BALTIMORE — Looking to enter their bye week on a winning note, the Ravens welcome the Tennessee Titans to M&T Bank Stadium for the first time since 2008.
A two-game losing streak has landed Baltimore in last place in the AFC North despite a 5-4 record, but the Titans have lost six of seven under new head coach Ken Whisenhunt. Tennessee has also handed the offensive reins over to rookie Zach Mettenberger, who will be making his second career start in one of the NFL’s most hostile environments.
After learning that top cornerback Jimmy Smith would miss the rest of the season after undergoing foot surgery on Thursday, the Ravens are trying to solve their secondary woes with veteran Danny Gorrer and young cornerbacks Tramain Jacobs and Rashaan Melvin added to the 53-man roster this week. Gorrer previously played 11 games with the Ravens in the 2011 season and has bounced around the league ever since while Jacobs and Melvin entered Week 10 having not played a game in the NFL.
Gorrer and Jacobs are both active and expected to receive work along with incumbent starter Lardarius Webb and veteran defensive back Anthony Levine while Melvin is inactive after just being signed to the 53-man roster on Saturday. Rookie safety Terrence Brooks is also active after being deactivated for last week’s loss at Pittsburgh.
Based on pre-game warmups, it appeared that Levine would be starting at cornerback in the base defense.
After being removed from the reserve physically unable to perform list this week, defensive tackle Terrence Cody is inactive against Tennessee. A bigger surprise was the decision to deactivate defensive end DeAngelo Tyson after he was recently starting in place of Chris Canty while the veteran recovered from wrist surgery. The Ravens chose to have Lawrence Guy active as Tyson is inactive for the first time this season.
Safety Brynden Trawick is also inactive for the first time all year.
Reserve linebackers Arthur Brown and Zachary Orr are both active and expected to play on special teams.
Meanwhile, the Titans will be without starting nose tackle Sammie Hill, who is out with a hamstring injury. Al Woods is expected to start in his place, a development that doesn’t bode well for the league’s 28th-ranked run defense.
The Ravens will be playing Tennessee for the 18th time in their regular-season history as they own an 8-9 record. The teams are tied 4-4 in eight regular-season meetings in Baltimore. Of course, the Ravens and Titans have met three times in the postseason with Baltimore prevailing in two of them.
The referee for Sunday’s game will be Walt Coleman.
According to Weather.com, the forecast calls for partly cloudy skies and temperatures in the mid-50s with winds up to seven miles per hour.
The Ravens will be wearing purple jerseys with black pants for Sunday’s game while Tennessee dons its white tops with navy blue pants.
Below are the inactives for Sunday:
BALTIMORE
DT Terrence Cody
DE DeAngelo Tyson
C Gino Gradkowski
OL Jah Reid
CB Rashaan Melvin
WR Michael Campanaro
S Brynden Trawick
TENNESSEE
QB Charlie Whitehurst
WR Kris Durham
RB Antonio Andrews
CB Brandon Harris
OT Will Svitek
TE Brett Brackett
NT Sammie Hill
