If you read Matt Youmans’ piece last week on the Do’s and Don’ts of betting preseason football, you know Baltimore’s John Harbaugh is among the NFL coaches who take preseason games seriously. Even though the Ravens ended up not covering against the Bears in the Hall of Fame Game, Harbaugh is still 29-12 straight up and 27-14 against the spread in preseason games.

Thursday night, the Ravens play host to the Rams as the full Week 1 of the NFL preseason begins.

The play: I’m going to take the Ravens (-3).

I believe it’s a positive for a team that has played a game (even an exhibition) taking on a team like the Rams playing its first preseason game.

In addition, we should continue to see a battle between Robert Griffin III and Lamar Jackson for the backup quarterback role behind Joe Flacco, so that should help the Ravens be a playable team all preseason.