On Christmas night, the Baltimore Ravens gifted their fans a dominant win over the top team in the NFC. But beating the San Francisco 49ers 33-19 wasn’t enough to swing Super Bowl odds in the Ravens’ favor.
As of Wednesday, the Ravens are still in second across all the major betting sites. Four — BetRivers, DraftKings Sportsbook, PointsBet and Bet365 — have the Ravens’ chances at +350. Two — BetMGM and Caesars Sportsbook — give the Ravens +400 odds. And FanDuel has the Ravens’ odds at +450.
Who is favored to win the Super Bowl over the Ravens? The team the Ravens just beat, the 49ers. Their odds range from +220 to +275 depending on the site.
While San Francisco remains in front of the Ravens, the gap is fairly narrow in betting terms, with implied probability for the 49ers giving them around a 33 percent chance of winning, while the Ravens have a 22 percent chance. The Dolphins, who the Ravens play on Sunday, are third at most sports books with about an 11 percent chance.
The Ravens don’t seek out this information, but it always gets to them one way or another, linebacker Patrick Queen said. Vegas also listed the Ravens as underdogs heading into their game against the 49ers. The +5 line was the second-largest in 76 games quarterback Lamar Jackson has started, and it was only the second time they were underdogs this season.
Players on the Ravens defense took offense to being treated as underdogs for more reasons than just the betting odds, though. The way different analysts (specifically, Mike Florio) spoke about the team and other chatter that got back to them told them they were being overlooked. They decided to feed off the disrespect, and had their best showing of the season against a high-powered offense.
One game might change things for some people, but nothing’s changed for those in the locker room.
“There’s a few people in the media that’s trying to give props now, and there’s some that’s still not,” Queen said. “At the end of the day, we don’t care. Our main goal still ain’t accomplished... We still got a lot to prove.”
Brandon Stephens didn’t know that the Ravens are still underdogs when it comes to the Super Bowl race, but he wasn’t surprised.
And Jackson appears to prefer it this way.
“We’re the underdogs,” Jackson said repeatedly on Monday. Why does he say that?
“Because we’re the underdogs.”
Turns out, he was right.
