Week Seven: Detroit Lions (5-1) @ Baltimore Ravens (4-2)

[MichiganCardinal]

          vs.     

Setting: 10/22/2023 1:00pm on FOX

Site: M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, MD

Weather: 62° High / 48° Low, 3% chance of rain, 15mph wind

Opening Spread: Ravens -2.5

All-Time Series Record: Ravens lead, 5-1

Last Meeting: 09/26/2021, Ravens won 19-17

 

Baltimore Ravens (4-2)

Head Coach: John Harbaugh (16th Season: 151-96)

Projected Starting QB: Lamar Jackson (6th Season: 49-18)

Last Week: 24-16 W @ Tennessee Titans (2-4)

Looking Ahead to Week #8: Sunday @ Arizona Cardinals (1-5)

 

Your Detroit Lions (5-1)

Head Coach: Dan Campbell (3rd Season: 17-22-1)

Projected Starting QB: Jared Goff (8th Season: 59-46-1)

Last Week: 20-6 W @ Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-2)

Looking Ahead to Week #8: Monday Night v. Las Vegas Raiders (3-3)

 

Elsewhere in the NFL

Primetime: Jaguars @ Saints (TNF), Dolphins @ Eagles (SNF), 49ers @ Vikings (MNF)

1:00pm: Browns @ Colts, Raiders @ Bears, Bills @ Patriots, Commanders @ Giants, Falcons @ Buccaneers

4:05/4:25pm: Steelers @ Rams, Cardinals @ Seahawks, Packers @ Broncos, Chargers @ Chiefs

Bye: Panthers, Bengals, Cowboys, Texans, Jets, and Titans

Edited October 16, 2023 by MichiganCardinal

[buddha]

ravens arent that good.  i still like them at home in this game.

hopefully we get a little more healthy before this one.

[number20]

This would be a big boy win

[MichiganCardinal]

The spread surprises me a bit. Ravens have beat the Texans against a week one rookie QB, the Bengals (by 3) when the Bengals were bums, the Browns (a legit win), and the Titans. They've lost to the Colts and Steelers.

All in all, I think the Lions are better. On the road, this seems closer to a 'pick' for me.

[Jason_R]

Revenge. 

[RatkoVarda]

should be a fun game; I fear Tucker vs Patterson will be the difference, and not in a good way

[Motor City Sonics]

Listen, if they lose this game against a Top 10 team on the road,  can we not freak out?      The Browns aren't better than the 49ers and the Jets aren't better than the Eagles.     I don't think we're going 16-1.   

 

My Power Rankings. 

1. San Francisco - A loss on the road....it happens
2. Miami - They are one QB hit away from being about #16. 
3. Philadelphia - DId the Jets give everyone a blueprint? 
4. Detroit  - easiest schedule the rest of the way. 
5. Kansas City - not the Chiefs, are they saving it for the playoff run?  probably
6. Buffalo - when it's clicking it's impressive.  Josh Allen gets too risky sometimes
7. Jacksonville - Really good and exciting young team that stumbled at first.  
8. Baltimore - Jekyll & Hyde team
9. Seattle  - 3 east coast games already
10. LA Chargers - if they had a better coach.....
11. Dallas - annoying in their false arrogance.  
12. Cleveland - the defense is great, Watson limits them with injuries and his contract
13. Cincinnati - haven't been healthy yet, if they hang around, they could go to the Super Bowl. 
14. Houston - this year's version of last year's Lions? 
15. Tampa Bay - they really aren't that good.
16. Pittsburgh - they are as average as it comes
17. New Orleans - lucky to be in their division
18. NY Jets - team is hard to figure out
19. LA Rams - Still have some fight left.
20. Tennessee - This team is annoyingly mediocre
21.  Indianapolis - There's potential here, how will Irsay screw it up? 
22. Las Vegas - Josh McDaniels is lucky to have a job
23. Green Bay -  they were never that good to begin with
24. Washington - the NFL would be better if they were good again
25. Atlanta -  Desmond Ridder?   yeah, right
26. Minnesota - Water finds it's level
27. NY Giants - They figured out they suck in the offseason
28. Chicago - Where will Fields be traded?   Atlanta? 
29. Arizona - Tanking for......um......Drake Maye? 
30. Denver - Have to be good to be arrogant Sean & Russ
31. New England - It was Brady, it was always Brady (and the cheating)
32. Carolina - and they don't have their #1 pick next year.  Yikes
 

National TV is talking about Craig Reynold's block.  

[MichiganCardinal]

Baltimore is coming back from London. Teams used to often choose to take their bye in the week after an international game, but not so much anymore. I wonder if the jet lag and travel, going Pittsburgh -> London -> Baltimore in the course of about eight days will affect them.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

I don't know if the stats exactly back this up, but it feels a little like the Chiefs lack of receiving weapons is finally catching up with them a bit, same as it did in Green Bay with Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers had Davante Adams and a collection of nobodies as his WRs. When Adams wasn't in the game or was gone off the team they didn't push the ball downfield nearly as well and I believe their YAC and yards per play went down. The Chiefs don't have any receiving threats outside of Kelce. No defense fears Justin Watson, Kadarius Toney, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Skyy Moore, etc. They lost Tyreek Hill, lost Sammy Watkins, and don't have a lot of great depth to replace those guys and I think it's finally catching up, in some small way. With a special QB like Mahomes, you'll always be favored or in the upper echelon of the NFL because the guy is a GOAT candidate. But when Kelce isn't on the field, I don't know there is anyone people fear lining up out wide.

[Mr.TaterSalad]

16 hours ago, buddha said:

ravens arent that good.  i still like them at home in this game.

hopefully we get a little more healthy before this one.

