When the Baltimore Ravens met as a team in preparation for Monday night’s game against the Los Angeles Chargers, coach John Harbaugh wanted to get ahead of the most prominent storyline of the week.
Yes, the Chargers are coached by Jim Harbaugh, John’s younger brother. And yes, the connections between the two franchises run deep. The Chargers’ front office, coaching staff and roster is loaded with former Ravens. Yet, John wanted his players to know that none of that mattered inside the building this week.
“We’ve told some stories in the past, but not this week,” Harbaugh said. “Really this week, for the players and the coaches, it’s not about that. We have such a challenge. The challenge is playing the game. Getting in that game and playing that game against that team is the biggest challenge you could have, and that’s what everybody is focused on.”
Harbaugh’s Ravens are 7-4 after last weekend’s deflating defeat by the Pittsburgh Steelers. Issues with penalties and their normally reliable kicker, and injuries in the middle of their defense, are concerns for the Ravens, who have two tough games in six days.
A loss by the Steelers (8-3) to the Cleveland Browns on Thursday keeps the Ravens in striking distance of first place in the AFC North. Yet, a second consecutive defeat Monday would be damaging, particularly with the Philadelphia Eagles arriving in Baltimore on a short week for a game Sunday.
The third matchup between the head-coaching brothers — John won the first two, including a victory over Jim’s San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII nearly a dozen years ago — comes at a time when the Chargers have rattled off four consecutive wins to emerge as contenders in the AFC.
Jim Harbaugh has wasted no time in energizing a Chargers team that has made the playoffs just once in the previous five seasons. The Chargers have done it behind a host of familiar faces and names to Ravens fans. The Los Angeles front office is headed by general manager Joe Hortiz, who was in Baltimore for more than two decades.
Jim’s coaching staff features five former Ravens assistants, including offensive coordinator Greg Roman and defensive coordinator Jesse Minter. There are 10 ex-Ravens on the Chargers’ 53-man roster or practice squad, with running backs J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards and center Bradley Bozeman among them.
There are revenge angles everywhere, but it’s tough to move beyond the competition between the two coaches, even if they insisted all week that the attention should be elsewhere.
“It’s two teams squaring off in a really important game,” John Harbaugh said. “It’s going to be about the guys out there playing the game.”
Harbaugh said the same thing all week to his players. They also know the uniqueness of the situation.
“I’ve actually talked to Coach ‘Harbs’ about it a little bit just here and there — like having breakfast or whatever. I think from his perspective, he’s done a good job just kind of managing the emotions, and we still have a game to play,” safety Kyle Hamilton said.
To that end, Hamilton said that once the game starts, the Chargers will be “nameless, faceless opponents.”
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During game weeks, we’ll examine some of the storylines, matchups and questions the Ravens face heading into the contest. This week’s first-and-10:
1. Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson hates talking about it, but just like with other trends involving the two-time league MVP, it’s hard to ignore. Jackson has started on “Monday Night Football” eight times and has thrown 20 touchdown passes, no interceptions and posted a league-best 124.0 passer rating. The Ravens are 6-2 in those games. Jackson last week lamented the inconsistency of the offense. Baltimore played arguably its worst offensive game of the season in Pittsburgh. In the previous game, the offense struggled for the first 2 1/2 quarters against a bad Cincinnati Bengals defense. The Chargers defense, which held its first nine opponents to 20 points or less, is formidable, too. But the Monday night stage has always brought out the best in Jackson.
2. A matchup between the league’s second-best scoring offense and the top-ranked scoring defense will likely be decided on third down and the red zone. It’s strength on strength. The Ravens have the league’s best red zone offense (77.8 percent), and the Chargers have the second-best red zone defense (40.9). On third down, the Ravens have the third-best conversion rate (46.2), and the Chargers have the second-best success rate (32.3). The Ravens have to stop taking early-down penalties that put them behind the sticks. It’s been a talking point all week. The Chargers have the pass rushers, starting with Joey Bosa, and the defensive creativity to make it a long night for Jackson if the Ravens are constantly in second- and third-and-longs like last week.
