Ravens face remaining hurdle earlier than bye week and big November stretch initially appeared on NBC Sports activities Washington

The Ravens have, after their disappointing loss to the Chiefs in Week 3, been by what might transform their best stretch of the season. And the ultimate leg is upcoming on Sunday.

Baltimore has overwhelmed Washington and Cincinnati already, two groups with two mixed wins by 10 whole video games, and have Philadelphia on deck — one other group with only one win. Kickoff at Lincoln Monetary Area is scheduled for 1 p.m.

If the Ravens are in a position to beat the one-win Eagles, a sport they’re favored in by practically 10 factors, they’ll head to the bye week at 5-1 with a assassin’s row of video games down the pipe.

However first, they’ve bought to get by the Eagles. And whereas it may appear that the Ravens, with the eighth-ranked offense and top-ranked protection, have been sturdy to start out the season, a lot of the dialog has revolved round the place they’ll get higher.

“Everybody goes to have one thing to say, and you need to get used to that being a part of this enterprise,” tight finish Nick Boyle mentioned. “It’s actually arduous for outsiders to come back and say and critique what’s fallacious along with your group after they’re not within the conferences, after they’re not at observe, after they’re not round you 24/7.”

By means of the season’s first 5 weeks the Ravens have, by their very own admission, not performed as much as the usual they did a yr in the past and the usual they’ve set for themselves.

The offense, which nonetheless boasts a gifted speeding assault with a bevy of ball-carriers, has been only a tad off on deep passing performs, or lengthy breakaway runs. The protection, for all its success, failed the largest take a look at of the season towards the Chiefs.

The questions are nonetheless there for the 4-1 Ravens, however in the meanwhile, it’s easy nitpicking.

“We all know what we have to get higher at, we all know what we’re doing properly, and we all know what we have to enhance on going ahead,” Boyle continued. “And that’s crucial factor; is that we all know what we have to do. And for different folks, after they say, ‘This isn’t that,’ I don’t suppose that worries us in any respect. I don’t suppose we give it some thought in any respect. We simply take into consideration what we have to get higher at.”

Baltimore hasn’t received a sport, and even performed in a single, that has been determined by fewer than 10 factors since Week 14 towards Buffalo final yr. No win, or loss, has been unsure in the ultimate couple of minutes.

The Ravens are hoping that streak continues Sunday, with a battered Eagles group on-deck. Philadelphia has seven gamers declared out, together with large receivers DeSean Jackson and Alshon Jeffery and deal with Lane Johnson.

In layman’s phrases, if the Ravens care for enterprise on Sunday, they’ll win simply.

“We’re simply attempting to have a greater document than we did final yr, and we’re nonetheless attempting to chase what we would like, what we at all times discuss on this constructing,” quarterback Lamar Jackson mentioned. “Let the skin noise be the skin noise, like I at all times say.”

The Eagles nonetheless have a gifted crop of offensive gamers, together with Zach Ertz and Miles Sanders. Their protection, buoyed by a monster eight sack efficiency towards the Bengals, has nonetheless posted 18 sacks to date this season.

For as a lot as accidents have decimated the group, they’ve nonetheless bought playmakers.

“They’ve only a bevy of fellows who can stress the quarterback,” coach John Harbaugh mentioned. “They’re very aggressive. [Defensive coordinator] Coach [Jim] Schwartz does an ideal job with instructing these guys up entrance by way of getting up area and attacking the offensive scheme. So, sure, we’re very conscious of that. It’s a giant problem for us.”

Ought to the Ravens win, they’ll enter the bye week with two weeks to arrange for a large tilt towards the Steelers that can kick off a dash to the end in a season that already has the end line nearer than it seems.

The Ravens will face the Steelers, Colts, Patriots, Titans and Steelers in November, a 5 sport swing towards two groups with two losses and two unbeaten groups. These video games won’t solely loom massive in playoff seeding, however divisional races as properly.

December received’t provide any reprieve both, because the Ravens will begin with a sport towards the still-talented Cowboys offense adopted by a Monday Night time Soccer sport in Cleveland.

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All of that’s to say that Sunday’s sport towards the Eagles is a sport the Ravens ought to deal with their enterprise in. In loads of methods, it is a sport through which they should deal with their enterprise.

At this level within the season, for a group as gifted because the Ravens, it’s about stacking wins for the eventual push for the playoffs.

“I feel we’re nonetheless constructing, however I feel it began final yr,” cornerback Jimmy Smith mentioned. “We had so as to add some items to what we began final yr. We added ‘The Monstars’ (Calais Campbell and Derek Wolfe) within the entrance — we name them — to cease that run, as a result of that was an issue for us final yr. We added items in our linebacker room, as properly. Constructing all that collectively, we form of assumed that we might decide up from the place we left off and attempt to get higher.”