Ravens vs. Raiders: Previewing Baltimore's Week 2 Matchup

The Baltimore Ravens will be searching for their first win of 2015 when they take on the Oakland Raiders in Week 2. 

Baltimore is coming off a gut-wrenching loss to the Denver Broncos in Week 1. Oakland is coming off a 33-13 whipping at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals, who will come to Baltimore in Week 3.

While that is shaping up to be a big game for the Ravens, they must maintain focus on the task at hand and go into Oakland and get the win. 

The good news is the Raiders look like they'll be one of, if not the, weakest team on the Ravens' schedule this year. If Baltimore can't get a win over them, even if the game is in Oakland, then it's got some serious problems that may not be fixable this season. 

Still, this is a league where anyone can win on any given Sunday. It's time for a look at what the Ravens have done so far this season and what they'll need to do to beat the Raiders in Week 2.

Game Time: 4:05 p.m. ET

Location: O.co Coliseum in Oakland, California

Date: Sunday, Sept. 20

TV: CBS

Week 1 Results and Recap

Justin Edmonds/Getty Images

The Ravens are coming off a loss to the Broncos in a game Baltimore absolutely should have won.

The offense was a no-show, and Joe Flacco threw a pick-six. Despite all of that, Baltimore still had the ball in the red zone with the chance at the game-winning score with under a minute left in the game.

However, Flacco's throw to tight end Crockett Gillmore in the end zone was intercepted by Broncos safety Darian Stewart to seal the 19-13 win for Denver.

Making that even harder of a pill to swallow was that Stewart was a starting safety for Baltimore in 2014 before leaving to sign with Denver this offseason. 

The good news is the AFC North did not have a good Week 1 in general. Cincinnati did win at Oakland, but the Raiders will probably lose three, if not all four, games they play versus the AFC North this year.

The Pittsburgh Steelers, who won the division last year, lost to the New England Patriots, 28-21. As for the Cleveland Browns, the New York Jets embarrassed them, 31-10. 

Here is a look at the AFC North standings after Week 1, which sees the Ravens tied for second place with the Steelers and Browns and right behind the Bengals.

AFC NORTH	W	L	PCT	DIV	CONF
Cincinnati Bengals	1	0	1.000	0-0	1-0
Pittsburgh Steelers	0	1	.000	0-0	0-1
Baltimore Ravens	0	1	.000	0-0	0-1
Cleveland Browns	0	1	.000	0-0	0-1

News and Notes

Jack Dempsey/Associated Press

Terrell Suggs lost for year

The biggest news to come out of Week for Baltimore wasn't even that they lost to the Broncos. It was that star linebacker Terrell Suggs was lost for the year with a torn Achilles.

Suggs has been instrumental in Baltimore annually having one of the NFL's best defenses, especially when it comes to rushing the passer. 

Now in his 13th season, Suggs has notched 106.5 sacks in his NFL career to go with 27 forced fumbles and 728 total tackles. Over the past two years, Suggs has racked up 22 sacks and 141 total tackles.

What makes this loss even worse is that the Ravens were already without one of their longtime defensive leaders after trading away defensive lineman Haloti Ngata to the Detroit Lions this offseason. 

Losing that kind of talent and production can cause any defense to go from being great to looking questionable going forward. The good news is they'll play a bad Raiders team this week that's especially weak along the offensive line. 

Ravens signing Jason Babin to help replace Suggs

In order to help offset the loss of Terrell Suggs, the Ravens are signing free agent Jason Babin, according to NFL.com. 

Babin is now in his 12th NFL season after spending last year with the New York Jets, where he accounted for just two sacks and 25 total tackles in 16 games. 

Though Babin is best suited as a 4-3 defensive end, he's shown he can put up good numbers as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense like Baltimore uses.

From 2010-2013, Babin racked up 45 of his 64.5 career sacks. When used correctly, the veteran pass-rusher can make the kind of impact Baltimore will need to help overcome Suggs being out. 

Offensive line lets Joe Flacco down

While Joe Flacco had one of the worst games you'll ever see him have against the Broncos, it wasn't all on him. In fact, the offensive line was the real culprit in Sunday's 19-13 loss that saw Baltimore's offense have just 173 total yards and score six offensive points (seven came off Jimmy Smith pick-six).

As ESPN's Jamison Hensley wrote, Baltimore's offensive line let Flacco down badly against the Broncos: "On Sunday, Flacco was pressured 50 percent of the time (17-of-34), which was the highest percentage in the NFL in Week 1. No other quarterback got pressured more than 40 percent of his dropbacks."

