Skip Bayless affirms Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens are a bigger threat to the AFC than the Bengals despite their winning run

Baltimore Ravens improved to 7-2 after their win against the Seattle Seahawks.

Skip Bayless affirms Lamar Jackson’s Baltimore Ravens are a bigger threat to the AFC than the Bengals despite their winning run

Skip Bayless (L - via X) and Lamar Jackson (R - via Sky Sports)

The Cincinnati Bengals came into the 2023 season on the back of two consecutive AFC Championship appearances. They were one of the favorites to win the Super Bowl this season. However, their superstar QB Joe Burrow suffered a calf injury in the training camp. He wasn’t himself for the first few weeks as the Bengals lost three of their first four games. They are back now though. The Cincinnati-based team has four games on the trot and are looking like the favorites again.

Their division rivals, the Baltimore Ravens are on fire as well. Unlike the Bengals, the Ravens came into the season with doubts surrounding their health. They have been brilliant from the get-go and are sitting pretty with a record of 7-2. Fox Sports analyst, Skip Bayless has claimed that the Ravens are more of a threat in the AFC than the Bengals, despite the Bengals’ four-game winning streak.

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Bayless said on the latest edition of the Undisputed show:

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When you talk about the Bengals, if you have Joe Burrow, you have a chance in every game because he's just that good. But while Cincinnati has a playmaking defense, Baltimore has an overpowering, overwhelming, overarching defense that can just annihilate as it did to Seattle [Seahawks].

He concluded by saying: 

I don't know what's not to like. So I do also have to give a slight edge to Baltimore.

The Ravens held the Seahawks to just 3 points in their Sunday matchup. They poured in 37 points of their own and improved to 7-2. The Bengals on the other hand took care of business against the Buffalo Bills and improved to 5-3. The week 11 game between these two teams will be very spicy.

Baltimore Ravens’ HC John Harbaugh calls the AFC North ‘the best division’ in the NFL

After 9 weeks of the season, all four AFC North teams are in playoff positions. The Baltimore Ravens sit at the top of the division with a record of 7-2 while the Pittsburgh Steelers, Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals sit in the wild card spots with each team having a record of 5-3. It might be the most competitive division in the NFL, at least Ravens’ HC John Harbaugh thinks so.

John Harbaugh
John Harbaugh (via Sports Illustrated)

Harbaugh said on Monday:

It would be just terrible if everybody was not a good team in our division. This is a great division. There's no doubt it's the best division, it's proven.

He concluded by saying: 

We know the teams, these teams are real. Everybody knows what's going to happen when we all play each other.

The Ravens and the Bengals were Super Bowl contenders coming into the season. However, the good performances from the Browns and the Steelers has opened up the division and it will be fun to follow all these teams in the second half of the campaign.

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