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The Ravens shocked most fans and the football world by getting as far as they did with as many holes as they had in 2014. Most analysts predicted that the Ravens would finish third in the division behind a surging Bengals and resilient Steelers teams and were in some light rebuilding after losing veterans over the past few years. With the Ravens so close to the AFC Championship game, boy were those analysts wrong!
Our friends at Sports Book Review tallied up the expected win totals for the AFC North and I have to say that they look incredibly promising. But first, let's look at how SBR did last season with their estimations.
2014-15 Season
Ravens: 8.5 (Over 10-6)
Steelers: 8.5 (Over 10-6)
Bengals: 9 (Over, 10-5-1)
Browns: 6.5 (Over, 7-9)
Surely, the entire AFC North shocked the football world by being one of the best divisions all year long. Confusing and inconsistent at times, but one of the best. So being roughly 2 games under what each team finished isn't all that terrible when you think that most analysts would have agreed with these totals at the start of the year.
Let's take a look at where SBR has the AFC North sitting in 2015...
2015-16 Season
Ravens: 9.5
Steelers: 9.5
Bengals: 8.5
Browns: 6
As you can see, the Ravens and Steelers surge ahead of the Bengals while the Browns fall back slightly. I can personally agree with these win totals for each team as I expect the Browns to get hit with the most muck in the offseason, leading to a rather depressing regular season for a team that finally looked to be on the mend. The Bengals are sadly still the Bengals and whenever they do something positive, they tend to go in the opposite direction as a reward. The Steelers and Ravens are the two most consistent teams in the NFL every year, so it should be no surprise that analysts will remember that again and not take a single mediocre year as indication of anything more than a single black mark on their permanent records.
What do you think about these totals? Do you bet that the Ravens get more wins or do you think they have fewer? How about the rest of the AFC North? Let us know in the comments!