The Baltimore Ravens will host their second game of the season Sunday afternoon. Their opponent will be the Denver Broncos. Each team is coming off of a big win on the road.
Denver was able to beat Tennessee in comeback fashion last Sunday. Kyle Orton threw the ball 50 times and vaulted himself to the top of the NFL in passing yards. However, he now faces the NFL’s top-rated pass defense.
Baltimore has held their opponents to just 119.0 yards per game through the air. The Ravens haven’t faced the best air attacks in the NFL, but the talent that the New York Jets and Cincinnati Bengals have is impressive and the Ravens were able to keep those teams out of the end zone. Baltimore has allowed just one touchdown by air, and that was a one yard strike to Benjamin Watson from Seneca Wallace in Baltimore’s home opener in Week 3.
The bigger battle to watch here will be the Ravens offense against the Denver defense. Joe Flacco and the offense have gotten off to a slow start, topping 20 points just once this year. Flacco, at times, has had uncharacteristically bad mechanics in 2010, which has led to his interceptions. Flacco has been fortunate this year that Anquan Boldin has been able to catch most of the passes thrown his way, otherwise he could be looking at 10 interceptions by this point.
If Baltimore’s run game can get going against Denver, which isn’t a foregone conclusion to this point, then this game won’t even be close. If Ray Rice and Willis McGahee get going, Flacco will have time to find Boldin, Derrick Mason and T.J. Houshmandzadeh down the field and Todd Heap over the middle. This might not be the week that the running game gets going though as Denver allows only 101 yards per game and held Chris Johnson to 53 yards last week.
In the end, Baltimore’s defense and passing game will be too much for Denver and the Broncos will continue to be winless in Baltimore while Flacco stays undefeated against the AFC West in his career. The final will be something like 21-10 Ravens.
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