for Pittsburgh is that they’ve won five of their last six games against the Ravens. The Steelers’ only loss over that stretch came by a mere two points in 2022. Whatever Pittsburgh’s defense has done to contain Lamar Jackson over that stretch is working, and we don’t see it stopping on Sunday. Even if the Steelers don’t win outright, look for them to keep this a field-goal game. 

3 Underrated Week 5 Favorites 

Denver Broncos (-1.5) vs. New York Jets 

The Denver Broncos are coming off a comeback victory over the Chicago Bears. We can look at this one of two ways. The Broncos had a coming-out party offensively, or the Bears were being the Bears. We choose the latter angle. On the other hand, the New York Jets looked impressive in their Week 4 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

New York Jets head coach Robert Saleh spoke to the media on Wednesday and said that running back Breece Hall no longer has a workload cap. That spells horrible news for the Broncos in this matchup. Hall is arguably the most explosive running back the Broncos have had to endure this season, and they’ve already struggled immensely against the run. We like for Hall and the Jets to run all over the Broncos in this matchup and win outright. The Jets’ defense has the potential to have a significant advantage for them in this matchup, and despite what they showed against the Bears, we’re not fearful of this Broncos’ offensive attack. 

Cincinnati Bengals (-3) vs. Arizona Cardinals

We’re just going to come right out and say it: what have the Cincinnati Bengals done this season to deserve being a road favorite? Yes, the Arizona Cardinals were expected to be one of the league’s worst teams in 2023, but they’ve been spunky and really haven’t been an easy out, not even against tough opponents like the San Francisco 49ers or Dallas Cowboys. The Cardinals won outright against the Cowboys at home, and it’s not hard to see them doing something similar against Joe Burrow and company come Sunday.

The Bengals look entirely out of sorts on both sides of the football, but especially on offense. Burrow is still not himself in the pocket and is hindered by a lingering calf issue, while the offensive line also has been troubling at best. The Bengals have yet to show us anything this season, and we’re not expecting that to transpire on Sunday, even in what appears to be a must-win game. 

All odds courtesy of the FanDuel Sportsbook. 

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