Ravens Film Room: The Matchup That Will Mean Everything vs. Bengals Sunday

Alas, this is finally the week Cam Jurgens will make his Ravens debut after general manager gave up a second-round pick while the struggling offensive lineman was still in concussion protocol.

But careful what you wish for.

Jurgens was getting whipped at guard for the Eagles – there is just no other way to put it - and his health is a major concern and people close to that team believe Jurgens was about to get benched in Philadelphia before Ravens GM Eric DeCosta panicked and gave up a bounty for him. And now Jurgens is on a path to fully practice and get cleared to play for Baltimore for the first time … just in time to face the most daunting group of defensive tackles in the NFL through the first third of the season led by signature offseason acquisition Dexter Lawrence, whom Cincy traded the 10th-overall pick for and who is living up to that price tag.

Oh, and Lamar Jackson is still very much a candidate to miss this game and he hasn’t had a full practice since injuring his ankle Week 4 and backup Snoop Huntley refuses to really lean into using his legs. And Baltimore lost its best blocking tight end for the season.

Good luck!

Jurgens has not been the same player since undergoing back and nerve surgery after helping the Eagles win the Super Bowl in 2024, and time will tell if he is indeed an upgrade over rookie guard Vega Ioane, who was curtailing the spate of A-gap pressure that was occurring before he was forced to move to center, while the run game remains hit-or-miss. Ioane held up quite well against dominating individuals like Jeffery Simmons, and while his snaps were sometimes erratic he showed significant promise and earned high praise in Owings Mills and around the NFL.

Jurgens allows him to shift back to his natural guard spot, but Eagles general manager Howie Roseman doesn’t lose a lot of trades. It’s hard not to look at a chart like this and express concern how Jurgens is going to hold up Sunday playing with a new line and a new quarterback for the first time, with the Bengals coming off a bye and sporting the only trio of defensive tackles in the NFL who each have at least two sacks (Lawrence, Jonathan Allen and Kris Jenkins Jr.):

Sexy Dexy In Peak Form

Bengals owner Mike Brown went completely out of character with the Lawrence trade and he has devoted big resources to rebuilding his defense at the point of attack after years of failure on that side of the ball. They have a deep rotation up front with four tackles averaging at least 16 snaps per game and that does not include run-stuffer BJ Hill who was injured most of the year but played 33 snaps in his return in Week 5 and got to recover during the bye.

Lawrence is already fifth in NFL history in terms of career sacks among all players 350 pounds or heavier; the Bengals lead the NFL with eight sacks from defensive tackle already (in just five games). But let’s highlight Lawrence for a moment and where he ranks among DTs (again, having already had a bye):

Sacks: 3 (tied for 6th with Allen)         Pressure Rate: 14% (3rd)         Hurries: 13 (T-10th)

On the season the Bengals are allowing a passer rating of just 87.0 – identical to the vaunted Ravens secondary (that actually hasn’t been very good, especially in the second half) – in large part due to the tackles. When Lawrence and Allen are on the field together they are collapsing the pocket and picking apart the space between the centers and the guards and producing these results for the Bengals defense:

Pressure Rate: 40.5%              Sack Rate: 10% (11 on 111 dropbacks)

Passer Rating: 84.5                 TD/INT: 3-2

Total D EPA w/Lawrence + Allen: 24.75          Total D EPA w/o both on field: 6.75

For an AFC North game this critical, knowing exactly how compromised the Ravens are in the interior offensive line (guard John Simpson looks highly overpaid at $10M and Ioane is switching positions, again), I would expect heavy volume from these two tackles but, again, they have maybe the deepest rotation here in the NFL.

Ravens Adjustments

Baltimore cannot really run the ball up the middle, and the Bengals have big issues against the run on the perimeter and their linebackers do not tackle well, so Derrick Henry is likely to attack there. Ravens rookie coordinator Declan Doyle needs to get Zay Flowers more involved from the backfield and more Justice Hill on sprint plays in pistol looks and more designed RPOs for Huntley and exploiting the horizontal plane, because vertical ain’t happening with the back-up QB.

If you were wondering where Ioane would look on a scatter chart at center, by the way, when he gets isolated, um, it looks a whole lot more inviting than the one for Jurgens:

Yeah, I have a hard time thinking Sunday is going to be a whole lot of fun for Jurgens and this offensive line, but we’ll see.

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