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The Baltimore Ravens will look to punch their ticket to the AFC Championship Game on Saturday when they take on the Tennessee Titans in their Divisional Round playoff matchup, and while everyone is waiting to see what Lamar Jackson will do, there is an important X-Factor that could decide this game for the Ravens.
That X-Factor goes by the name of Marquise Brown, the rookie wide receiver who provided Jackson with a reliable downfield threat all season long, catching 46 passes for 584 yards and seven touchdowns.
Baltimore is known for its running game. Whether its Jackson, Mark Ingram or Gus Edwards, the Ravens have been gashing opponents on the ground all season long.
Even if Ingram sits out against the Titans due to a calf injury, Jackson and Edwards should still be enough to carry the load.
We know that.
But Tennessee will also surely be playing to stuff the run game, much like the Los Angeles Chargers did against Baltimore last postseason when they completely shut down Jackson and the Ravens' offense in general.
Of course, that was then, and this is now. Jackson is a very different player this January than he was last January, and Baltimore has more offensive weapons overall.
Still, the playoffs are a different animal, and we genuinely don't know if the Ravens will be able to carry over their massive offensive success from the regular season into the postseason.
Chances are, Baltimore will be just fine, but the Ravens will still need a well-balanced attack that goes beyond Jackson's legs to beat a Titans club that has been red-hot for the last couple of months.
Enter Brown, who can stretch the field like nobody's business and make it so that Tennessee's defense will be scrambling to guard against the deep ball while also trying to prevent Jackson to rip off some big runs.
Brown's gravity is imperative in that sense, as even if he isn't Julio Jones or DeAndre Hopkins, he is someone the defense must pay attention to, or else he might burn you for a 50-yard touchdown.
The Titans don't have a great passing defense to begin with (they ranked 24th in the NFL in that category this season), so Brown may be able to get some work done against that secondary.
To be fair, Tennessee has been playing better in general of late, and it did a great job of severely limiting the New England Patriots' aerial attack in the Wild Card Round last week, but the Patriots' passing game had been questionable all year long, especially with a seriously banged-up Julian Edelman.
If Brown can get behind the defense a couple of times and make some big plays early on, it will completely open up the Ravens' offense and will prevent the Titans' defense from getting into any kind of rhythm.
In turn, the middle of the field would become that much more open for Jackson to tear off big gains on the run, and if those two things happen in tandem, Tennessee is going to be in significant trouble.
