On their bye week, the Ravens get to sit back and watch the rest of the NFL duke it out in Week 10.
With a 4-5 record, the Ravens will have a keen eye on games that could help improve their playoff chances.
As a reminder, there are three main rules when choosing who to root for:
- Always root against the Steelers
- Always root for an NFC team to beat an AFC team
- Root for teams in the wild-card mix to lose
Now, here's a more detailed explanation of who you should be cheering for this weekend:
New Orleans Saints (6-2) at Buffalo Bills (5-3)
Sunday, 1 p.m.
This may be the game you should pay the most attention to and is the easiest to determine allegiances for. Everybody in Baltimore should be a Saints fan for a day. If the season ended today, Buffalo would claim a wild-card spot. The New York Jets knocked the Bills down a peg last week, and the Saints, who are riding a six-game winning streak to sit atop the NFC South division, could hand Buffalo another tough loss. Baltimore needs Buffalo to fade out of the race.
Root for: Saints
Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2) at Indianapolis Colts (3-6)
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Easy call, though we understand it's impossible for some of our elder fans to ever root for Indianapolis. Still, it's the Steelers. Pittsburgh is 2 ½ games ahead of the Ravens and have a head-to-head tiebreaker for now. Even though that's a healthy lead, the Steelers are far from having the division locked up yet. Anybody who has watched the NFL this year knows crazy things are happening.
Root for: Colts
Los Angeles Chargers (3-5) at Jacksonville Jaguars (5-3)
Sunday, 1 p.m.
This one is really tough. It's two AFC teams who are both in the playoff mix. Somebody is going to win the AFC South division, which now has the Jaguars and Tennessee Titans tied at the top. In a perfect world, one of those teams separates and beats down the other wild-card challengers, but it's not clear which team is more likely to go on a run. Both the Jags and Titans have beaten the Ravens, and thus hold head-to-head tiebreakers. However, rooting for San Diego isn't great either because a win ties the Chargers with the Ravens. For now, root for both AFC South leaders to lose, creating a massive cluster of teams at 5-4 and 4-5.
Root for:Chargers
Cincinnati Bengals (3-5) at Tennessee Titans (5-3)
Sunday, 1 p.m.
Another difficult call. A win pulls the AFC North rival Bengals even with Baltimore in the standings, though the Ravens hold the tiebreaker after a shutout Week 1 victory. The Titans or the Jaguars need to start losing more often so that only one team from the AFC South preferably gets into the dance.
Root for: Bengals
New England Patriots (6-2) at Denver Broncos (3-5)
Sunday, 8:30 p.m.
The Patriots are most likely going to the playoffs. Rooting against them feels good emotionally, but it's not the logical decision in this case. The Ravens want to see the Broncos, who have lost four-straight games, continue to drop out of the race. Sorry, but pull for Tom Brady and the Pats, as hard as it may be.
Root for: Patriots
