Subscribe
Follow Us
Will the Baltimore Ravens have Zay Flowers against the Bills? If so, it could make them even more of a Super Bowl favorite. With a Baltimore Ravens divisional-round playoff game scheduled against the Buffalo Bills, it’s a battle of quarterback superstars. Ahead of the Ravens-Bills game, we’ll be making our Ravens divisional-round predictions.
The Ravens, with Lamar Jackson, running the show, will meet the Bills, led by Josh Allen, on Sunday night at 6:30. Baltimore has its work cut out as the Bills are undefeated at home, including a blowout of the Denver Broncos in the wild-card round. Meanwhile, the Ravens cut through the Steelers with relative ease.
If the Ravens are going to win, making key defensive plays could be the difference. So we will lead off with that side of the ball.
CB Brandon Stephens will make a big play against Allen
Ravens opponents go hard after Stephens, who finished the regular season as the fifth most-targeted cornerback in the NFL this season. But with targets come opportunities, and John Harbaugh said he likes Stephens’ chances, according to baltimoreravens.com.
“When you get a lot of targets, you're going to have more completions, for sure,” Harbaugh said. “That's just the way it goes. But you also make more plays. He's made a real, good number of plays. If we get the sense that an offense is targeting a particular part of the field … now we have an idea where you're going to kind of target. We can roll our coverage that way. We can put the strength of our coverage over there, too, so it's kind of a two-way street that way.”
RB Derrick Henry will rush for 100-plus yards with two TDs
This game is going to be a shootout. But that doesn’t mean both teams will be throwing the ball all over the field. The Ravens will burden the Bills’ run defense with heavy doses of Henry.
Bills defensive tackle DaQuan Jones said the battle will be a tough one, according to syracuse.com.
“It’s gonna be a bloodbath, man,” JOnes said. “They run the ball. Derrick’s one hell of a player, one heck of a running back. It’s gonna take all 11, like I’ve been saying all year, to stop the run. Make sure you don’t get to the second level. Stop him early, get him in the backfield, and go from there.”
Bills defensive end Greg Rousseau said the team is still getting better at defending the run.
“You’ve got to (keep) working on it,” Rousseau said. “You’re not just going to magically get better at it, but just being intentional, the sense of urgency. At times this season, we’ve had a sense of urgency for the run game. It’s playoff football, so we’re up for the challenge. We’re amped. So there is no lack of urgency or lackadaisicalness or none of that. We’re going to go.”
Bills nickel back Taron Johnson said the good performance against the Broncos won’t matter after kickoff.
Article Continues Below
“It was a big message but at the end of the day, we’ve got to do it again,” Johnson said. “We do what we did. Moved on. At this point, it’s about doing it again. I feel like we watch the tape, see what’s going on, what did we succeed at, what do we still need to work on? I feel like if we do that, we’ll repeat it.”
QB Lamar Jackson won’t get 300 total yards but will account for two scores
Jackson will likely have tame passing numbers, but only because Henry will be punishing the Bills’ defense.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said Jackson’s leadership continues to be on display, according to Sports Illustrated.
“I continue to be amazed with is just who he is as a person,” Harbaugh said. “Of course, the plays he makes and how tough he is. I mean, just, you can't get over about how tough he is – how physically tough he is (and) how mentally tough he is. I mean, he's in there running the ball, (and) he's getting hit. And he's taking shots, and he gets back up. Then he steps up, and makes a play, runs around and throws a touchdown pass.”
ESPN commentator Dan Orlovsky apparently doesn’t carry the same respect for Jackson as most people. He said all Buffalo has to do to beat Jackson and the Ravens is play like they did against the Broncos, according to espn.com.
“If they play this weekend against the Ravens like they did (against the Broncos), Buffalo wins that game,” Orlovsky said. “Absolutely.”
Translation? There’s nothing Lamar Jackson can do. If the Bills to their thing, the Ravens lose. Wow, Dan. Really?
Fortunately, Stephen A. Smith dropped a hammer on Orlovsky’s nonsense.
“Baltimore’s coming,” Smith said. “(The Ravens) are not the Denver Broncos. I need to see more in order for (the Bills) to beat Baltimore.”
