Ravens vs. Cardinals: What's the Game Plan for Baltimore?

When the 2015 NFL season schedule came out, the Monday Night Football matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and Arizona Cardinals was viewed as a battle of playoff, and possibly even Super Bowl, contenders. 

After all, those two combined to go 21-11 and both make the playoffs last year. Arizona would have been even better had starting quarterback Carson Palmer not suffered an ACL tear midway through the season. 

As for the Ravens, they made it to the second round of the playoffs before narrowly losing to the eventual-champion New England Patriots.

You can see why the hype around this game was so high coming into the season, but the Ravens are now in the midst of one of their worst seasons since the franchise's inception in 1996. Never has a Ravens team started 1-5 but that's exactly where they stand heading into Week 7.

As for the Cardinals, they've looked mighty impressive at times with a combined plus-102 scoring margin in their four wins. However, a 24-22 home loss to the 2-3 St. Louis Rams and a 25-13 loss against the Pittsburgh Steelers without Ben Roethlisberger shows this is anything but an unbeatable team. 

Here is a look at what the Ravens game plan should be in order to defeat the Cardinals in Arizona. 

Offensive Game Plan

The Cardinals defense has been decent through their first six games, giving up just 19.2 points per contest, the ninth-fewest of any team. 

However, they do give up a decent amount of yardage per game, ranking 18th in rushing defense, 14th in passing defense and their nine sacks are tied for the sixth-fewest of any team. 

Don't let that fool you, though. Their secondary is very hard to consistently have success against for four quarters. They rank fourth in opposing passer rating, ninth in opposing completion percentage and fifth in yards per attempt allowed. 

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A big reason for all of that is they have one of the best cornerbacks in the game with Patrick Peterson locking down opposing receivers. A four-time Pro Bowler and two-time All-Pro selection,  Peterson has been one of the game's best corners, and he alone makes this secondary very formidable. 

He's not alone. Tyrann Mathieu has quietly become one of the league's better slot corners after initially beginning his career at safety. He's already got two interceptions and seven pass deflections this year to go with 36 total tackles and is Pro Football Focus' second-ranked corner.

Mathieu is an athletic freak who can lay the wood on running backs while doing well in pass coverage against receivers and tight ends. He'll line up all over the field, including both safety spots and even occasionally as one of the boundary corners. 

The Ravens will be best served not throwing at Mathieu or Peterson as often as possible in this matchup. Instead, Joe Flacco should look to go after the other starting corner, Jerraud Powers.

Powers has given up some big plays this year and has been the easiest corner to pick on of the three starters. Baltimore would be wise to try and get Steve Smith Sr. matched up with him as much as possible.

Even if they can't get Smith going against him, Kamar Aiken should be able to beat Powers for several big plays. The linebackers haven't been particularly good in pass coverage either, so tight ends Maxx Williams and Crockett Gillmore should be a big part of the offensive game plan. 

However, the biggest key to Baltimore winning this game will be establishing the ground game. Not only is this Arizona's biggest weakness on defense, but it's also the best way to keep long sustained drives that eat up clock going and keep Baltimore's struggling defense off the field against Arizona's high-powered offense.

It helps that the Cardinals rank 21st in rushing yards per attempt allowed (4.1). The Ravens ground game has been surging in recent weeks after getting off to a slow start this season.

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Justin Forsett once again looks like a stud back who carried Baltimore throughout the 2014 season. He's rushed for 333 yards on 65 carries (5.12 YPC) over his last three games while also chipping in 11 catches for 88 yards. 

Rookie Javorius 'Buck' Allen hasn't touched the ball much this season, but he's looked impressive when he has. Allen has 137 yards on just 30 runs (4.6 YPC) in six games, and we'd see more of him if the Ravens weren't having to abandon the run while playing from behind as often as they have this season. 

Those two will have to come up big on the ground to keep the Ravens offense on the field as much as possible in this game. Then those other guys must step up in the passing game when called upon, and all of this will put Baltimore in position to win this game. 

Defensive Game Plan

As mentioned before, the Ravens defense has struggled this season, especially in the secondary. That unit has routinely given up big plays and late leads that have largely attributed to Baltimore's 1-5 start. 

Unfortunately for them, they will face their biggest test of the season thus far when they take on a Cardinals offense that thrives on its passing game. Entering Week 6, Arizona ranks sixth in passing offense, second in yards per passing attempt (8.9) and is tied for the second-most TD passes (14). 

It all starts with Carson Palmer, who's playing like the NFL's best QB. In fact, Palmer is the top-ranked QB on Pro Football Focus, passing for 1,737 yards and 14 touchdowns vs. five interceptions in six games. 

It doesn't help matters that he's has a 9-5 record against Baltimore from his days with the Bengals. Palmer would love nothing more than to hang another loss on his old AFC North rival. 

As good as Palmer is, it helps tremendously that Arizona has one of the best trios at wide receiver of any team in Larry Fitzgerald, Michael Floyd and John Brown. Those three can beat a defense all over the field, and Baltimore's secondary will have their work cut out for them. 

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Fitzgerald currently ranks fourth in the league with 583 receiving yards to go with the fifth-most catches (43) of any receiver and is tied for the NFL lead in touchdown grabs (6). 

Fitzgerald is going to be a load to stop, but Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith has shut down some pretty good receivers in his career. The problem with Arizona is they have two other explosive pass-catchers in the form of John Brown and Michael Floyd.

Brown is a deep-threat specialist who has 33 catches for 497 yards (15.1 yards per catch) this season. Brown also led the Cardinals with 10 catches for 196 yards in Arizona's Week 6 loss at Pittsburgh. 

Floyd is still getting his feet under him after a broken finger suffered in the preseason led to him not doing much early this season. Floyd did catch five passes for 50 yards and a TD last week against the Steelers, and he's capable of having a big day if the Ravens try to focus more on Brown and Fitzgerald. 

The Ravens don't have the horses in their secondary to run with those guys for four quarters, but they may have the guys to keep Palmer from throwing it all over the field. That's because guys like Elvis Dumervil are still on the team, while other pass-rushers have stepped up, and they'll all need to do so this week.

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The Ravens have the sixth-most sacks of any team with 18. What's even better is no one guy is doing all of the damage, rather it's coming from a variety of guys.

Lawrence Guy actually leads the team in sacks, while Dumervil has 2.5. C.J. Mosley, Za'Darius Smith and Daryl Smith each have two sacks. Timmy Jernigan chipped in 1.5, and five other Ravens have one sack. 

Defensive coordinator Dean Pees has done a great job at disguising his blitzes and getting pressure from all across his defense. He'll need to keep that up this week and keep Palmer under fire throughout the game to prevent him from gouging the secondary. 

Prediction

After watching the Ravens for six weeks, it's hard to see them winning a game on the road against a team that thrives off what Baltimore struggles defending. This Cardinals offense may have the best passing game of any NFL team, and the Ravens may have the NFL's worst secondary. 

It's just too big of a mismatch for this Ravens team to overcome, and though they'll be competitive in this one, I can't see them pulling it out. 

Final Score: Cardinals 33, Ravens 17