For all of the criticism the Baltimore Ravens get for being a boring football team, they're still in a position to wind up in the postseason. On Saturday, their quest for their first playoff appearance since 2014 continues with a home game against the Indianapolis Colts, whose season has been reduced to nothing more than the opportunity to serve as spoilers.

At 8-6, the Ravens are on the outside looking in, but they're very much in the hunt for a wild-card spot in the AFC. They're trailing the 8-6 Titans and Bills, both of whom occupy wild-card spots only because of the following tiebreakers, which you can view on our playoff picture page:

  • Tennessee is ahead of Baltimore and Buffalo based on conference record (Titans' 7-4 to the Bills' 6-4 and the Ravens' 6-4).
  • Buffalo is ahead of Baltimore based on strength of victory (.409 to the Ravens' .321).

That's why this game matters. Can the Ravens take care of business against a bad Colts team? We'll find out on Saturday.

How to watch, stream

  • Kickoff: Saturday at 4:30 p.m. ET
  • TV: NFL Network
  • Streaming: fuboTV (Try for free) 

The Colts are playing for something

The Colts are playing for, well, draft positioning, as sad as that sounds. They're currently slotted to pick third in next year's draft. Here's the current order of the top-10:

  1. Cleveland Browns (0-14)
  2. New York Giants (2-12)
  3. Indianapolis Colts (3-11)
  4. Cleveland Browns from Texans (4-10)
  5. San Francisco 49ers (4-10)
  6. Chicago Bears (4-10)
  7. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-10)
  8. Cincinnati Bengals (5-9)
  9. Denver Broncos (5-9)
  10. New York Jets (5-9)

A couple of wins down the stretch would really screw up their current positioning. And the Ravens are certainly beatable considering they're the same team that lost to the Bears at home. 

Then again, it's worth noting just how bad the Colts have been. Their three wins have come against the 0-14 Browns, the Jimmy Garoppolo-less 49ers, and the Deshaun Watson-less Texans. They've been outscored by 143 points over the course of the season. For the sake of comparison, the Browns have been outscored by 155 points.

The Ravens are playing better football

Since their Week 10 bye, the Ravens are 4-1 and their only loss came at the hands of the Steelers in a game that they probably should've won. The Ravens might not be an exciting team, but they're the kind of team that a contender like the Patriots won't want to face in the playoffs, namely because of how good their defense is. 

Consider this: The Ravens have the second-best defense by DVOA and they're actually the fourth-best overall team by DVOA.

Keep an eye on Alex Collins when the Ravens have the ball. He's averaging 4.9 yards per carry and he probably offers the Ravens their best shot at putting up points.

Who will win?

Unsurprisingly, all eight of our experts picked the Ravens to win. And six of our eight experts picked the Ravens to cover the spread (Baltimore -13.5). Here's what our Pete Prisco wrote when he took the Ravens to win 30-13:

This is a Colts team playing for nothing, while the Ravens need two victories to get into the playoffs. The Ravens have played well on offense the past few weeks, and I think that continues for Joe Flacco. Ravens big.

You can view all of the expert picks here.