The Ravens won handily and continued their hot streak after a slow start to the season.. but the ultimate price was paid.
After hiring an entirely new staff this year headed by first-year head coach Russell Wilson HOF, the Baltimore Ravens find themselves at a crossroads heading into an all-important divisional matchup against the 8-1 Bengals. After beating the Bengals a couple weeks ago, Baltimore was internally viewing themselves as in the driver's seat for the division, figuring they'd win out and take the division. However, the shockingly healthy Ravens team suffered their first injury of the season to Lamar Jackson, who will be out the rest of the regular season.
Jackson, who led the team's comprehensive rushing attack, got injured on a play where he wasn't even the ball carrier. After a season filled with an irresponsible amount of sacks and getting tackled in the open field, the irony of the play he was injured on is not lost upon the locker room.
Now Baltimore looks to the future, as Offensive Coordinator Kyle Boller decides what to do with the offense. This was an offense that was predicated on big plays, and relied heavily on gigantic plays. Lamar, CJ Anderson and Jalen Richard have all busted off multiple 40+ yard runs, many going for quite longer than that, and Kyle is questioning if that can happen with the immense running threat at QB gone.
"The great thing about Lamar is that defenses have to account for him on every play," Boller said. "so many rushing lanes open up when multiple defenders are making sure Lamar stays in the backfield, and now that threat is pretty much gone."
The timing of the injury couldn't be worse, as the team traded away promising backup QB Joe Burrow just a couple of days ago. To fill the load at QB, the team has brought in former Super Bowl champion Joe Flacco to compete with incumbent backup Deshone Kizer, acquired in the Burrow trade. The philosophy of a spread offense with heavy read option calls will be extinct for now, but Boller views it as a new challenge.
"I'm excited about changing the offense up. There's no doubt we'll have to pass a lot more, which is not something a team usually says when losing a starting QB. Whichever of our QBs wins the starting job, we will rely on his arm a lot to get the ball to our playmakers. We want Hollywood, Andrews, Laviska and Jalen to carry this load and take over the big play burden. Who knows, maybe a change in offensive philosophy will stick if it works."
After Cincy, the Bengals have a break in the schedule by getting to finish the season with 5 non-contenders, a break after such a hard early season schedule. Their defense is leading the league in INTs, led by DOPY candidates Earl Thomas and Marcus Peters (who was an acquisition laughed at by some). The Ravens have a lot of work to make the playoffs, and are holding onto hope that Joe Flacco or Deshone Kizer will be enough to get them there.
4-0. That's all that's on the mind of everyone in the Arizona locker room. After a heartbreaking Super Bowl loss there were questions and concerns about what would happen to this team. Then reigning MVP David Johnson got suspended for disciplinary reasons.
Now here we are.
Josh Rosen has led the league in passer rating en route to putting his team in first place. He has stepped up and overcome intense criticism from within the organization, staving off young QB Jake Browning.
The Running Back group of Dexter Williams, TJ Logan, Royce Freeman and Ito Smith have a combined 5 TDs with 6.6 Yards Per Carry, making the loss of David Johnson have far less of an impact than expected. There has been internal chatter of letting those four handle the load for the remaining 12 games to keep DJ healthy for the playoffs, but prevailing thought is that would be unfair to David Johnson as he writes the record books in AZ.
The defense has also played lights out, allowing only 13.5 points per game. And that's without getting the insane ground control that they're used to with David Johnson. They have just manned up and played better than everyone they've stepped on the field with. They're second in sacks AND second in takeaways. That starts with Deone Bucannon once again, who has 7 sacks and 5 picks on his own.
Looking ahead, the Cardinals schedule could be considered shockingly easy by many. And with David Johnson back, the team that won the NFC Championship just one year ago is at full force.
Rosen
Johnson
Nelson
Fant
Bucannon
Peterson
Jones
The names are the same and the game is the same. Now they have the goal to finish what they haven't been able to before.
He's an edge rusher and since I'm in a 4-3 need him playing my edge
We failed. That has to be the mindset coming out of Arizona. There’s no other way to sum up the last season of Larry Fitzgerald’s storied career. In the past two seasons he’s taken a backseat to JJ Nelson’s meteoric rise, but he still was the leader of this team.
Now, we push forward with new leadership. Josh Rosen, David Johnson and JJ Nelson return to lead arguably the best offense in the league. Chandler Jones, Deone Bucanon and Chandler Jones return to lead a top defense. The key pieces are the same, but the retooling has taken place.
Thus far, the offseason pickups have been on defense. Owen, the Cardinals’ coach, has always had a particular type of defense that he likes. Fast LBs, a deep d line that can stop the run, and a deep secondary that can make plays. The key to that formula is DEPTH. Acquiring three defensive linemen, a linebacker and a DB contribute to that greatly. On the offensive side the team had to replace Ameer Abdullah by getting Charcandrick West, as well as a massively needed upgrade at LG with Ronald Leary.
Now we look to the draft to fill some more holes. Will the team finally get a reliable TE? Will they find the Larry Fitzgerald replacement or hope that replacement-in-waiting Joe Kustock is good enough? Will they continue to acquire offensive line talent to develop? And will they focus on securing one more pass rusher.
An inside source with the team said that they have one man in mind with their late first round pick, and if they miss out on him they will consider their draft a failure.
“All we can do is focus on training and improving,” said QB Josh Rosen. “This is my third year, we improved last year and won a playoff game. Now I am focused on the next step. I have the talent and coaching around me, it’s on me to improve against the blitz and to win a Super Bowl.”
Colts Trade:
Anthony Castonzo 81 OVR LT
6th Round Pick
Cardinals Trade:
3rd Round Pick
Bennett got hurt, want Sheldon Richardson to play edge rusher until he's back like he played for NYJ in 2015
Saints trade:
Nick Fairley
Manti Te'o
3rd Round Pick
Redskins Trade:
Zach Brown