Baltimore Ravens set to play the NFL’s worst offensive team, the Carolina Panthers
The Baltimore Ravens head to Carolina this Sunday to take on the Carolina Panthers in a game that Baltimore should have little difficulty winning.
Carolina (1-8) has struggled mightily this season with only one win, a 23-20 victory against the San Francisco 49ers in Week 7. They have the worst ranked passing offence in the league, and their rushing offence is not much better at 24th.
Baltimore (6-3) has been one of the most dominating defence teams in recent history, but has cooled off this season. Their pass defence is ranked 13th and their rush defence is eighth, but those rankings should improve against the Panthers.
Baltimore is coming off a 26-21 loss to the Atlanta Falcons, and will be looking to get back on track in the AFC North. They’re currently tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for first place in the division.
Raven’s quarterback, Joe Flacco, has the NFL’s best passer rating over the past four games at 114.2. In those four games, Flacco has faced some good passing defences, and some bad.
The Falcons have the 23rd best pass defence in the league. Before that Flacco was up against the sixth (Miami Dolphins) and seventh (Buffalo Bills) best passing defences. In Week 6, Flacco threw for 285 yards and two touchdowns against New England
Patriots, who are ranked 30th in passing defence.
Carolina is ranked 5th in passing defence, but Flacco and the Ravens should have ample opportunities to put the ball in the end-zone.
Baltimore’s defence will be looking to add to their sack total against the Panthers, who are third in the league in sacks allowed. The Ravens have only 16 sacks so far this season with Terrell Suggs and Haloti Ngata leading the team with 6.5 and 5 sacks
respectively.
Carolina’s Achilles’s heel so far this season has been their anaemic offence, which is dead last in the NFL in both points and yards. For a team desperate to improve on offence, a game against the Baltimore Ravens is not in their best interest.
Losing their starting quarterback, Matt Moore, for the season in a 34-3 loss to the New Orleans Saints on 7 November also doesn’t help. Replacing Moore is rookie quarterback, Jimmy Clausen, who has been inconsistent in his four starts this season.
Last Sunday Clausen went 16-29 with 191 yards passing in a 31-16 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. In his start previous to that, a 23-6 loss to the Chicago Bears on 10 October, he was 9 for 22 in passing with 61 yards and threw an interception.
He was sacked five times by the Bears in that game, and if the Ravens can get to him early, they may rattle the rookie enough to take him, and the Panther’s offence, out of this game completely.
The Panthers also won’t be able to look to DeAngelo Williams to lead the offence. He was placed on injured reserve with a mid-foot sprain on Wednesday and won’t return this season.
Without their starting quarterback and running back, the worst offence in the league is now much worse.
Prediction: The Ravens are not going to let up against the Panthers with first place in the AFC North on the line. Baltimore 37 Panthers 6
Tags: