It’s a potential Super Bowl preview in the marquee game of Week 3 around the NFL as the Baltimore Ravens visit the Dallas Cowboys, and it’s almost a must-win game for the Ravens as they are a surprising 0-2 but very short favorites on the NFL odds.
Baltimore vs. Dallas: 2024 NFL Expert Analysis
| Opening NFL Lines Subject to Change: Ravens -0.5 (total 48.5) Expert Prediction: Cowboys 30, Ravens 27 |
Baltimore Ravens -115
The Ravens are a shock 0-2 team, but are about 2–3 plays from being 2-0. On Sunday, the Ravens stunningly blew a 10-point fourth-quarter home lead vs. the Raiders and were beaten 26-23. After Daniel Carlson kicked a 25-yarder to cut Las Vegas’ deficit to 23-16, Gardner Minshew connected with Davante Adams on a 1-yard TD pass to tie it with 3:54 to go. The Raiders quickly got the ball back and Minshew moved Las Vegas downfield before Carlson kicked his fourth field goal of the game. Baltimore is 0-2 for the first time since 2015.
"We will be defined by the next 15 games… That's what we have to do big picture. Short term we have to clean up the things we know we can get better at. We'll continue to work very hard to do that." pic.twitter.com/87yBkGlVD5
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) September 15, 2024
Lamar Jackson
The reigning NFL MVP completed 21 of 34 passes for 247 yards with one touchdown and one interception, and added five carries for 45 yards. Jackson’s numbers appeared to be serviceable overall, but he couldn’t establish much chemistry with any other pass catcher except for Zay Flowers, who was on the receiving end of his one touchdown pass of the contest. Jackson’s interception bounced off Rashod Bateman’s hands, so it’s hard to put much blame on the quarterback for that play. Flowers brought in seven of 11 targets for 91 yards and that touchdown.
Derrick Henry
Henry rushed 18 times for 84 yards and a touchdown, and secured his only target for 12 yards. Henry’s afternoon was highlighted by a 29-yard run, and he grinded out 55 yards on his other 17 totes. One of those was a three-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter, his second score in as many games in a Ravens uniform. Henry has yet to hit the 20-carry mark with his new squad.
The Ravens’ offensive line is under scrutiny following that loss, but don’t expect sweeping changes. Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby tormented Ravens blockers for much of the first half, shutting down Baltimore’s run game and pressuring Lamar Jackson. Then Crosby reared up again when it mattered most with a huge sack on Jackson late in the fourth quarter. Much of the focus has been on right guard, where Daniel Faalele has had some high-profile hiccups in his first two weeks as starter.
Per Next Gen Stats, Faalele has surrendered a team-high 10 quarterback pressures (11.2% of his pass blocking snaps). Left guard Andrew Vorhees has given up the next most with seven pressures, and nobody else has more than four.
“When you put a young group of guys out there, young players at any position, especially the offensive line, there are going to be growing pains. There’s no doubt about it,” Harbaugh said. “We have a lot of good plays happening out there, but we’re just too inconsistent. … It’s almost randomly inconsistent. That’s something that we have to work through, but also across the board with our whole team.”
Nate Wiggins
First-round rookie corner Wiggins was unable to play in last Sunday’s game after suffering a neck injury in a car accident. The Ravens also added “concussion” to Wiggins’ injury designation last Friday. But Wiggins is trending toward a return this week vs. the Dallas Cowboys’ high-profile offense led by Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb. The Ravens secondary has allowed 75.8% of passes to be completed against them through the first two weeks, a surprisingly high number considering there was talk about this being Baltimore’s most talented secondary, at least in a long time. The defense, which was among the most dominant last year, has allowed the most passing yards in the league (514) under new coordinator Zachary Orr, including 233 against the Raiders.
Eight months ago, the Ravens finished with the best record in the NFL at 13-4. Jackson was in the midst of another NFL Most Valuable Player campaign, and Baltimore allowed the fewest points per game on defense (16.5). Two weeks into this season, the Ravens are one of nine teams who are winless.
Since the NFL expanded the playoffs to 14 teams in 2020, 32 teams have started 0-2, and of that group, only the 2023 Houston Texans and 2022 Cincinnati Bengals made the playoffs. The Ravens still have all their AFC North games ahead of them. The Steelers are 2-0, but nobody is close to being out of reach. At the start of the 2024 season, Baltimore’s chances of reaching the postseason were 78.5%. It has now dipped to 42.2%.