Allowing your quarterback to be pressured that much and that often is going to kill any offense, so that helps explain why Baltimore couldn't do anything on that side of the ball versus Denver. 

The good news is Denver has one of the best front sevens in football and may have the best pass-rushing tandem in DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller of any NFL team. 

Many, if not every team is going to struggle against Denver's defense, so this game may not be indicative of how Baltimore's offensive line will perform in the long term this season. 

Latest Injury News

Andrew Weber-USA TODAY Sports

NAME	POSITION	INJURY	WED.	THU.	FRI.
Forsett, Justin	RB	Shoulder	LP	-	-
Jernigan, Timmy	DT	Knee	FP	-	-
Melvin, Rashaan	CB	Thigh	LP	-	-
Monroe, Eugene	T	Concussion	DNP	-	-
Perriman, Breshad	WR	Knee	DNP	-	-
Taliaferro, Lorenzo	RB	Knee	FP	-	-

Injury report courtesy of BaltimoreRavens.com

The Ravens are once again dealing with several injuries to key players. As was the case last week, rookie wide receiver Breshad Perriman will likely miss this week while recovering from a PCL injury.

Perriman missed Wednesday's practice, and even if he were able to practice Thursday and Friday, head coach John Harbaugh will probably want to see him go through three or four practices before he lets him play in his first regular-season NFL game.

Also missing Wednesday's session was starting left tackle Eugene Monroe. He suffered a concussion in the first quarter of Sunday's loss to the Broncos.

If Monroe is unable to clear the NFL's concussion testing, he'll sit out this week while James Hurst replaces him. Hurst struggled mightily against Denver last week, but the Raiders don't have close to the caliber of defense as the Broncos do. 

Key Matchups and X-Factor

Wilfredo Lee/Associated Press

Ravens OTs vs. Raiders DEs

As mentioned in the previous slide, Baltimore lost starting left tackle Eugene Monroe last week to a concussion, leaving James Hurst to replace him. 

This, after Hurst finished 2014 ranked 80th out of 84 offensive tackles in Pro Football Focus' rankings. He didn't look any better against the Broncos, and PFF gave him a minus-9.1 grade for his performance at Denver. 

That wasn't even the worst grade a Ravens lineman had last week. That distinction belonged to starting right tackle Ricky Wagner. He earned a minus-10.4 grade against the Broncos.

Through Week 1, Wagner is PFF's worst-rated tackle, while Hurst is the third-worst tackle. That's how bad they were last week, and life isn't about to get much easier against the Raiders.

While Oakland's defense is significantly weaker than Denver's, it does have a great defensive end tandem in Justin Tuck and Khalil Mack. Those two combined for 119 total tackles in 2014, a big number for a pair of ends to account for.

However, it's their pass-rushing ability that makes them a scary duo. According to PFF, Tuck and Mack combined for 59 QB hurries in 2014 to go with 76 stops (tackles causing an offensive failure)

They wreak havoc for opposing offenses. After Baltimore's tackles allowed Denver to do just that last week, they'll be key to now having a repeat happen this week. 

X-Factors: Maxx Williams and Crockett Gillmore

The Raiders linebackers are weak in pass coverage, and that was evident against the Bengals last week. Tyler Eifert gashed them for career-high in catches (nine), yards (104) and touchdowns (two). 

While it's unclear if Maxx Williams and Crockett Gillmore are or will ever be as good as Eifert, they're still two talented players who should be in for a big day against Oakland.

Williams, Baltimore's second-round pick out of Minnesota in this year's NFL draft, was held to one catch on two targets against the Broncos. Gillmore caught two passes for 23 yards on four targets as he and Williams split the tight end duties.

Those two will likely share time again this week, so both could be big X-factors in this game. Oakland simply is not good at defending tight ends, which should lead to a big game for one, if not both, of Williams and Gillmore. 

Prediction

Gene J. Puskar/Associated Press

The Ravens aren't about to start the year 0-2 with so much potential to be a great team this season.

They may not be great right now, but they're certainly good enough to beat a bad Raiders team this week, even if the game is in Oakland. Don't expect the offense to have another clunker against a bad Raiders defense that surrendered 33 points through three quarters to the Bengals last week.

On offense, Baltimore will have its way with the Raiders through a balanced game plan that features Forsett and Buck Allen on the ground. Those two gash the Raiders for several big runs, which helps open up the passing game for Flacco to begin finding his rhythm.

Flacco hooks up with Steve Smith Sr. for several big plays while also getting rookie tight end Williams more involved in the offense. On the other side, Baltimore's defense suffocates the Raiders offense and terrorizes whoever is at quarterback.

Final Score: Ravens 27, Raiders 10