The 6-2 Baltimore Ravens take on the still winless Cincinnati Bengals in Week 10, four weeks after the two teams locked horns at M&T Bank Stadium. With this being the last time these two squads will square off this season and quite a lot of changes likely coming in the offseason, let’s take a look at the biggest storylines at play today.
Here are three key storylines to take note of prior to the matchup.
Ryan Finley making his first NFL start
For the first time since 2010, injury notwithstanding, the Bengals starting quarterback is not Andy Dalton. After an 0-8 start to the season, Bengals rookie coach Zac Taylor decided that he’d seen enough of Dalton and announced that rookie quarterback Ryan Finley would get the start in Week 10.
Dalton has 30,352 passing yards since his 2011 rookie season, the ninth most in the NFL. Only nine quarterbacks have more touchdown passes than the 197 Dalton has tossed in this span. The Bengals had a 68-58-2 record with Dalton as a starter.
It wouldn’t be fair to say that Dalton was the cause of all of the Bengals problems this year. But as they continue towards claiming the first overall selection in 2020 the Bengals have decided they want to see what they have in Finley. Finley completed 64.5% of his passes in three years at North Carolina State, throwing for 10,501 yards and 60 touchdowns against 25 interceptions.
Finley is the fourth quarterback to make his first career start against the Ravens in the John Harbaugh era. The other three are Connor Shaw, Brian St.Pierre and Dennis Dixon. These three players went 0-3 against the Ravens, with all of then boasting a 50% completion rate or worse whilst throwing for 177 yards or fewer.
Best of luck, Ryan.
Is this the last time we’ll see A.J. Green in Cincinnati?
Green has been on the injury report frequently in the last few years and especially this season. Green has yet to play a game at all this season, dealing with an ankle injury. He expected to make his season debut for the team this week, with a view to earning a new deal keeping him with the Bengals.
Things have changed somewhat since then, especially after a weird week. A couple of hours after announcing Green should play, it was reported that Green didn’t feel well enough to practice and that his status had changed to day-to-day. By Friday, Green was already ruled out officially.
With Green’s status getting downgraded over the course of the week, it seemed as though his contract status got downgraded as well.
Why the Bengals didn’t trade Green at or before the deadline is one of the biggest mysteries of the 2019 NFL season. The situation appears to be headed towards divorce this offseason. Green has the seventh-most receptions (602) and the fourth-most receiving yards (8,907 yards) since entering the NFL in 2011. If Green wants out at the end of this season, he should have plenty of suitors lining up in spite of his injury history.
Running the ball in a passing league
If there’s one thing that is constantly forced down the throats of the free footballing world on a near-weekly basis, it is that the modern NFL is a passing league. While the Ravens probably acknowledge this fact, that does not mean that they’re scared to run the ball. Indeed, they’re on the verge of joining a very select club this weekend.
If the Ravens are able to rush for a collective 150 yards on Sunday, they would become only the sixth team since the 1970 merger to rush for 150 yards or more in eight of their first nine games of a season. The last team to manage this feat was the 1976 Pittsburgh Steelers, while both of Don Shula’s Super Bowl-winning Miami Dolphins sides managed it in 1972 and 1973.
The Ravens have 1,639 rushing yards this season, at an average of 204.9 rushing yards per game. This is thanks in no small part to Lamar Jackson and his 637 rushing yards. If the Ravens meet their season average against the Bengals, they would have the fourth-most rushing yards by a team in their opening nine games since 1970.
Giving hope to Baltimore reaching or exceeding that goal is the fact no team has allowed more rushing yards this season than the Bengals. They’ve given up 1,421 rushing yards already, at an average of 5.1 yards-per-attempt. It would take a brave man to bet against the Ravens achieving these historical landmarks on Sunday.
