NFL Football Futures – Ravens vs. Redskins Head-to-Head

At BetUS Sportsbook, those who like to wager on pro football can take a swing at propositions that compare the regular season win totals of every team in the NFL, not just independently, but against each other. It's all under "Football-Futures."

Today we're going to take a look at one of these head-to-head matchups, between two teams whop are within a few dozen miles of each other - the Baltimore Ravens and the Washington Redskins.

First, let's present the BetUS NFL odds on who will have more wins at the regular season's end:

BetUS NFL Football Futures Odds

Most Regular Season Wins
RAVENS +1.5 wins (-190)
REDSKINS -1.5 wins (+150)

It makes sense to first out this "matchup" in perspective. The Redskins and Ravens are both playing with first-year head coaches who have something of a background in offense. Baltimore is going with John Harbaugh, who last coached at Stanford, and the 'Skins take something of a leap with Jim Zorn, who was last employed as an NFL quarterback coach, and who played the position for many years with the Seattle Seahawks.

The Redskins, who went through some trying emotional times after the tragic loss of Pro Bowl safety Sean Taylor, rallied late in the season to garner a wild card spot, while the Ravens, who had high hopes at the start of the season with Steve McNair at quarterback, suffered through an injury and turnover-plagued season where its offense never got started, and which led to the departure of both McNair and coach Brian Billick.

Baltimore used both Kyle Boller and Troy Smith at quarterback, and had enough lack of confidence in the state of that position that Joe Flacco, a quarterback at Division 1-AA Delaware, was drafted in the first round. Boller and Smith will get the bulk of playing time at QB until Flacco is ready. None of this is particularly savory. And though it is difficult to use the pre-season schedule as a barometer, there is no evidence that the Ravens have picked up anything in the way of offensive imagination.

There is the distinct possibility the Ravens will be swept by their three rivals in the AFC's North division. And then they have to play all four teams from the most competitive division in the league - the AFC South, where they figure to come up short against Indianapolis, Tennessee and Jacksonville at the very least, and possibly Houston, which outdistanced Baltimore with an 8-8 record last year and host the September 14 game at Reliant Stadium with Boller possibly still nursing a shoulder injury.

Will the Ravens fare better against the defending Super Bowl champion Giants at the Meadowlands, or at Texas Stadium against the Cowboys? I think not. The last four games of the season take place against teams who made last year's playoffs, when Flacco might be given the keys to the car in order to do some on-the-job training. One of those contests is a home game against these Redskins.

Can that be the "swing" game in this proposition?

I don't think so. For some reason, Washington seems to have drawn a less problematic out-of-division schedule than the Ravens have. New Orleans, Arizona and St. Louis at home are very winnable games. So are games at Detroit, San Francisco and Cincinnati. Even if they go just 2-4 within the division, the Redskins can finish 8-8. And there is potential upside. I don't see Baltimore approaching those heights, especially if they resign themselves to breaking in the rookie "quarterback of the future" at some point.