It's Monday Night Football preview time and for the third successive week ESPN are serving up a meaningful contest with playoff consequences for the two teams involved. In particular, Detroit now find themselves in dire need of a victory, given that every other NFC North team won yesterday. The Ravens can still win the AFC North, but only with some fortuitous results. I'd like to tell you I know how this one will end, but thus far I have yet to pick a Detroit home game correct all season long...
Enough of this! On with the preview!
Baltimore @ Detroit (8:40pm ET, ESPN)
**Matchup Difficulty: 55.5% **(the higher the score, the better the experts' success rate when picking these two teams. An 'average' matchup would be 62%)
Consensus: **Detroit 81%**
Top 5 Overall: **Detroit 100**%
Key Injuries:
Baltimore
Elvis Dumervil, LB, Questionable
Detroit:
Reggie Bush, RB, Questionable
Ziggy Ansah, DE, Questionable
Expert picks:
As you can see, of the best analysts when picking the Ravens on the road and the Lions at home, only Josh Katzowitz of CBS has taken the Ravens. Pertinently, Katzowitz has been pretty underwhelming in both the overall standings and this week's picks. It is worth noting however, that these two teams represent a difficult matchup to pick in any case, as the experts pick the Ravens correctly just 43% of the time when they play on the road. Our panel fare only slightly better when the Lions play at home, with a meagre 52% hit rate.
All of this adds up to a potentially difficult night for the NFL experts as we enter the final race for the Pickwatch 2013 crown. I know this much: I certainly wouldn't back me given my atrocious record when picking these two teams...
Baltimore
Detroit
Rank
Expert
Affiliation
Road %
Home %
Overall
Pick
1
Andrea Hangst
Bleacher Report
66.67%
83.33%
75.0%
DET
2
Chris Law
NFL
66.67%
83.33%
75.0%
DET
3
Pete Prisco
CBS
50.00%
83.33%
66.7%
DET
4
John Halpin
FOX
50.00%
83.33%
66.7%
DET
5
Frank Schwab
Yahoo
50.00%
83.33%
66.7%
DET
6
Simon Samano
USA Today
50.00%
83.33%
66.7%
DET
7
Ty Schalter
Bleacher Report
66.67%
66.67%
66.7%
DET
8
Josh Katzowitz
CBS
66.67%
66.67%
66.7%
BAL
9
Prediction Machine
CBS
66.67%
66.67%
66.7%
DET
10
Mike Golic
ESPN
66.67%
66.67%
66.7%
DET
11
Chris Wesseling
NFL
66.67%
66.67%
66.7%
DET
12
Sterling Sharpe
NFL
66.67%
66.67%
66.7%
DET
13
Khaled Elsayed
ProFootballFocus
66.67%
66.67%
66.7%
DET
14
John Breech
CBS
33.33%
83.33%
58.3%
DET
15
Michael Silver
NFL
33.33%
83.33%
58.3%
DET
16
Black Tie
NFL
33.33%
83.33%
58.3%
DET
17
Dave Richard
CBS
66.67%
50.00%
58.3%
DET
18
Ryan Wilson
CBS
50.00%
66.67%
58.3%
DET
19
Adam Schefter
ESPN
50.00%
66.67%
58.3%
DET
20
Mark Schlereth
ESPN
66.67%
50.00%
58.3%
DET
21
Joel Beall
FOX
66.67%
50.00%
58.3%
BAL
22
Michael Fabiano
NFL
50.00%
66.67%
58.3%
DET
23
Elliot Harrison
NFL
66.67%
50.00%
58.3%
DET
24
Gregg Rosenthal
NFL
50.00%
66.67%
58.3%
DET
25
Matt Smith
NFL
50.00%
66.67%
58.3%
DET
26
Steve Mariucci
NFL
66.67%
50.00%
58.3%
DET
27
Steve Wyche
NFL
66.67%
50.00%
58.3%
BAL
28
Mike Florio
PFT
50.00%
66.67%
58.3%
BAL
29
Sam Monson
ProFootballFocus
50.00%
66.67%
58.3%
BAL
30
Accuscore
Accuscore
50.00%
66.67%
58.3%
DET
31
Matt Bowen
Bleacher Report
33.33%
66.67%
50.0%
DET
32
Matt Miller
Bleacher Report
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
33
Zach Kruse
Bleacher Report
33.33%
66.67%
50.0%
BAL
34
Will Brinson
CBS
