The Bengals and Ravens have finalized game statuses for Sunday's action in the AFC North. Cincinnati is healthy, with veteran safety Kyle Dugger set to return after suffering a quad injury last month.
On the other hand, the Ravens are hoping to have Lamar Jackson on the field for the first time since Week 4. He has been limited all week with an ankle injury and is questionable entering the game.
"Right now I'm heading in the right direction," Jackson said on Friday. "We'll see. Hopefully. But I feel like I'm heading in the right direction."
Jackson suffered the injury on October 4. He sounded unsure about playing on Sunday against the Bengals.
“Just trying to move how I move,” he said. “If I can’t do that, I can’t help my team.”
“Lamar [Jackson] was actually able to get a little bit of limited work in today in preparation. So, that’s where that’s at. Again, it’s a day-by-day thing, but he was able to get a little bit of work in and be involved in the preparation," Ravens head coach Jesse Minter said about Jackson on Wednesday before commenting on Jackson's workload. "[I am] not really [going] to get into the specifics of anything with that. I know this, when it’s ready for [Lamar Jackson] to be able to play, from both sides, and we feel like that’s the best thing to do; that’s what we’ll do.”
Cincinnati had a rare early bye week in 2026, but it helped them get much healthier over the past 10 days, and now they can attack the most important game of the season so far from the strongest health position possible.
It's basically a coin-flip game, with Cincinnati projected to win 54% of the time on ESPN's Matchup Predictor. Whoever can create a timely turnover or two will have a big advantage.
"It's critical," Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said about the turnover battle on Wednesday. "Just winning the turnovers in general in a division game like this. I can think of many times we played the Ravens, and you feel like you leave the game with like three possessions, and so if you lose or gain one, that's always critical. Now the game's going to end up being an 18-possession game, of course, because I say that. But just any time it's like that, it turns out to be a big part of the game."
The action kicks off at 1 p.m. ET on Sunday.
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