“We’ve been here before with our backs up against the wall, and that’s never stopped us,” Ravens tight end Mark Andrews said. “So, I’m excited about going forward and playing the next games.”
^Dallas Cowboys -106
The Cowboys (1-1) looked like a Super Bowl team in a Week 1 win in Cleveland, but had a 16-game home winning streak in the regular season snapped in a shockingly one-sided 44-19 loss to New Orleans this past Sunday. There were no answers defensively for Alvin Kamara, who finished the game with a total of four touchdowns (three on the ground and one in the air), or Derek Carr’s ability to stretch the field with Raheed Shaheed and Chris Olave.
Points Allowed
The 35 points allowed in the first half by Dallas tied for the most given up through the first two quarters in team history. Last year, the Cowboys allowed more than 35 points in a game just once. Defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer expects Baltimore to incorporate some of what the Saints did.
“In this league, they’re all going to copycat,” Zimmer said, “so we have to fix things that we didn’t do well and move on from there, but they’re going to have their meat and potatoes that they do.”
The Cowboys, contrarily, mustered only 19 points and 353 total yards on 66 plays against the Saints. Defensively, the Saints walked away with two interceptions to the Cowboys’ singular one, so forth and so on.
“This is early,” said owner Jerry Jones. “It’s very, very early, and we certainly didn’t see this coming, but obviously we’ve got a lot of room for improvement here. … We were able to keep our drives, had some pretty good possessions, kick some field goals, but you can’t be an effective opponent in a game if you can’t stop them from scoring touchdowns with every possession and not only use the clock.”
CeeDee Lamb
Besides wide receiver Lamb, who will provide the Cowboys’ chunk plays? Through two games, Lamb has two of the Cowboys’ four pass plays of 20 yards or more. He also has two of the three runs of 10 yards or more produced by the offense. Explosive plays lead to quick points and without them, the Cowboys have to drive the field and open themselves up to mistakes. They had three drives of 10 plays or more against the Saints, and had to settle for field goals on all three. Lamb caught four of seven targets for 90 yards and a touchdown, his first of the season after he scored a career-high 14 in 2023, 12 receiving and two rushing.
Rico Dowdle
Dowdle rushed seven times for 30 yards in the loss, adding four receptions for 29 yards. Rico was the first back in the game for the Cowboys, ahead of Deuce Vaughn and Ezekiel Elliott. He saw some heavy usage on check downs from Dak Prescott and tacked on efficient runs in the first half. The Cowboys rank 25th in the NFL in rushing, averaging just 85 yards per game. Dowdle and Elliott are both tied for the team lead with just 56 yards in two games.
Dak Prescott
Prescott completed 27 of 39 passes for 293 yards and one touchdown, with two interceptions. Neither interception was entirely Prescott’s fault, either — the first came when his receiver stumbled out of his break, and the second came in the fourth quarter, when his team was down by three scores and the QB was in desperation mode. Prescott has only two TD passes through his first two games.
Dak was without No. 1 tight end Jake Ferguson on Sunday, but he’s expected back for this one. Ferguson suffered an MCL sprain and bone bruise in his left knee, Week 1. Luke Schoonmaker looked solid while logging a spot start at tight end Week 2, catching all six of his targets for 43 yards.
This matchup features one of the greatest kickers in NFL history in Baltimore’s Justin Tucker and Brandon Aubrey, who has made four field goals in each of the first two games this year, including three from 50+ yards. Aubrey has recently set the NFL record for most consecutive 50-yard makes to begin an NFL career with 13.
^Ravens at Cowboys Info
When: Sunday, 4:25 PM ET
Where: AT&T Stadium
TV: FOX
Radio: http://www.siriusxm.com/nfl
Stream Option: https://tv.youtube.com/learn/nflsundayticket/
Ravens vs Cowboys Series History
The clubs have only met six times, with Baltimore leading 5-1. The last matchup was in 2020 in Charm City and a 34-17 Ravens victory. Jackson ran for 94 yards and a touchdown as Baltimore totaled 294 yards on the ground. Andy Dalton was the Cowboys’ QB that night. The last meeting in Dallas was in 2016 and the Cowboys did win that.
^Top 5️⃣ Plays vs. the Cowboys!
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) December 6, 2020
Ravens vs. Cowboys 8:05 p.m. Tuesday night FOX/NFL Net/Amazon pic.twitter.com/GdcFrXdrse
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