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
35
Chris Mortensen
ESPN
33.33%
66.67%
50.0%
DET
36
Eric Allen
ESPN
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
37
K.C. Joyner
ESPN
66.67%
33.33%
50.0%
DET
38
Mike Ditka
ESPN
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
39
Pick ‘em
ESPN
33.33%
66.67%
50.0%
DET
40
Ron Jaworski
ESPN
33.33%
66.67%
50.0%
DET
41
Tom Jackson
ESPN
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
42
Adam Meyer
FOX
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
43
Brian Baldinger
NFL
33.33%
66.67%
50.0%
No Pick
44
Chris Brockman
NFL
66.67%
33.33%
50.0%
DET
45
Kevin Patra
NFL
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
46
Kurt Warner
NFL
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
47
Nathan Jahnke
ProFootballFocus
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
48
Neil Hornsby
ProFootballFocus
33.33%
66.67%
50.0%
DET
49
Steve Palazzolo
ProFootballFocus
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
50
Les Carpenter
Yahoo
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
No Pick
51
Vinnie Iyer
Sporting News
33.33%
66.67%
50.0%
BAL
52
Don Banks
Sports Illustrated
50.00%
50.00%
50.0%
DET
53
Jarrett Bell
USA Today
16.67%
83.33%
50.0%
BAL
54
Nate Davis
USA Today
66.67%
33.33%
50.0%
DET
55
Pete O'Brien
USA Today
33.33%
66.67%
50.0%
DET
56
Tyson Langland
Bleacher Report
16.67%
66.67%
41.7%
DET
57
Jamey Eisenberg
CBS
66.67%
16.67%
41.7%
DET
58
Jason La Canfora
CBS
33.33%
50.00%
41.7%
BAL
59
Cris Carter
ESPN
33.33%
50.00%
41.7%
DET
60
Merill Hoge
ESPN
50.00%
33.33%
41.7%
DET
61
Seth Wickersham
ESPN
33.33%
50.00%
41.7%
DET
62
Whatifsports
FOX
16.67%
66.67%
41.7%
DET
63
Dan Hanzus
NFL
50.00%
33.33%
41.7%
DET
64
Dave Damashek
NFL
50.00%
33.33%
41.7%
DET
65
Henry Hodgson
NFL
50.00%
33.33%
41.7%
DET
66
Marshall Faulk
NFL
50.00%
33.33%
41.7%
DET
67
NFL FAN PICKS
NFL
33.33%
50.00%
41.7%
DET
68
Rich Eisen
NFL
16.67%
66.67%
41.7%
DET
69
Michael David Smith
PFT
50.00%
33.33%
41.7%
DET
70
Ben Stockwell
ProFootballFocus
50.00%
33.33%
41.7%
DET
71
Rick Drummond
ProFootballFocus
16.67%
66.67%
41.7%
DET
72
Yahoo Users
Yahoo
33.33%
50.00%
41.7%
DET
73
Tom Pelissero
USA Today
33.33%
50.00%
41.7%
DET
74
Brad Gagnon
Bleacher Report
33.33%
33.33%
33.3%
DET
75
Chris Hansen
Bleacher Report
33.33%
33.33%
33.3%
BAL
76
Knox Bardeen
Bleacher Report
33.33%
33.33%
33.3%
DET
77
Michael Schottey
Bleacher Report
16.67%
50.00%
33.3%
DET
78
Mike Freeman
Bleacher Report
16.67%
50.00%
33.3%
BAL
79
Keyshawn Johnson
ESPN
33.33%
33.33%
33.3%
DET
80
Heath Evans
NFL
50.00%
16.67%
33.3%
DET
81
Marc Sessler
NFL
33.33%
33.33%
33.3%
DET
82
Michael Irvin
NFL
33.33%
33.33%
33.3%
DET
83
Warren Sapp
NFL
0.00%
66.67%
33.3%
BAL
84
Jim Corbett
USA Today
33.33%
33.33%
33.3%
BAL
85
Ryan Fowler
FOX
50.00%
0.00%
25.0%
DET
86
Adam Rank
NFL
33.33%
16.67%
25.0%
DET
87
Melissa Stark
NFL
16.67%
33.33%
25.0%
BAL
88
Shaun O'Hara
NFL
16.67%
33.33%
25.0%
BAL
89
Coin Toss
None
33.33%
16.67%
25.0%
DET
90
Gordon McGuinness
ProFootballFocus
16.67%
33.33%
25.0%
DET
91
Lindsay H. Jones
USA Today
16.67%
33.33%
25.0%
BAL
92
Erik Frenz
Bleacher Report
0.00%
33.33%
16.7%
DET
93
Pickwatch
Pickwatch
33.33%
0.00%
16.7%
BAL
**
For more updates from Pickwatch, follow us on twitter or Facebook. We'll be back throughout the afternoon with more previews of week 15's matchups, helping you to decide who to trust in this week's biggest games.**
