The Las Vegas Raiders have a reputation. Sure, there are some bad connotations out there about the Raiders, but under Antonio Pierce, they have a reputation that is good -- they are a tough, physical team that will try to beat you down all game long.
And, the Baltimore Ravens know that, too, as they are set to play one another in Week 2. Even though they lost to them, as the Los Angeles Chargers how they felt the day after playing the Raiders. It's a physical brand of football the silver and black play, similar to the old days.
"We expect a very good football team. It's a very physical football team, a hard-playing team, a tough team, lots of speed, a dominant defensive front four and front seven," Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said earlier this week. "[They have] an aggressive, fast secondary who can break on the ball and tackle very well. Just a really good defense. And then offensively, a big physical offensive line, a talented receiving corps, an elite receiving corps across the board – tight ends [and] wide receivers, of course.
"You know who their guys are, and they're great players. We've played Gardner Minshew before, and he's beaten us before. So, we have all the respect in the world for him as a quarterback. We know how talented and good he is. We're looking forward to the challenge, and it will be quite a challenge."
The Ravens have a great offense, and one of the best players in all of football is Lamar Jackson, who is the reigning MVP. Unfortunately for them, they have the same record as the Raiders, after losing a close one to the Kansas City Chiefs last week, in a game that saw KC struggle with Jackson, but lock down everything else.
That's what this defense will have to do. You can't stop him, you have to make him do everything himself by stopping everyone else. As for him, he's familiar with the guy tasked with bringing him down on the other side of the ball.
"High motor. That guy, he's a great edge rusher, man. My hat's off to him. He was high motor," Jackson said on Wednesday. "He was just going at it all game. I was like, 'This man here ...' I was laughing with Maxx. He was trying to get after me, and I was talking trash back. He was like, 'But I love your game, Lamar,' and stuff like that. But he's a great edge rusher. He's definitely a great edge rusher."
Crosby isn't the only guy Jackson and the Ravens will have to worry about, though.
"They are good players. Sometimes there's not much you can do but block them," Ravens offensive line coach George Warhop said. "With 98, Crosby, they're going to move him all over the place. It's based on the defense, based on the call, based on what they're in. He does like to play on the right side, and I'd say he's probably over there 75 to 80 percent of the time, but he will be on the left side. [Wilkins] is a good player as well, so we're going to do our best to scheme any way we can get to him to help those guys out."
The Raiders possess a threat to any team that struggles with offensive line play, just as the Ravens did against the Chiefs on Thursday Night Football. The Chiefs didn't get home a ton, because Jackson is so good at escaping, but they put constant pressure on him.
According to Next Gen Stats, the right side of the Ravens' offensive line struggled against the theChiefs's pass rush with right guard Daniel Faalele allowing a team-high 6 pressures on 52 pass blocking snaps, so you have to assume that Crosby will lineup across from Daniel Faale if he plays.
The trick will be keeping Jackson in the box, and not letting him roam outside the box. When you force him to throw from inside the box, he struggles. NGS also revealed that Jackson also struggled when passing from inside the tackle box, completing just 24 of 36 passes for 213 yards and losing -8.5 EPA.
The Raiders can do that on one side with Crosby, but the other side, with Tyree Wilson and Malcolm Koonce out, will struggle. Only time will tell what happens.
