NFL Week 9 Thursday

Kyle Kirms
Oct 29
3 min read

RAVENS @ DOLPHINS - 8:15 PM

Both teams looking to make some history this year. I think it's pretty safe to say that the loser of this game... they're season might be over.

Well Lamar Jackson is off the injury report and it does look like he's going to play. But we do have to keep in mind that it is a hamstring injury. I would imagine Lamar will have a lot of friends and family there... he grew up in Boynton Beach which is about 30 minutes from Hard Rock.

His last trip here didn't go well. Miami's defense completely shut Baltimore down.

But the important thing is that it looks like he's playing... it also looks like Ronnie Stanley is going to play.

When we look at the matchup on paper, it actually looks like a close battle on this side of the ball.

Obviously, we know the Ravens year-long offensive numbers are skewed. Before Lamar Jackson got hurt, Baltimore looked like the best offense in the NFL and I'm assuming as long as he's 100%, they'll most likely be an elite offense again now that he's back.

Where this matchup gets interesting... is the Dolphins defense coming around?

Miami's defense is gonna be missing Storm Duck but he only came back for one game. He's pretty much been out all season. It looks like Bradley Chubb is gonna play. Also it looks like there's a chance Jason Marshall returns for this one. He hasn't played yet this year.

Now it's important to take into consideration that Lamar Jackson should cook the Dolphins defense if he's 100%. Miami's last two games were against Dillon Gabriel and Kirk Cousins... Lamar Jackson is a slight step up. But Miami's sending blitzes and they do have edge rushers. So if Lamar Jackson's hamstring isn't 100%, there is a path to Miami's newly found good defense giving them some problems.

The data point that really throws things off is right here. The Dolphins went on the road to play a Falcons team that's got one of the best RBs in the NFL and an offensive line that's been pretty good all year. They completely took the run away. Bijan Robinson had 9 carries for 25 yards in the game.

That game was not a fluke... Atlanta did fumble the ball once in the 3rd quarter but it was 24-3 Miami at that point. That was a beatdown.

On the other side of the ball, it looks like Tua will be wearing the visor again. Visor Tua went off last week.

And now that we're on the other side of the ball, we've got two more units that may have deceiving numbers here.

And just like the Dolphins defense, the Ravens defense does seem to be playing better. It's not exactly elite... but considerably better than they were playing early in the season.

The question is... how far can Baltimore's defense go missing these pieces on the defensive front?

Is Baltimore really the team that can exploit an injured Dolphins offensive line?

Miami had a success rate over 53% last week in Atlanta. The Falcons could not get this offense off the field.

Remember, this is a graphic from last week... Miami's played 3 games against good run defenses. They've run the ball in every single other one of their games besides these 3.