The Ravens are slight favorites over the Raiders ahead of their season opener Monday in Las Vegas, according to Las Vegas sportsbooks.
The Ravens opened as 5 ½-point favorites, but the line for the “Monday Night Football” matchup has since fallen to 4 ½. The Ravens and Las Vegas will be the last teams to play in Week 1. “I’d rather be one of the first two teams to play,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh joked Monday.
The Ravens have won their past two season openers, over the Miami Dolphins and Cleveland Browns, by a combined 97-16 and are 5-0 in Week 1 since 2016. The Raiders, who hired coach Jon Gruden in 2018 and moved to Las Vegas ahead of last season, have also won five straight openers.
Because of the coronavirus pandemic, Monday’s game will be the Raiders’ first regular-season matchup with fans in attendance at the 65,000-seat Allegiant Stadium, which opened last season. The biggest announced crowd for a Ravens road game last season was 14,029, for the team’s divisional-round playoff win over the Tennessee Titans in Nashville.
The Ravens lead the all-time series with the Raiders 9-3, including an AFC championship game win in their Super Bowl XXXV season. They last played in 2018, a 34-17 win in Baltimore.
The over-under for Monday’s game is 51 points.