One team has drafted well, and the other one hasn’t.

There it is in a nutshell for the difference between the New England Patriots and the Baltimore Ravens, who go at it at Gillette Stadium on Sunday night.

Bill Belichick hemmed and hawed when asked about his recent drafting record, one that has left his team in tough shape, with a lack of depth and bargain basement free agents occupying key slots.

Meanwhile the Ravens have stocked their team with talent, including the reigning NFL MVP Lamar Jackson. Sure, they have their issues, but they’ll be playing in January unless something goes totally wrong. And who can remember when they blew the Patriots out 37-20 in Baltimore just over a year ago. That began a downward spiral for New England and ascension for the Ravens.

But Belichick won’t throw his team under the bus, as seen by his comments earlier in the week.

“Obviously there’s plenty of room for improvement, there’s room to get better,” he said this week. “But there’s also strong things to build off of and so that’s what we’ve tried to do is accentuate the positive and keep doing those and improve on the area where we lack consistency.”

Meanwhile, we’ve been lacking consistency in our selections, but had a much better week last week at 5-2. Let’s try for two in a row:

RAVENS 27, PATRIOTS 16

The last time we saw the Patriots at Gillette Stadium, the 49ers ran roughshod over them. Has that changed? If the Patriots can get defensive lineman Lawrence Guy back, that might help but he is so banged up you wonder. New England’s only chance is to stop the run and force Lamar Jackson to throw. May be too tough to pull off as the Ravens have scored 20-plus points in a record 31 straight games. Yikes.

DOLPHINS 23, CHARGERS 21

A big yawn a couple of months ago if you saw this game on the schedule. But suddenly it’s a glimpse of future NFL stars, Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa and L.A.’s Justin Herbert. Chargers lose close games, so we say Miami here.

STEELERS 24, BENGALS 13

Tough one to call because it’s not completely definite that Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger can play. Even if he doesn’t, rookie Joe Burrow may still have trouble with that Steeler defense, which appeared to take the week off vs. Dallas last Sunday. That won’t happen this week.

SEAHAWKS 34, RAMS 30

The Seattle defense is taking what should be a Super Bowl season and plunging it into a wide-open NFC race – a league second-to worst 30.4 points a game allowed. Ugh. Let’s see if Pete Carroll can start earning that contract extension and have his team make a few stops vs. Jared Goff for a bounce-back win.

SAINTS 35, NINERS 13

The high point for San Francisco was its win at Gillette last month. The low point for this injury-riddled team could be this game in New Orleans, as the Saints are starting to put things together.

PACKERS 40, JAGUARS 7

Hey, there’s only two interconference games this week, what do you want us to do? The Pack appears back – this would make it three of four wins – from its mini skid. Suddenly, after Thursday night’s Colts win over Tennessee, next Sunday’s Green Bay game at Indy looks like a great matchup.

CARDINALS 30, BILLS 27

Another great young QB matchup, Josh Rosen vs. Kyler Murray. The chains will be a-movin’. The best scenario for the Patriots would be if the Bills and Dolphins lose, and then New England pulls the upset and gets back into the AFC East race. Kinda sorta.

LAST WEEK: 5-2

SEASON RECORD: 40-22

Tom King may be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com. Also, follow King on Twitter (@Telegraph_TomK).

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