Baltimore finally gets to experience Lamar Jackson football once again. It’s safe to say the two-time MVP won’t be at 100% only three weeks removed from his high ankle sprain – just look at AJ Brown in New England.
Unfortunately, the Ravens have no time for Jackson to start slow. They are 4-3, coming off back-to-back losses against AFC divisional opponents with two tilts against two more AFC opponents in five days. First up, the Ravens are facing the Bills. It’s a tall task trying to take a win from
Josh Allen in Buffalo, but the Ravens desperately need one. Here’s how Baltimore can come away with a win and get the season back on track.
Let Lamar air it out
Lamar Jackson is back. The Ravens finally have their center situation sorted out with Cam Jurgens. It’s time to restart the run game and get Derrick Henry backon track. Except the Ravens will now be missing rookie guard Vega Ioane, and the Bills’ run defense, led by Ed Oliver and Deone Walker, is better than their pass defense, which ranks near the bottom of the league. According to SumerSports, the Bills are tied for last in EPA per play, 31st in total defensive EPA, 30th in success rate, and 29th in EPA per pass play. Can you say air raid?
This is a game prime to get the Jackson-Zay Flowers connection going once more. Add in Rashod Bateman in the middle of a comeback season and Ja’Kobi Lane, who will hopefully get more than one half with Lamar Jackson, and you’ve got weapons galore to rain down on Buffalo. There’s more than a good chance that this game turns into a shootout anyway, so establishing the air attack quickly with Lamar Jackson will give the Ravens the best chance at winning this game when it will likely come down to the last score in the last minute.
Throw different defensive fronts at Allen
There aren’t many things a team can do to contain Josh Allen. It’s one of the reasons he’s been one of NFL’s the top quarterbacks the last couple of years. Luckily, the Ravens have the best quarterback in the NFL coming back to duel with him. But Baltimore’s defense has got to make some plays and make life easier for the offense on Sunday. It’s hard to ask for a sub-20-point performance against what is statistically the best offense in the NFL this year, but they have to find one more stop than the Buffalo defense does.
So how can the Ravens attack Allen effectively? For that, we look back at the 2024 regular season matchup between these teams, one of Allen’s worst games in the last couple of years. The Ravens’ pass rush impacted him a ton that game, logging eight quarterback hits and three sacks. They were effective in limiting James Cook, too, and protected their lead lead by varying their looks at the line of scrimmage to keep Allen off balance. While Baltimore’s secondary has been iffy this season, their pass rush has been good. The Ravens played a ton of line games in the first half against Joe Burrow while he was under center with great success. The Bills happen to use a ton of under-center concepts as well. The Ravens need to get to Allen, force him away from his throwing arm side, and hit him. Stunts, loops, delayed blitzes – use them all. Send Roquan Smith, Trenton Simpson, Kyle Hamilton through different spots of the line. They just have to remember to tackle.
Aggressive man DB play
Jesse Minter should not give up on the zone scheme that got him his head coaching gig. But his system has not taken full root in Baltimore. In Sunday’s matchup, he should lean into what this defense has been good at so far: aggressive, press-man coverage. After facing the Bengals’ elite wide receiver duo, the Bills’ wideouts present a much less complicated problem. It’s a well-rounded group with Khalil Shakir’s movement skills and Keon Coleman’s contested catch ability, but the Bills added DJ Moore this offseason to add a true alpha body to the room and take pressure off of the other guys. Moore is coming into this one having missed the last two games for the Bills and with a week full of limited practices off of the bye week. Pressing that trio will take away Allen’s quick reads and give the pass rush the extra split-second they so badly need to convert their pressures into sacks.
The Ravens aren’t quite in a “must-win” situation for keeping their season alive, but they are firmly in “can’t lose” territory after two brutal losses. Play to strengths right now; fix the program later.
