Ravens at Patriots Week 3 Preview and Prediction

Baltimore Ravens

What an epic collapse. The Miami Dolphins managed to pull off the greatest comeback in franchise history against these Ravens in Week 2, coming back from a 35-14 deficit to win 42-38. Now, I'm not saying this will be a normal occurrence for Baltimore in 2022, but I feel like this is the team that they might be: a high-scoring offense that can gain a ton of yards and put up points, but a defense that is leaky and will give up plenty of yards and points. The injury bug has once again hit the Ravens hard, and they may want to consider getting a new training staff with how often these guys are getting injured. This Baltimore secondary gave up 469 yards passing and six touchdowns to Tua Tagovailoa last week.

It wasn't even just that they were bad, but they looked completely lost on some plays. There was a deep pass to Tyreek Hill for a touchdown where there wasn't a Raven within 10 yards of him, and then you see guys looking at each other like "who was supposed to cover him?" That is very concerning.

The good news is that the offense was incredible, QB Lamar Jackson in particular. He had 318 yards passing and three touchdowns through the air and 119 yards and a touchdown on the ground. It gets lost in all the comeback talk, but he was awesome for the second straight week. With him betting on himself for a contract, he looks more motivated than ever.

New England Patriots

Hilariously enough, these two teams both suffered their only losses so far to the Miami Dolphins. The difference is the Ravens put up a fight, whereas New England was totally dominated. Both of these teams are 1-1, but both have gotten there in two different ways. For the Patriots, it's been the boring route. They got a win in a rock fight in Pittsburgh this past weekend, and that is likely how they will have to win games in 2022. The offense lacks weapons to really do much of anything explosive down the field, and the rushing attack isn't that great either. Even with how the Ravens defense has played, they really got torched by Hill and Jaylen Waddle, two of the fastest receivers in football. New England doesn't have that.

DeVante Parker is just not the guy, and he gets next to zero separation off defenders. If that is your number one option, you have problems. QB Mac Jones had all day in the pocket against Pittsburgh and still only threw for 252 yards. It should have been a lot more, but he has nothing to work with. Yeah, yeah, Nelson Agholor caught a long touchdown. But he still had no separation, and had to make a spectacular Randy Moss-type catch to score. That is unsustainable.

My Prediction

This is a tough one, because New England at home as an underdog is ridiculously successful. Bill Belichick is even more successful as an underdog. The problem is this offense in New England just isn't inspiring at all, and they don't have the weapons that Miami has to rip the Ravens terrible secondary deep. Lamar is on a mission, and even though this seems like a trap to me, I have to take Baltimore if the line is -3. If it gets to 3.5, that's a different story. This feels like a closer game that the Ravens win at the end.