The Ravens saved their season on Sunday with a win against the Chicago Bears. Now they attempt to shift the momentum and kickstart a run with the return of Lamar Jackson to a home-away-from-home game down
in Miami against the Dolphins. The Dolphins are a struggling team in 2025, but the Ravens haven’t been much better. How do the Ravens win this game?
1) Keep it clean
The Dolphins are near-opposites of the Bears, who came into Baltimore with the best turnover differential in the league. Comparatively, the Dolphins are near the bottom of the league, with a -5 differential. Funnily enough, the Ravens are even worse, with a -6. As we talked about last week, fumbles are arguably the biggest reasons the Ravens have losses on their record instead of wins. Buffalo, Detroit, Chiefs, Rams; the Ravens have either handed wins away or taken themselves out of the competition. Let’s not beat around the bush. The Ravens are the better and more talented team. The easiest way the Dolphins make this difficult is if the Ravens give it away. Hold on to the ball, don’t fumble the game away.
2) Limit Achane
Easier said than done, as the speedster Achane is potentially the biggest focal point of the Dolphins’ offense. He’s got over 750 scrimmage yards and seven total touchdowns. Mike McDaniel builds a lot of his creativity around getting Achane the ball. Between a vast run game, being used as a receiver, and creative screens, Achane touches the ball more than anyone in Miami’s offense. His speed poses a problem for pretty much any linebacker in the NFL, but luckily, the Ravens defense might be schemed for this. The recent moves have seen Kyle Hamilton and Marlon Humphrey both in the box and near the line of scrimmage often now. Having defensive backs near the line of scrimmage should hopefully help bottle Achane up before he can get into the open field, where barely anybody in the NFL can catch him.
With the Ravens working hard to manufacture pressure and use blitzes, the Bears had a ton of success running screens against the Ravens on Sunday. A lot of the Dolphins’ offense is the screen game, with Achane seeing a lot of looks. Hamilton and Humphrey, along with others, are going to have to play with IQ and know when to hunt the screen versus running their blitz assignments.
3) Success in the red zone
The hot-button topic recently has been the struggle to convert while on the goal line. While one game doesn’t mean it’s fixed, the Ravens had success on the goal line against Chicago with two different Derrick Henry touchdowns at the two-yard line, a large improvement from weeks past. They also converted around the 10-yard line with a great concept that got Charlie Kolar open with green grass to walk it in. But they also left points on the board, kicking two field goals in the third quarter while inside the red zone instead of being able to convert. That a difference between being up 16-6 and allowing the Bears a chance to get back in it, versus potentially being up 24-6 and knocking any life out of the Bears early in the second half.
While the Dolphins have struggled this year, their offense, schemed by Mike McDaniel, features potent weapons like De’Von Achane and Jaylen Waddle, which can put up points in a hurry. Converting touchdowns instead of settling for field goals in the red zone will be key to keeping the game out of reach and not allowing any fourth-quarter shenanigans the Ravens love to have. I’d love to see the Ravens use red zone weapons that are successful and/or have a physical presence to bully near the end zone. Not just Derrick Henry, but guys like Isaiah Likley, Rashod Bateman, DeAndre Hopkins, and Patrick Ricard, weapons who either have great scoring chemistry with Jackson or simply can bully defenders for a score. Bateman isn’t a massive physical presence but scored nine times last year, including five in the red zone, his route running and ability to extend plays with Jackson a large reason. Patrick Ricard is a guy who could physically bully and run over every dolphin defender for at least five yards.
I’d like to see the scheme and creativity that got Kolar his touchdown used often with a plethora of bodies. This was the best red zone offense last year, with the highest conversion rate in the league. It’s time to get back to it.
