The Ravens have to clean up what went wrong in Cleveland before they can move forward, and that starts with getting their offense back on schedule. Baltimore watched a 10-0 lead vanish in Week 6 after Tyler Huntley and the offense came out hot, then faded badly enough to leave the defense stuck carrying too much of the load in the fourth quarter.
Now comes a divisional matchup with the Bengals, and Huntley is in line to start again with Lamar Jackson sidelined for a third straight game because of a high ankle sprain. That news pushed Baltimore to 2.5-point home underdogs at FanDuel Sportsbook. If the Ravens are going to grab their fifth win, the path is pretty clear: lean on Derrick Henry and make Cincinnati defend the run away from its strength.
The Bengals’ revamped front has been a strange mix in the run game. They’ve been stuffing rushers while also giving up explosive runs at the highest rate in the league, according to Next Gen Stats. Their issues show up in the numbers, too, with opponents sitting at 1.47 yards over expectation per attempt and 2.62 yards before contact per attempt, both league highs by a wide margin.
The split is even starker depending on where the carry goes. Runs between the tackles are producing only 3.3 yards per carry, while runs to the outside are jumping to 6.0.
A lot of that is tied to Dexter Lawrence, whose presence has made the middle of the line a bad place to spend the afternoon. The offseason trade addition has been exactly what Cincinnati hoped for, working next to another veteran pickup in Jonathan Allen and taking over the interior.
For Baltimore, that means the answer is not to bang its head into the same wall. Derrick Henry still does the dirty work on the edge as well as any 6-foot-3, 252-pound back can, and that outside stress matters even more with Cam Jurgens making his first start as a Raven.
Jurgens knows Lawrence well from his time with the Eagles, and the job here is simple in concept if brutal in execution: beat Lawrence to the spot, wall him off on outside zone, and let Henry get into space. Once Henry clears the line, he gets a Bengals secondary that has had problems tackling.
The Ravens also need their own defensive spark, and the obvious place to find it is Trey Hendrickson. He downplayed the rematch with his former team this week, but his Thursday line - “As a Christian, I forgive” - is the kind of quote that hangs around when a player gets a shot at the team that once dragged contract disputes into the open. Hendrickson has made clear how frustrated he was with Cincinnati during those standoffs, and now he gets a chance to go after the franchise that paid up for its offensive stars but never matched that for the league’s sack leader across the 2024 and 2025 seasons.
His most important battle figures to come on third down, where Baltimore has been vulnerable all year. Orlando Brown Jr. has held up overall in pass protection, but his numbers crash in true pass sets, the Pro Football Focus measure for standard dropback situations. Brown has given up 11 of his 12 pressures and all three of his sacks in those looks, which are usually the exact moments the Ravens need to win most.
Cincinnati won’t leave Hendrickson alone, either. Expect tight end Drew Sample and running backs Chase Browns and Samaje Perine to help chip and slow him down.
That gives Baltimore a couple ways to respond. One is to use the attention on Hendrickson as a setup, springing other rushers free with picks and movement, whether that’s Nnamdi Madubuike or a second-level blitzer looping outside.
Another option is to turn up the heat with an overload pressure on the right side and have Hendrickson drop into coverage. That kind of call has to come at the right time against the right formation, but it’s the sort of wrinkle that can tilt a game if the quarterback bites. Burrow has shown he can be drawn into interceptions before, and Hendrickson may just need a quick lesson from Marlon Humphrey on how to catch with a wrapped hand.
In Other News...
Ravens O Line Has Another Injury Concern Fans Will Hate
The Ravens offensive line took another hit in Week 7 when rookie guard Vega Ioane went down with a knee injury, adding to a season-long run of up-front concerns. Ioane has been a key player for Baltimore, and losing him in the middle of a game only adds more pressure to a unit that has already had to shuffle through injury trouble.
Ioane exited during the Ravens third drive and was replaced by Emery Jones Jr., leaving Baltimore to adjust on the fly again. His status to return was listed as questionable, and for a team that has already spent plenty of time managing its line depth, this was the kind of scare fans did not want to see. [Read more 🡒]
Ravens Collapse Put One Late Decision Under The Microscope
The Ravens had an early lead and looked capable of riding out Lamar Jacksons injury with backup Tyler Huntley under center, but the game slipped away in a hurry against the Bengals. Baltimore was outscored badly after halftime in a 35-13 loss, a result that left the whole afternoon feeling like a missed chance long before the final whistle.
What drew the sharpest scrutiny was a late fourth-down call from Jesse Minter, one that ended without a payoff and seemed to swing momentum squarely to Cincinnati. With the Ravens already trying to survive without Jackson, the decision became a focal point in a game where every possession mattered, and it only deepened the frustration around a collapse that had been building for much of the second half. [Read more 🡒]
Ravens Face A Brutal AFC North Test Without Their Biggest Edge
Week 7 brings a tougher kind of AFC North pressure for Baltimore, and the conversation around it has centered on how the Ravens will handle Cincinnati without the usual safety net at quarterback. Analysts have spent the lead-up weighing the matchup from every angle, from the Ravens defensive approach to the challenge of staying on schedule against a division opponent that can make any mistake feel much larger.
Tyler Huntley is the name drawing the most attention in the absence of Lamar Jackson, because the way Baltimore moves the ball figures to shape everything else around the game. On the other side, Joe Burrow, Ja'Marr Chase and Tee Higgins make for a formidable test, which is why the discussion has leaned so heavily toward matchups, impact players and whether Baltimore can survive a difficult road through one of the leagues most demanding divisions. [Read more 🡒]