Can Ravens keep their foot on the gas? (2024)

Quarterback Lamar Jackson starred in the Ravens’ win over the Lions on Sunday, as Detroit routed Baltimore 38-6. Here’s what you need to know:

• Jackson went 21-of-27 passing for 357 yards and three touchdowns for a 155.8 passer rating. He added a score on the ground on Baltimore’s opening drive.
• It was Jackson’s first game with at least three TD passes and a rushing touchdown since Week 3 of last season against the New England Patriots.
• Baltimore held Detroit scoreless through the first three quarters. The Lions got on the board in the fourth via a 21-yard TD run by Jahmyr Gibbs.
• Detroit quarterback Jared Goff completed 33 of 53 passes for 284 yards with no TDs and an interception.

Read more here.

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The Ravens hung on to beat the Titans in London 24-16 last week after leading 18-3 at halftime, the latest instance of Baltimore struggling to close games after a fast start.

In games the Ravens have held at least a seven-point lead at halftime since the start of last season, Baltimore has averaged 6.2 points per game in the second half (25th in NFL), 122.3 second-half YPG (28th in NFL) and is tied for the second-most turnovers (seven).

The NFL’s last two unbeaten teams — the San Francisco 49ers and Philadelphia Eagles — both fell from their lofty perches last Sunday, and now comes a Week 7 slate that features five 5-1 squads, three 4-2 teams and a cluster of others hovering around .500.

Several games on this week’s schedule are potential playoff previews, including the Miami Dolphins versus the Eagles, both of whom may be Super Bowl contenders.

Meanwhile, life doesn’t get any easier for a number of struggling teams. The Las Vegas Raiders, Chicago Bears, Indianapolis Colts, Cleveland Browns and New York Giants’ starting quarterbacks are nursing injuries that will or could force them to sit out in Week 7. Jimmy Garoppolo and Justin Fields have already been ruled out, and Anthony Richardson is done for the season. Daniel Jones and Deshaun Watson were both questionable heading into Sunday.

Here are five of the most intriguing storylines to follow across the league.

The ball hung in the air. Drifting, drifting, drifting some more. Catch or drop, touchdown or letdown, the opinions of many were ready to be shared.

For the intended target, Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams, that’s a typical Sunday. But this one was different.

That ball would eventually land. Right into Williams’ outstretched arms, after an on-the-fly adjustment, for a score, on a deep ball that kissed the Tampa sun before touching down for a 45-yard touchdown.

It was a play Lions fans had been waiting for. It was one that Williams had been waiting for. It reminds you what he can be for this Lions team — now 5-1, tied for the best record in football, with reinforcements like Williams working themselves into the mix.

Read more here.

The Baltimore Ravens know plenty about the alternative.

The alternative came a week earlier when they blew a 10-point lead and buried themselves amid a series of mistakes in a loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The alternative came when they were last in London in 2017 and didn’t show up in a 37-point loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, inarguably the team’s worst performance in the John Harbaugh era.

So don’t for a second blame the Ravens for celebrating Week 6's more difficult-than-necessary 24-16 victory over the Tennessee Titans in front of a spirited crowd of 61,011 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. They earned it by professionally taking care of business all week and again Sunday, as ugly as it sometimes looked.

“It’s a great feeling,” Harbaugh said about the Ravens getting their first win abroad. “Better than the alternative by far. I can tell you that. It’s a lot better when you win, I can tell you from experience.”

Yes, the Ravens entered the game as the much healthier team. Yes, the Ravens were in London six days before the game to adjust their bodies and sleep schedules to the five-hour time difference, while the Titans arrived late Thursday, practiced once and then had to play a football game in short order. And yes, the Ravens jumped out to an 18-3 halftime lead against an offensively challenged team and really should have coasted the rest of the way. Except that’s never really the way they do things.

Read more here.

Attention, L’Jarius Sneed and Rashan Gary. Both of you are well on your way to adding a few more zeroes to the end of your contract numbers once you land new deals heading into the 2024 season.

But which other potential 2024 NFL free agents could be cashing in? And which players have hurt their chances of signing monster contracts this offseason through the first six weeks of this season?

Here’s a stock watch for some of the notable projected 2024 free agents as we’re a third of the way through the 2023 campaign.

At age 14, Ben Johnson registered a perfect score on the Mathematical Association of America’s AMC 8 exam, a challenging middle school test. In his spare time, Johnson pretended to be Joe Montana.

The son of a school principal, Johnson studied math and computer science at North Carolina. He also was a walk-on in the QB room of Gary Tranquill, an offensive wizard with more than five decades of experience, ranging from head coach at Navy to being one of the first NFL assistants hired by Bill Belichick. Academia never stood a chance.

Three years ago, Johnson was a smart guy you’d likely never heard of. Today, he’s offensive coordinator of the Detroit Lions, in charge of a unit whose uniqueness at the moment can be challenged only by the top offenses in football. Those offenses are run by Kyle Shanahan (San Francisco 49ers), Mike McDaniel (Miami Dolphins) and Nick Sirianni (Philadelphia Eagles) — names you surely recognize.

