Baltimore Clinches 1 Seed after Victory in Cincinnati

by Jbyrd923 | 4 years ago | 1 Comments

Following a 43-20 win over the division rival Bengals the Ravens have clinched the 1 seed in the AFC and a first round bye. The thursday night primetime game was a strong showing by Baltimore; Lamar Jackson had himself a day despite the bad weather throwing for 405 yards, rushing for 132, and scoring 5 total touchdowns. Hollywood Brown caught all 3 of Jacksons passing TDs and 183 yards with them. Hollywood missed weeks 7-11 with a shoulder injury but  has stepped up his role in the last couple of games since returning, with 2nd year star Devin Duvernay being sidelined for 6 weeks with a shoulder injury of his own, Hollywood has been the clear WR1. Duvernay hasn't been on the field since week 12 vs Jacksonville, he's set to be cleared and ready to go by the Ravens first playoff game which is big considering the Baltimore offense hasn't been able to feature the Hollywood and Duvernay tandem on the field since week 6 when Brown first got hurt. On the defensive side of the ball this season the standout player has been rookie Free Safety Reed Blankenship out of MIddle Tennessee State, the rookie was taken in the 3rd round of the draft and has made a huge impact since stepping on the field.  Blankenship has 12 INTs and 5 TDs on the season and is hopeful to be named DROY. 2nd year MLB Patrick Queen has developed into the center piece of this defense that the Ravens knew he could be when they took him in the first round. Along with Blankeship Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters have been performing very well all season long. Olivier Vernon who was just signed in this past free agency has proved to be a huge help to the Ravens front 7 currently leads the team with 11 sacks. The defense will also be getting veteran Brandon Graham back in time for playoffs, with the team meshing well and playing at a high level it will have to keep up in order to finish the quest for the lombardi.