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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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The Baltimore Ravens are heading into Sunday's matchup against the Buffalo Bills under arguably more pressure than any other team in the NFL. Baltimore got blown out 35-13 against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 7, giving up 35 unanswered points after taking a 13-0 lead into halftime. The week before, they fell 13-10 to the Cleveland Browns. After winning four of their first five games, the Ravens now find themselves 4-3 and 0-2 against AFC North opponents, putting them in last place in the division.
Buffalo, meanwhile, enters Week 8 at 5-1, with their only loss coming against the New England Patriots in Week 4, falling 29-26 at Highmark Stadium. They've since knocked off the Los Angeles Rams and Las Vegas Raiders, both on the road, riding a two-game winning streak behind the highest-scoring offense in the NFL, averaging 32.8 points per game behind Josh Allen, James Cook, and Dalton Kincaid.
On Friday, ESPN's "Get Up" crew made its feelings clear about Sunday's matchup, describing it as a must-win for Baltimore.
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"Everyone's looking at Baltimore through the prism of the reputation of Baltimore," Dan Orlovsky said. "We think Baltimore, we think Lamar in Baltimore, and we automatically go Super Bowl contender ... Are you legit in that conversation with Kansas City? New England? Jacksonville? We don't know. Because of his [Jackson's] inability to be on the field in the last two years, that's part of the conversation now ... We live almost like a week-to-week basis right now with Baltimore and Lamar of like, hopefully he's going to play. If he's playing, how healthy is he? Is he the Lamar that we're so accustomed to seeing?"
"This is a must-win for the Baltimore Ravens, in my opinion," Harry Douglas added. "It's not the AFC North of the past. You look at the Cleveland Browns, 5-2. The Pittsburgh Steelers, 5-2. The Cincinnati Bengals at 4-2 right now. You can ill afford to lose this ball game to the Buffalo Bills right now because you still have to play those teams on the back end of your schedule."
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Jackson suffered a high ankle sprain during Baltimore's Week 4 win over the Tennessee Titans on Oct. 4. He's missed the last three games, with Tyler Huntley taking over at quarterback, and the Ravens have gone 1-2 over that stretch and scored just 23 total points over their last two games.
Jackson's absence has also reignited debate about his availability. He remains one of the league's top quarterbacks, and he looked good through the first four games of the season, completing 70.8% of his passes for 967 yards and six touchdowns with just one interception, along with 144 rushing yards. But this is now the second straight season where he's missed multiple games, and the fourth time in the last six years. That's a concerning trend for a mobile QB who's about to turn 30 in January.
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Jackson has made encouraging progress, participating fully in Wednesday and Thursday's practices. He's currently listed as questionable, but all expectations are that he will play Sunday against Buffalo. That's great news for Jackson and the Ravens, but now he may need to answer with another MVP-type performance in order to get Baltimore back in the win column.
Sunday is an opportunity for Jackson to remind everyone what makes him such an elite player, but he can't fix everything on his own. The Ravens' defense has struggled, its running game hasn't been consistent, and the team has repeatedly failed to finish close games. Another loss would drop Baltimore to 4-4 on the season, extend their losing streak to three games, and make an already difficult division race even more challenging.
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