I can remember as a young kid growing up and hearing commercials for the Maryland Lottery.
Their catchphrase is still etched in my brain: You gotta play to win!
It sounds simple enough but in the case of the Baltimore Ravens it’s not always necessarily true. The team finally reached its Bye week with a chance to regroup and refresh and they ready themselves to complete what’s been an excellent 2023 season so far. As they sat on the sidelines they almost undoubtedly “won” the week. The Browns, Jaguars, Chiefs and Steelers all lost. In fact, Pittsburgh dropped two games before the Ravens play this Sunday due to a defeat on Thursday night to lowly New England.
It’s a long season in the National Football League and it’s not uncommon for your starters to get injured, especially the quarterback. This is a fact that Ravens fans know all too well as Lamar has been unable to complete the last two seasons. But now it looks like the tables have turned as some of the other contenders in the AFC are now dealing with that same problem. All the contenders in the division have lost their starting signal caller for the season, though it remains to be seen if Trevor Lawrence of Jacksonville will join that permanent list. That means three teams stand at the front of the line for the number one seed, Miami and Baltimore at 9-3 and the defending champion Chiefs at 8-4. It’s not surprising that all three still have their starting quarterbacks available.
1) What’s Up Next? The stage is set for an exciting five weeks of the season remaining and Baltimore has an excellent chance to be able to grab the top seed just as they did in 2019. However, it won’t be that easy, this week they play a resurgent Rams team who seems to have found their offensive mojo. The Jaguars are up next on the road on Sunday Night Football, hopefully without Lawrence. Then a date on Christmas Night with the 49ers in San Fran and then a return to Charm City for an important game with Miami on New Year’s Eve and then they finish out the regular season schedule with the hated Steelers. That’s quite the gauntlet and it doesn’t leave much room for error though I do it’s possible for them to go 4-1 over this stretch and leave themselves in great position for Home Field advantage throughout the playoffs.
2) Ram Jam – Los Angeles is coming off consecutive weeks of scoring 30 points or more and just completed a solid thrashing of Cleveland (36-19) last week. The key for them has been the players returning from injury starting with Matthew Stafford. Stafford has always gotten something of a bad rap during his career mainly due to his association with the Lions but he’s shown that if he has talent around him he’s a winner. Since returning from injury, he’s thrown for a 63 % competition rate for almost 700 yards with 8 touchdowns and just 2 interceptions.
Stafford has an explosive pair of receivers in which to throw to with All-World Cooper Kupp also having returned from injury, but the breakout star has been BYU rookie Puka Nacua who has over 1,000 yards receiving on 77 catches. Second year man Kyren Williams is also dangerous on the ground and catching it out of the backfield too. The Ravens defense will be tested for sure and will need to keep the vet Stafford off schedule.
3) Who to Watch? – Lamar Jackson. Who else? If the Ravens are to make a run to glory this year, he must be at the controls of Todd Monken’s offense. Fans know the pain all too well when a backup must pick up the reins in the last half of the season. There was word that Jackson missed yesterday’s practice due to illness and Twitter almost imploded. He should be ok come game time, but you can imagine why so many people are skittish considering recent history and events around the league.
Mike MacDonald’s defense will be tested by an experienced signal caller in Stafford and wily coach in Sean McVay. But this unit has been special so far and Baltimore will need them to continue that high level if they are to continue to stack wins.
The good news is that John Harbaugh is 12-3 in his career off a Bye week and the defense leads the NFL in sacks and is second in points allowed.
I have a feeling the Ravens will start slowly but will have enough to get past the Rams and maybe even cover the touchdown spread.
Happy Football everyone! Enjoy Week Fourteen and Go Ravens!
Matt has lived in Maryland his entire life and is a graduate of Calvert Hall and Towson University. has always been an avid Baltimore sports fan. Since 2007, he has been writing and talking about Baltimore sports, especially the Ravens. His work has appeared on Ravens Gab, Russell Street Report, and he currently co-hosts a podcast “The Blitz- A Ravens podcast” with Brent Harris.