This is the battle for first place in the AFC North.  The Ravens are 5-2 and the Bengals are 4-3.  The Baltimore Ravens are starting to take advantage of their home field once again, winning 6 of their last 7 in Baltimore.

The Bengals need to have more balance in their offense and should give the ball to Rudi Johnson more.  Johnson is a tough runner, and he’ll need to be against the Ravens defense which is only allowing 66.0 yards rushing per game and 2.7 yards per carry.  The Bengals do like to put the ball in the air, but they had better block well because the Ravens bring alot of heat on the passer.  The Ravens already have 21 sacks his season and Carson Palmer has already been sacked 21 times.  Palmer has looked a little antsy in the pocket and has made some mistakes because of that.  Palmer will have to be careful when throwing the ball to TJ Houshmandzadeh (36 rec, 451 yards) and Chad Johnson (36 rec, 422 yards) because the Ravens secondary if full of ball thieves that already have 15 interceptions this season.

The Ravens will come out running the football against the Bengals soft run defense that is allowing 129.3 yards rushing per game and 4.5 yards per carry.  Jamal Lewis ran well last week and should have his best game of the year to date.  After the run is established, look for McNair to spread the ball around to Derrick Mason, Todd Heap and Mark Clayton.

This game looks like it belongs to the Ravens.  Unless the Bengals can jump to an early lead, the Ravens will grind this game out on the ground.