The Ravens got their act together in Week 2, dominating the Browns on both sides of the ball on their way to a 41-17 victory. The offense responded to Cleveland\u2019s stout run defense with four touchdowns through the air, and Roquan Smith earned AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors for one of his best performances in purple and black.<\/p>\n
Next up are the Lions, a team the Ravens throttled in Baltimore two years ago. John Harbaugh and his staff should still have the basic blueprint from that matchup, but personnel and coaching changes on both sides will offer plenty of new, exciting dynamics on the field. Here\u2019s how the Ravens can bring their record to 2-1 on Monday night.<\/p>\n
1. Get an early lead<\/p>\n
The Ravens are going to be missing two of their best front seven players in this one, with Kyle Van Noy and Nnamdi Madubuike down, the latter being the best pass rusher on the team. Even more so, the two of them being down will severely hurt the Ravens ability to stop the run. Against Jahmyr Gibbs, that\u2019s not ideal for success.<\/p>\n
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It will be imperative for the Ravens to start fast and get points on the board early, unlike last week against Cleveland. Putting the Lions in chase mode will help guys like Odafe Oweh, Mike Green, and Fub Peebles pin their ears back and get after Jared Goff, who isn\u2019t mobile and historically gets rattled when hit a lot.<\/p>\n
2. Feed Zay Flowers<\/p>\n
The Ravens will likely look to get their run game with Derrick Henry kickstarted again after a disappointing Week 2. They will probably be able to as well. But the Ravens should look to send Zay Flowers, who dominates against cover one and cover three coverage, on crossers and generate a ton of explosive plays. The Lions run single high safety on nearly 75% of their plays but are 25th in EPA when they do. Flowers running with the ball in his hands over the middle of the field should be the game plan early and often.<\/p>\n
Lamar Jackson threw for 375 yards when they played Detroit in 2023 and Flowers went for 75 yards himself. Detroit\u2019s scheme hasn\u2019t changed much since then and their corners, Terrion Arnold and DJ Reed, aren\u2019t starting the season strongly. If the Lions stick to their game plan and don\u2019t drastically change for this matchup, Jackson should be able to dice them up with his arm.<\/p>\n
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3. Hit Jared Goff<\/p>\n
Like last week against Joe Flacco, Jared Goff is one of the least mobile quarterbacks the Ravens will play this year. Even with Madubuike and Van Noy down, the pass rush has to win today if the Ravens don\u2019t want to get into a shootout. As I said earlier, Goff has historically been a quarterback who gets rattled and off his rhythm when hit. It can wreck an offensive gameplan, especially if the Ravens can do it early.<\/p>\n
The Lions are young on their interior offensive line. While Oweh and Green getting pressure would be awesome, don\u2019t count on it against this tackle duo. It needs to be Travis Jones and\u00a0Peebles wreaking havoc on the inside to get to Goff.<\/p>\n
4. Find the turnover<\/p>\n
It\u2019s\u00a0been a talking point all offseason and training camp. This Ravens defense wants to be the sword and not the shield.\u00a0They\u00a0want to make game changing plays, not just leave it up to Jackson and the offense. In Buffalo, they were passive and just the shield,\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0make the plays. Week 1 and against Josh Allen, they\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0look to attack.<\/p>\n
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In Week 2, they changed it. Baltimore was aggressive and looked to make plays with disguised coverages and blitzes. They generated two turnovers and didn\u2019t look scared of taking risks.\u00a0That\u00a0has to be the formula. Playing complementary football with Lamar Jackson\u2019s offense requires an aggressive defense that looks to generate turnovers, knowing if they get burned every now and then, their quarterback is there to put points up.<\/p>\n
If the Ravens\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0turn this into a blowout \u2013 which is a possibility if Jackson gets surgical and Goff gets rattled \u2013 then it\u2019s going to be a tight contest in the fourth quarter. My soul tells me there will be a moment where the defense can generate a game changing, game sealing turnover late. If this is a tight game, that moment will be the deciding factor in a win or loss for the Ravens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Ravens got their act together in Week 2, dominating the Browns on both sides of the ball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2071],"tags":[184,85,292,146,113,2506,7,1674,1029,562,872,192,895,147,276,6,23556,1822,466,1748,4378,2850,16929,4648],"class_list":{"0":"post-388668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-baltimore","9":"tag-cleveland","10":"tag-derrick-henry","11":"tag-detroit","12":"tag-detroit-lions","13":"tag-detroitlions","14":"tag-football","15":"tag-jahmyr-gibbs","16":"tag-jared-goff","17":"tag-joe-flacco","18":"tag-josh-allen","19":"tag-kyle-van-noy","20":"tag-lamar-jackson","21":"tag-lions","22":"tag-mike-green","23":"tag-nfl","24":"tag-nnamdi-madubuike","25":"tag-odafe-oweh","26":"tag-roquan-smith","27":"tag-terrion-arnold","28":"tag-the-lions","29":"tag-the-ravens","30":"tag-travis-jones","31":"tag-zay-flowers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115249482566973513","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}