With the Ravens trying to snap their four-game losing streak and reboot their season in hosting Chicago on Sunday afternoon, I’ve offered a dozen thoughts, each in 50 words or less:
1. The Ravens are 1-5 and desperate for their first victory in more than a month. Kyle Hamilton noted “every game for us is a playoff game” moving forward, which isn’t far from reality. Regardless of the remaining schedule, envisioning any meaningful run is only practical with a win on Sunday.
2. The optics won’t be great for anyone if Lamar Jackson sits after practicing three straight days and being listed “full” participation on Friday, but we’ll found out Sunday. If Jackson plays, how effective he’ll be is the question, especially if this offensive line looks like it did before the bye.
(Update 12:30 p.m. Saturday: The Ravens downgraded Jackson to out for Sunday’s game and changed his Friday practice status from “full” participation to “limited” participation.
3. Tyler Huntley will start if Jackson doesn’t play after John Harbaugh confirmed he’s essentially supplanted Cooper Rush as the No. 2 quarterback. Huntley’s 53-man roster promotion will allow Baltimore to have a No. 3 emergency quarterback on Sunday’s inactive list and signals Rush may not be long for this team.
4. The Ravens are 14-3 in games immediately following their regular-season bye under Harbaugh and haven’t lost coming out of their off-week since 2020. How this team looks will say plenty about the head coach and what kind of buy-in there is from the locker room after a miserable start.
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5. Eric DeCosta labeled Roquan Smith “a force multiplier” upon signing him to a $100 million contract not long after acquiring him from Chicago, but that version of Smith has been scarce going back to last season. This defense needs him to be great against his old team and moving forward.
6. Leading the NFL in takeaways (16) and passes intercepted (11), the Bears will be without their top three cornerbacks on Sunday. That’s bad news for a group that otherwise ranks last in the league in yards per play allowed (6.2). Talk about a high-variance defense under coordinator Dennis Allen.
7. Chicago has averaged 5.5 yards per carry over the last two weeks, and D’Andre Swift and rookie Kyle Monangai combined for 205 yards on the ground against New Orleans last week. Making like difficult for Bears quarterback Caleb Williams begins with stopping the run.
8. That ground game is more reason to like Hamilton playing closer to the line of scrimmage like we saw in Week 6. I’m interested to see how the three-safety looks evolve for this defense after having the bye to work on a more expansive game plan with newcomer Alohi Gilman.
9. I’m not holding my breath for changes to the starting offensive line coming out of the bye, but Patrick Ricard’s return should boost the rushing attack as well as pass protection in certain situations. His absence doesn’t excuse that group’s performance by any means, but he’s certainly been missed.
10. Zach Orr said coming up with pressure and blitz plans was “probably the main focus” of the bye week and Harbaugh was involved in that process too. This Chicago offensive line is a solid one, so we’ll see if they found anything meaningful to boost this punchless pass rush.
811. With only three outside linebackers on the 53-man roster and Carl Lawson not yet ready, we’ll see if Baltimore elevates Malik Hamm or Kaimon Rucker from the practice squad or uses someone like Trenton Simpson at Sam linebacker more frequently. Setting the edge is a real concern in this one.
12. Removing the “toys” from the locker room was needlessly stepping into a distraction that brought additional mocking on top of a bad start. Regardless of whose idea it was, it’s an eyewash measure that only created a story and prompted more scrutiny rather than really improving anything.
Prediction: Acknowledging how significant Jackson’s uncertain status is, the Ravens are otherwise as healthy as they’ve been in a long time with no one else on the 53-man roster carrying as much as a game status designation going into Sunday’s game. This was supposedly the best roster in the NFL in the eyes of many entering 2025, so the idea of potentially playing with your backup quarterback against a team that no one truly regards as a serious contender isn’t an unreasonable ask, especially coming out of a bye and playing at home. Yes, the Bears are 4-2 and feeling good about themselves with a four-game winning streak, but their flaws are evident and they’re banged up after ruling out five players on the final injury report. If you’re expecting anyone to continue to cling to the idea of what this team was supposed to be, there are no more excuses. With that in mind, I’ll say the Ravens man up to win 23-20 to snap a four-game skid. If they lose their fifth straight, only one team in NFL history — the 1970 Cincinnati Bengals — has recovered from a 1-6 start to make the playoffs. Good luck with that.
