It’s a short week for the Baltimore Ravens as they kick off Week 10 of the NFL season on Thursday Night Football in an AFC North showdown against the Cincinnati Bengals. Let’s look into this matchup to start the second half of the NFL season.
Baltimore Ravens vs. Cincinnati Bengals series history
This will be the 59th all-time meeting between the Ravens and Bengals, and the second this season. The Ravens took a 31-27 series lead after a wild game in Week 5 that went to overtime after 31 combined points were scored in the fourth quarter. The Ravens kicked a field goal to secure a 41-38 win to move to 3-2, while the Bengals fell to 1-4.
Baltimore now sits at 6-3 while the Bengals have started turning things around, winning three of four since then to get back to 4-5 and be able to add pieces at the trade deadline instead of being sellers. The Bengals added running back Khalil Herbert from the Chicago Bears.
Key players for Ravens
In just nine games, running back Derrick Henry has already reached 1,000 rushing yards. He’s at 1,052 yards on 168 carries (6.3 yards per attempt) with 11 touchdowns. Extrapolate that over 17 games and that’s 1,987 yards and 21 touchdowns. In Week 5, Henry rushed 15 times for 92 yards and a touchdown.
While Diontae Johnson continues to get acclimated with the offense, Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman continue to shoulder the load as the top two wide receivers. Could Mark Andrews break out again this week? Isaiah Likely is out of this matchup, and one of Andrew’s best games this season came against the Bengals in Week 5, catching five passes for 55 yards.
Key players for Bengals
In the wild Week 5 overtime game, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow threw for 392 yards on 30-of-39 passing with five touchdowns. Burrow did all he could to win that game for Cincinnati, but the defense couldn’t hold off the Ravens’ offense. Burrow is coming off another five-touchdown performance last week against the Las Vegas Raiders, going 27-of-39 for 251 yards.
With running back Zack Moss now on injured reserve, the Bengals brought in Khalil Herbert to work with Chase Brown, who will likely take the majority of the carries for the time being. Brown has 479 yards and four touchdowns on 105 attempts and has added 98 yards on 21 receptions.
The Bengals feature one of the better linebacker duos in the NFL in Logan Wilson and Germaine Pratt. Wilson has 88 tackles and Pratt has 81 through nine games. They combined for 11 tackles in Week 5.
Keys to victory for Ravens
Set the ground game, and tie the record
The run game continues to be the bread and butter for the Ravens and for good reason. When you have a pairing like Lamar Jackson and Henry, it puts a lot of pressure on opposing defenses to try and tackle both consistently. The Ravens can also make some history Thursday.
If the team rushes for 100 total yards, they will tie the NFL record with 43 consecutive 100-yard rushing games. That’s a record shared by the 1974-1977 Pittsburgh Steelers and the Ravens from 2018-2021.
Force the Bengals to play behind the sticks
According to NFL Next Gen Stats, since Week 4 when Amarius Mims moved into the starting lineup, the Bengals have allowed contact behind the line of scrimmage on 50 percent of their designed run. That rate is the 6th-highest in the league. That would play right into the Ravens’ hands to then be able to pick and choose their spots to blitz Joe Burrow.
If Baltimore is able to force the Bengals to play from behind, the Ravens should be able to come out on top.
Take care of Trey Hendrickson, let the others beat you
Defensive end Trey Hendrickson leads the league with 11 sacks. No other player on the Bengals has more than two. The Ravens did keep Hendrickson off the board in the sack category in Week 5, where Sam Hubbard recorded the only sack for Cincinnati in that game. It worked once, why not try it again?
