Welcome to Staten News — where an undrafted rookie made his first NFL start in the rain, and the betting line never had a chance.
🌧️ Baltimore Had No Answers and No Arms
Jacksonville 33, Baltimore 10. The Jaguars moved to 6-2 on Thursday night. The Ravens fell to 4-5 and have now lost four straight.
Baltimore played without Lamar Jackson and Tyler Huntley, which put undrafted rookie Joe Fagnano under center in the rain at M&T Bank Stadium. He finished 10-of-18 for 60 yards with two interceptions.
Sixty yards. Parker Washington nearly matched that on one catch, a 50-yard touchdown from Trevor Lawrence right before halftime that made it 17-3.
Lawrence didn’t need to do anything fancy. He went 16-of-26 for 242 yards, one touchdown and no picks. Baltimore finished with 10 first downs and 227 total yards, and 65 of those yards came on one Justice Hill touchdown run in the fourth quarter, long after the bettors holding Baltimore had stopped watching.
The three Ravens turnovers cost them 13 points. Montaric Brown and Jourdan Lewis each picked off Fagnano, and LaJohntay Wester fumbled a kickoff return.
🏆 The One Good Thing in Baltimore
Derrick Henry passed LaDainian Tomlinson and moved into seventh on the all-time regular-season rushing list. He got there with 57 yards on 17 carries, per DAZN’s recap, on a night when every defender in the building knew who was getting the ball.
That’s the Ravens season in one stat line. A career milestone, buried under a 23-point loss.
Jacksonville is the opposite story. Heavy road favorites are supposed to get nervous in bad weather against a desperate home team. The Jaguars led by 14 at the half and made the rest of it a formality.
🏀 Thursday in the NBA
Two games, two blowouts. Golden State beat Miami 120-100 behind 29 points and six threes from Steph Curry, with Draymond Green handing out 11 assists. Giannis Antetokounmpo had 20 and 14 for the Heat, and it didn’t come close to mattering.
Phoenix handled Orlando 117-104. Devin Booker scored 30 and Dillon Brooks added 24. Franz Wagner had 15 points, 8 rebounds and 15 assists in the loss, and Wendell Carter Jr. put up 27 and 13.
🎯 The Week 9 Board
Lines from CBS Sports’ Week 9 table. They move, and they vary by book, so check before you trust any of these. All times Eastern.
Sunday, 9:30 a.m.: Bengals vs. Falcons in Madrid, Cincinnati -3, total 52.5
Sunday, 1:00 p.m.: Rams at Commanders, Los Angeles -5.5, total 47.5
Sunday, 1:00 p.m.: Lions at Dolphins, Detroit -7, total 50.5
Sunday, 1:00 p.m.: Jets at Chiefs, Kansas City -10, total 47.5
Sunday, 4:25 p.m.: Packers at Patriots, New England -3, total 46.5
Sunday, 8:20 p.m.: Buccaneers at Bears, Chicago -6.5, total 47.5
Monday, 8:15 p.m.: Bills at Vikings, Buffalo -3.5, total 45.5
🏟️ Three Games We’d Actually Sit Down For
Madrid first, because the Falcons have to answer for last week. Tampa Bay shut them out 16-0, their first shutout of the season, and now they get a 52.5 total at the Bernabéu. Books are asking a team that just scored zero to help produce one of the highest-scoring games on the board. We’re skeptical.
Rams at Commanders is the sneaky one. Washington is first in the league in turnover differential at +7 and 3-1 against the spread in games Jayden Daniels has started and finished. Getting 5.5 at home with that profile is a number worth a second look.
Then Sunday night. We wrote Wednesday that the Bears aren’t a cute story anymore, and the market agrees: Chicago is laying 6.5 to a Tampa team coming off a shutout. That’s a big number for a team that hasn’t spent long being taken seriously.
Possible they cover? Absolutely. We’d just rather have the points.
📝 The Giants and Jets Corner
The Jets are 10-point underdogs in Kansas City, and the Chiefs are 4-1 against the spread in their last five games as favorites of more than a touchdown. Nothing else needs saying about that one.
The Giants go to Philadelphia at 1:00 p.m. on Fox. We’re leaving that line off the board because the listed number looked odd enough that we want a second source before printing it.
This is the week the Ravens find out whether 4-5 is a slump or a season.
Sources: DAZN game recap, CBS Sports Week 9 odds, CBS Sports schedule, Land of Basketball daily summary
— The Bandicoots 🏈🌧️