Ravens Super Bowl odds climbing after Week 9 victory

In this extremely unpredictable 2021 NFL season, the Baltimore Ravens just might sneak into the Super Bowl. So could a handful of other teams, but the Ravens have good reason to hope and to believe in what this team can accomplish this year.

After a gritty Week 9 victory against the Minnesota Vikings, the Ravens now have +900 odds to win the Super Bowl, according to WynnBET.

Ahead of them, the Buffalo Bills and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are tied for the best odds to win at +550, followed by the 8-1 Arizona Cardinals and the defensive stronghold that is the Los Angeles Rams.

Baltimore will happily take the fifth-best odds.

The Ravens continue to sit atop the AFC North, but their throne could easily be taken by any of the other three teams who each have one fewer win than Baltimore.

Their Week 8 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals means the Bengals have the advantage should there need to be a tiebreaker, at least for now.

Week 9 wins by the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers further challenge the first-place Ravens who just barely squeaked by the Vikings in an overtime thriller.

Basically, the AFC North title race is a crapshoot this season with very few guarantees.

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One thing that is hopefully for certain, though, is Lamar Jackson’s stellar form through nine weeks of the season.

During a week when Patrick Mahomes still looks like a fish out of water and Josh Allen lost to the 1-6 Jaguars, Lamar Jackson was busy breaking records — seven to be exact.

Jackson’s preseason COVID-19 setback is but a small dot in the rearview mirror, and thank goodness for that.

Had the Ravens encountered a COVID-19 crisis midseason like the Green Bay Packers are in right now, they may never have recovered.

Instead, the Ravens are inching closer to their best offense yet with the long-awaited return of wide receiver Sammy Watkins, though DeShon Elliott’s recent injury deals a painful blow to the defense.

A defense that, by the way, still struggles with missed tackles and has allowed teams to score 41 and 31 points respectively in the last two games.

That kind of defensive effort (or lack thereof) doesn’t exactly spell “Super Bowl champion,” but Wink Martindale and the Ravens have shut down high-powered offenses before (see: Week 6 vs. the Chargers) and they have the talent and depth to do so for the rest of the season.

This NFL season has been fickler than most, and Week 9 saw the most upsets of any other week so far this year. No team’s future is certain, and right now, all the Ravens can do is to keep climbing, slowly but steadily, like the little engine that could.