Renewing acquaintances with the franchise that was formerly the bane of their existence, the Ravens travel to Jacksonville to take on the 1-5 Jaguars and to try to retain their hold of the AFC North through the first seven weeks of the 2011 season.
Jacksonville dominated the Ravens in the infancy of the Baltimore franchise, winning the first eight meetings before a 39-36 victory in Sept. 2000 ended the Jaguars’ run of supremacy and propelled the Ravens toward their first Super Bowl championship. The last-second victory sparked the Ravens’ current run of seven victories in eight tries with the games between the two more sporadic after divisional realignment in 2002.
With tonight’s game appearing to be a mismatch due to Jacksonville having, statistically-speaking, the worst offense in the NFL and the 32nd-ranked passing attack, the Ravens will be hell-bent on slowing down Maurice Jones-Drew and the Jaguars’ rushing attack. Possessing the league’s third-ranked run defense, Baltimore appears equipped to handle it.
The Ravens are 7-8 all-time on Monday Night Football and will look to improve to 4-2 in Monday night games played in the John Harbaugh era. All six of those Monday affairs, however, have been played on the road.
Tonight will mark the return of rookie cornerback Jimmy Smith, who has been sidelined since sustaining a high ankle sprain in the season opener against Pittsburgh on Sept. 11. The first-round pick will not start, but he is expected to receive playing time against the Jaguars after practice fully on Friday and Saturday.
Here are tonight’s inactives:
Baltimore
WR Lee Evans
G Ben Grubbs
LB Dannell Ellerbe
RB Anthony Allen
S Tom Zbikowski
CB Chris Carr
LB Sergio Kindle
Jacksonville
WR Chastin West
S Courtney Greene
G Jason Spitz
G Eben Britton
TE Martin Rucker
WR Jarett Dillard
DT Nate Collins
