Ravens at Falcons

[tsylvester]

There are three big questions facing the Ravens when they go to Atlanta for their Sunday night game.

Who will be the quarterback for Baltimore?

Will the Baltimore defense play a complete game?

Who are the Falcons?

Atlanta comes into this game on a 2 game win streak. They dominated a depleted Packer team and a Saints team in their Dome. Yes, the same Saints team that beat the Ravens not too long ago. But the Falcons got blowm out by the Panthers and lost to Pittsburgh by a touchdown.

In essence, this Falcons team is an enigma. Since their young signal called returned from injury they have been lighting up the score board. They hwve done this mostly by running the two headed monster lnowm as Bejon and Brian Robinson, not related. The pair have been running through defenses this year. Combined they have 8 rushing touchdowns, rushed for 688 yards and are averaging 160 yards a game on the ground.

Penex, now that he is healthy, is completing 73% of his passes in the two games he has played this year, with 2 tds and 1 int. How good he is another mystery. Since coming into the league in 2024, he has played in 16 of 48 games due to various injuries. Even in college he missed a lot of time on the field because of injury.

Defensively, the Falcons rank near the top in several categories. They are 8th in the league in total yards per game, averaging just 313 yards. They are 21st in sacks though with just 7 in 4 games. However, against the run is where they shine, allowing just 48.3 yards per game.

This can all be scary for a team dealimg with injuries to its quarterback, shuffling an offensive line due to injuries and a defense still searching for the right recipe.

So, who ya got?

[papasmurfbell]

I don’t think we can beat their run game.  Our ol is a liability.  This game does not look promising.

[tsylvester]

I must say, I thought the Falcons were terrible. But after looking at their stats, they do pose a serious risk, especially without Lamar. Their pass rush is okay, the Ravens have faced better. But with Huntley, that could be a real challenge especially if the Ravens can't run the ball.

[papasmurfbell]

And they will stack the box.  But their run game is a beast and our front 7 have shown they can be pushed around.

[tsylvester]

Pushed around at times, that depends on the personnel met thinks. There have been plenty of times when they have stuffed running games, I think The Minter is trying to find out rhe right formula.

[oldno82]

With Lamar, I'd be picking the Ravens but the Falcons have just discovered that Cooper Rush is not an acceptable backup QB. Now that Penix is back, and they have the two headed monster rushing game, I'd say this one is shaping up as a loss. I don't think our offense will have the firepower with Huntley to keep up.

[tsylvester]

Thankfully it appears Lamar just has a sprained anckle and not a high anckle sprain. The later takes a lot longer to heal

[oldno82]

5 hours ago, tsylvester said:

Thankfully it appears Lamar just has a sprained anckle and not a high anckle sprain. The later takes a lot longer to heal

Great to hear!

[papasmurfbell]

Sounds like it’s multiple games.

[tsylvester]

Shouldn't be if it is just a simple sprain, generally 10 days, right as rain and that is without treatment.

Given the treatments available to these pro athletes I would say there is a chance, although unlikely, that he plays Sunday night, if not for sure the week after.

[tsylvester]

Ravens trade with Eagles to get Cam Jurgens, 

The Baltimore Ravens traded with the Philadelphia Eagles for two-time Pro Bowl center Cam Jurgens on Wednesday, filling a desperate need at that position for Baltimore.

The Ravens sent a 2027 fifth-round pick and a 2028 second-round selection to the Eagles in exchange for Jurgens and a 2027 seventh-rounder

Dan Graziano
Jurgens, 27, is under contract through the 2029 season.

"Cam is a player we have long admired going all the way back to the draft process," Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said in a statement. "He's a young foundational piece along our offensive line - a great scheme and cultural fit who will c

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/50126306/ravens-acquire-center-cam-jurgens-trade-eagles

[oldno82]

Well that IS a surprise! Nice to pick up a Pro Bowler at 27 years old. A second round pick is a bit high but we were between a rock and a hard place. Moves Ioane back to guard and therefore strengthens the whole interior of the line.

[tsylvester]

Yeah, he is dealing with a concussion right now, not as if he would be playing this weekend any way.

While his play dropped off, most of that was due to moving to a new position, guard and the issues that Eagle offense has right now.

[oldno82]

Yeah I read the negatives. Hopefully he returns to pro bowl level when he moves back to C. Otherwise, we overpaid.

[papasmurfbell]

We overpaid.  This was a roster malpractice cya.

[tsylvester]

At this time of year a team in need of offensive line help will over pay. I will say they screwed up not signing Zeitler, but then maybe they tried and he wanted too much.

[papasmurfbell]

This team is not going to any sb.  It’s not built for it.  So overpaying is stupid.

[oldno82]

30 teams are not going to the Super Bowl. You still need to remain competitive.

[tsylvester]

8 minutes ago, papasmurfbell said:

This team is not going to any sb.  It’s not built for it.  So overpaying is stupid.

Nobody has shown that they are that much better than the rest of the league, right now.

We are only 4 games into the season. Yes, this team has some holes, they need to refine the defense and especially the special teams which are just awful.

But the biggest thing they need to change are the penalties, which has cost this team a game and, kept others close..

Just clean that up and watch the change....

[papasmurfbell]

24 minutes ago, oldno82 said:

30 teams are not going to the Super Bowl. You still need to remain competitive.

There are teams that know they are out or should.  We are one of them.

[oldno82]

3 hours ago, tsylvester said:

Nobody has shown that they are that much better than the rest of the league, right now.

We are only 4 games into the season. Yes, this team has some holes, they need to refine the defense and especially the special teams which are just awful.

But the biggest thing they need to change are the penalties, which has cost this team a game and, kept others close..

Just clean that up and watch the change....

If you're talking about kickoff and punt coverage, I agree that the special teams have just been way too leaky. And, yes, penalties are killers for us. Especially pre-snap ones, false starts galore, failure to get set before snap, etc. It's hard to tell about the D with Hendrickson not playing but it's performance has been inconsistent, at times excellent, at others yielding too much ground. Hopefully, the defense will get better with time but we are heading into the meat of the schedule now and there isn't much of that time left. 

The sky isn't falling and the offensive skill positions have been great, but with Lamar out, we are now vulnerable to be beaten by almost anybody. We need him back. But we need him healthy too. 

One last mention about special teams, Loop has been superb but there is an occasional coordination problem between Moore and Eckley. That was a bad hold Eckley had on the 40 yarder Loop missed last week. He's got to clean that up.

The next 5 games are gonna be tough.

[tsylvester]

Read it wrong