Detroit’s offense is the third-most efficient in the NFL this season, per Pro Football Focus, behind only the Dolphins and 49ers. It is a classic throwback system with zero tendencies and modern wrinkles all over the place. The Lions are 4-1 and leading the NFC North.

Nobody in the NFL runs offense quite like Ben Johnson and Lions coach Dan Campbell. Let’s unpack what makes their attack so much fun.

Baltimore Ravens middle linebacker Roquan Smith acknowledged how well Sunday’s opponent, the Detroit Lions, are performing offensively. He praised Jared Goff and the way they are playing to the veteran quarterback’s strengths.

When asked whether the matchup with the 5-1 Lions is a measuring stick for the defense he leads, Smith said, “We’ll be ready to welcome those guys here. They’re playing good ball, but, hey, I’m from the show-me business. You’ve got to show me.”

The Lions have the NFL’s third-ranked offense. They’ve won four straight games, each by at least two touchdowns. They’ve worn teams down on the ground and created big plays through the air.

The Ravens have the league’s second-ranked defense. They’re taking down the quarterback as often as any team in football, and they’ve been at their best in the red zone. Yet, despite their impressive ranking in just about every notable category, there still seem to be questions about how good the Ravens truly are defensively.

Read more here.

The Lions are tied for the best record in the NFL at 5-1 and a win Sunday against the Ravens would secure the franchise’s best seven-game start since 1956 (also 6-1).

Detroit would also start 6-1 a season after opening 1-6 in 2022. The 2019 49ers (7-0 in 2019, 1-6 in 2018) are the only team in the last decade to start a season at least 6-1 a year after starting 1-6 or worse. That 2019 Niners team went on to reach the Super Bowl.

“I feel like everyone is out on a first date and feeling each other out right now.”

That’s how one NFL general manager described this time on the NFL calendar, less than two weeks from the NFL trade deadline.

The trade streets are rather calm, but that could change for many organizations over the next 72 hours.

Most teams are having internal meetings, passing along trade ideas to other teams, and talking hypotheticals to see if they can work it out.

I had one team executive tell me his team won’t participate in any serious trade conversations until this Monday: “Depending on Sunday’s outcome, depends on if we will be buyers or sellers.”

Read more here.

Who is good? Who is bad? What is real? What is not?

At the top of the league, six teams have five wins with one or two losses heading into this weekend. Two of those teams meet in a Miami Dolphins–Philadelphia Eagles showdown Sunday night.

Then, stuck somewhere in the middle are eight teams, each with a very different story about how it’s reached 3-3.

The Athletic’s NFL writers Mike Sando, Kalyn Kahler and Jeff Howe try to make sense of it all while discussing other noteworthy topics heading into the weekend in our latest roundtable.

Even as they transitioned from Greg Roman’s run-based offense to Todd Monken’s more balanced approach, the Baltimore Ravens made clear that they planned to keep the power running game that has been so successful for them in the past. They would throw the ball more and take more shots downfield, but the idea behind a new offense was never to stop running the football.

Through Week 6, no team in the NFL was running the ball more than the Ravens — and they’ve not been void of success in doing so. They enter this week fifth in rushing yards per game (144.8) and tied for third in rushing touchdowns (nine). Yet, from short-yardage issues to a modest 4.3 yards per carry average to Gus Edwards’ decrease in efficiency, there is plenty of proof that Baltimore is simply not running the ball anywhere close to the level it has in the past.

Read more here.

It’s a Sunday afternoon in October, and kickoff is just minutes away. Players are standing in the tunnel waiting for the signal to run out onto the field. They’re taking in the moment, appreciative of a city that has rallied around them. During their trot to the sideline, they stare up at a sea of Detroit Lions fans in Honolulu Blue, proud to cheer on a team that’s finally giving them an on-field product they can believe in. And then, it hits them.

Oh, right. We’re on the road.

“We’ll be on the field and it’ll be loud as hell,” Lions defensive tackle Alim McNeill said. “I’ll forget we’re not at home.”

“Most of these stadiums, you’re getting booed when you run out,” linebacker Derrick Barnes added. “Even through our tunnel, it was just a bunch of Lions fans. You look out to where our sideline was, it was nothing but blue, man. That was amazing to see. It felt like we were at home. Seriously.”

This is the new norm for the Lions. They’re 5-1 this season, but perhaps even more impressive, a perfect 3-0 on the road.

Read more here.

The Ravens are hosting the Lions live on FOX and streaming locally on NFL+. Check in with The Athletic for all the latest news, game previews, injury updates and analysis.

Helpful links

• Live stats and game information (Lions at Ravens)
• Latest NFL Week 7 news, matchup previews and analysis
• Complete Week 7 schedule | Updated standings
• Latest odds and expert picks/projections

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