I agree with the sentiment that the Ravens aren't quite who we feared they would be at the beginning of the season. Still good, but not great or elite like we worried they might end up. Lamar and the Ravens only have 5 passing TDs and 3 INTs which puts them as the 7th worst team in the league. They are middle in the pack in total yards as well. I know running QBs give us fits on occasion (see Geno Smith) and the Ravens have the very best running QB with 4 rushing TDs this season. But we have been, since the Seattle game, the best team in the league against the run. We can limit Lamar and make him try and beat us with his arm, in passing situation. So why not us? We can for sure go in there and get this thing done, assuming we are a bit healthier this coming week.

[djhutch]

I think we're better than the Ravens - but I am concerned about the injuries piling up.  I'll feel better if Gibbs will be good to go by this one. 

[TP_Fan]

Getting Gibbs and Branch back would be a big boost.  Also more snaps for Jaymo would help open the offense a bit.  Get this game and then they take an extra days rest to play the raiders on MNF before they get a much needed bye week.  Can’t come soon enough.  7-1 or 6-2 going into the bye and then hopefully getting some players back would be great.  5 of the last 9 games are against division opponents. 

[Sports_Freak]

1 hour ago, TP_Fan said:

Getting Gibbs and Branch back would be a big boost.  Also more snaps for Jaymo would help open the offense a bit.  Get this game and then they take an extra days rest to play the raiders on MNF before they get a much needed bye week.  Can’t come soon enough.  7-1 or 6-2 going into the bye and then hopefully getting some players back would be great.  5 of the last 9 games are against division opponents. 

Win or lose against Baltimore, Ford Field will be very loud for a MNF game. They'll be blowing the roof off...

 

[Sports_Freak]

Montgomery will be out "for a little bit". But man, don't use St. Brown in the backfield. Please...

“Yeah, and I think if not, we’ve got other guys we can use on the roster at that position, probably in the receiver room,” Campbell said."

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2023/10/16/23919817/david-montgomery-injury-update-detroit-lions-miss-time-cartilage

 

 

[TP_Fan]

I would expect Montgomery to miss two games. That gives him a month to heal with the bye week. 

[Motor City Sonics]

13 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Win or lose against Baltimore, Ford Field will be very loud for a MNF game. They'll be blowing the roof off...

 

I think that game has the potential to be the loudest in NFL history. 

[Sports_Freak]

11 hours ago, Motor City Sonics said:

I think that game has the potential to be the loudest in NFL history. 

Getting tickets isn't easy. How in the world are people getting all of these away game tickets?

[MichiganCardinal]

1 hour ago, Sports_Freak said:

Getting tickets isn't easy. How in the world are people getting all of these away game tickets?

Who needs your first-born anyway?

[lordstanley]

7 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Getting tickets isn't easy. How in the world are people getting all of these away game tickets?

Lots of reasonably priced tickets for the game against the LA Chargers after the bye week. No one in LA even likes the Chargers, do they? It should draw Lions fans who live in southern California or Arizona or Vegas.

[RandyMarsh]

12 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Getting tickets isn't easy. How in the world are people getting all of these away game tickets?

For the Lambeau game my understanding was that Milwaukee fans get a couple games a year where they get first crack at tix and the Lions game was one of them.

Packers fans then theorized that since it was a Thursday night game where fans probably had to work early the next morning many of those Milwaukee fans decided that they didn't want to travel to the game so they ended up scalping their seats. Not sure how true that is but it makes some sense. 

 

[RandyMarsh]

5 hours ago, lordstanley said:

Lots of reasonably priced tickets for the game against the LA Chargers after the bye week. No one in LA even likes the Chargers, do they? It should draw Lions fans who live in southern California or Arizona or Vegas.

Yeah expecting atleast 20 to 25% Lions fans at that game for the reasons you mentioned. 

[RatkoVarda]

the Dec 10th game in Chicago will be a home game for the Lions; it won't just be a significant percentage (30-40%), but the majority of the fans 60%+ will be Lions fans.

[Sports_Freak]

3 hours ago, RandyMarsh said:

For the Lambeau game my understanding was that Milwaukee fans get a couple games a year where they get first crack at tix and the Lions game was one of them.

Packers fans then theorized that since it was a Thursday night game where fans probably had to work early the next morning many of those Milwaukee fans decided that they didn't want to travel to the game so they ended up scalping their seats. Not sure how true that is but it makes some sense. 

 

Ok, I get that. But think about the KC game. The Chiefs were raising a flag for their Championship and there were 1000s of Lions fans there. We need some conspiracy theories for it to make sense. 😆😆

[ben9753]

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Ok, I get that. But think about the KC game. The Chiefs were raising a flag for their Championship and there were 1000s of Lions fans there. We need some conspiracy theories for it to make sense. 😆😆

The Lions really are America's team this year. Every YouTube clip of the Lions is filled with comments from other team's fanbases saying they're rooting for the Lions this year. If they make the SB, I think the whole country will be rooting for them. Is somewhat the Underdog story, and I think DC has a lot to do with it also. People love that guy.

Edited October 18, 2023 by ben9753

[CMRivdogs]

2 minutes ago, ben9753 said:

The Lions really are America's team this year. Every YouTube clip of the Lions is filled with comments from other team's fanbases saying they're rooting for the Lions this year. If they make the SB, I think the whole country will be rooting for them. Is somewhat the Underdog story, and I think DC has a lot to do with it also. People love that guy.

My wife has been neutral on the Lions for years. She had some dealings with the organization in from 2000 to about 2005. She caught a few episodes of Hard Knocks last. DC won her over along with Sheila.