For the Ravens to win their 16th straight road game, they’re going to have to handle Carson Palmer and a Raiders offense that put up over 400 yards of passing offense last week. Conversely, the Raiders allowed 278 rushing yards on defense. Whichever defense can force the most punts could be the defense whose team wins the game. This could very well be a high scoring game.
The Keys to Victory for the Ravens:
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1). Run Early and OftenRay Rice is averaging 4.7 yards per carry and 8.1 yards per reception this season. With Joe Flacc’s and Torrey Smith’s success at home this year, and considering Oakland’s atrocious run defense last season, running lanes should be wide open for Rice this week. If they aren’t, Vonta Leach will open them himself.
2.) Eliminate Deep Ball
Denarius Moore and Darius Heyward-Bey are both averaging over 15 yards per reception this season. Without Lardarius Webb, Ed Reed and Bernard Pollard will be on full alert covering the multiple deep balls the Raiders are certain to throw against them. Cornerbacks Cary Williams and Jimmy Smith have gotten better as the season has went on, but the only time they’ve face a similar pair of receivers was in Week 2 when they lost by one point at Philadelphia.
3.) Maintain Special Teams Success
Perhaps the strongest and most consistent unit of the Ravens has been their special teams unit. Particularly last week against Joshua Cribbs, the Ravens pretty much shut him down. Mike Goodson isn’t Devin Hester, but he will make you pay if you don’t stay disciplined. Goodson is averaging 23.7 yards per return, 12.4 yards per reception and 6.5 yards per carry this season. Translation: he’s an athlete that is capable of gaining 10, 20 or more yards on any given play.
4.) Sack Palmer, Create Turnovers
Courtesy: Rueters
Carson Palmer is 9-4 all-time against the Ravens (4-3 in Baltimore), throwing 15 touchdowns against 11 interceptions. He just threw for 414 yards last week, the third-best passing performance of his 115-game career. He’s been charged with having to throw against the Ravens to win the game many times before, and that will likely be the scenario on Sunday.
If the Ravens don’t want this to be a close game, they will need to not just hit, but sack Palmer. The Ravens rank 26th in the NFL with just 13 sacks this season. The Raiders are very good at protecting Palmer, as they are sixth-best in that category, allowing only 14 sacks so far in 2012.