3. Minter, a Ravens defensive assistant from 2017 to 2020, has put himself on the head-coaching radar, similar to ex-Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald last year. One of the trademarks of Minter’s defense has been light boxes. The Chargers keep six defenders or fewer in the box 68.1 percent of the time. Only Philadelphia, Baltimore’s opponent in Week 13, uses light boxes more often. The Ravens’ four lowest rushing totals of the season have come in the last four games. Monday would be a good night to lean hard on the legs of Jackson and Derrick Henry to control the clock and keep Justin Herbert off the field. Already with 15 total touchdowns, Henry will set a franchise record for most touchdowns in a season with his next score.
4. The latest defensive concern in a season full of them for the Ravens is how they’ll defend the middle of the field potentially without defensive tackle Travis Jones (ankle) and middle linebacker Roquan Smith (hamstring). As soon as Smith went out last week, the Steelers attacked the Ravens in the middle, particularly targeting Malik Harrison and Trenton Simpson. If Smith is sidelined, the Ravens will replace him situationally with Harrison, who has struggled in space all season, and Chris Board. The Ravens have surrendered a league-high 1,794 passing yards and a 75.8 completion percentage between the numbers this year, and that’s mostly with Smith on the field. Herbert hasn’t been ultra-aggressive in attacking the middle this season, but he has the offensive coordinator (Roman) and the inside assets (Ladd McConkey and Will Dissly) to do it.
5. Ravens fourth-year outside linebacker Odafe Oweh has already set career highs in sacks (seven) and quarterback hits (18). Over the last two games, he has 2 1/2 sacks, eight quarterback hits and 12 pressures. The next challenge for the 2021 first-round pick is consistency. Five of Oweh’s seven sacks have come in two games. His eight quarterback hits over the past two games are two more than he had in the previous seven games combined. The Chargers have two young and talented first-round tackles, Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt, and they won’t make it easy for Oweh.
6. Harbaugh made clear the Ravens are sticking with the new safety tandem of Hamilton and Ar’Darius Washington, which leaves veteran Marcus Williams on the bench. What Harbaugh didn’t say is whether trade acquisition Tre’Davious White, who had a nice debut in Pittsburgh, will have a more prominent role and whether that means cornerback Brandon Stephens will spend more time on the sideline. White played 24 snaps against Pittsburgh in the spot formerly occupied by Stephens, one of the most targeted cornerbacks in the NFL. It will be interesting to see whether that becomes a trend.
7. Dobbins wasn’t vocal like Patrick Queen last week about his motivation to perform well against his former team. You can bet, however, that Dobbins would like nothing more than to show the Ravens just how far he’s moved past the injuries that held him back in Baltimore. Dobbins is having a Comeback Player of the Year-type season with 841 all-purpose yards and eight touchdowns. A good game Monday could help him surpass career highs in both categories. If one player stands to benefit from Smith’s potential absence in the middle of the Baltimore defense, it’s Dobbins.
8. Justin Tucker turned 35 on Thursday, but he otherwise had another long week as questions persisted about what’s behind the worst stretch of his career. Tucker has missed at least one kick or extra-point attempt in three of the past four games. Five of his seven misses this year have come in Ravens losses, all by 7 points or less. The Ravens are adamant they’re not contemplating a kicking change. Yet, if there’s anybody who needs a good performance Monday to start turning around his season, it’s Tucker.
9. There is both good and bad news on the penalty front for the Ravens, who have been called for a league-high 92 infractions for 763 yards. Good news first: Carl Cheffers’ crew, which will be officiating Monday, has thrown the third-fewest penalty flags of any referee team. The bad news? The Chargers are one of the least-penalized teams in football with the fewest penalty yards (411) and fourth-fewest penalties (53).
10. The Ravens added inside linebacker Kristian Welch to their 53-man roster Saturday. He was out of practice squad elevations, so he had to be added to the roster to play Monday. The Ravens have questions at inside linebacker with Smith’s injury, and they also are missing a few of their regular special-teamers because of injuries to safety Sanoussi Kane (ankle) and cornerback Arthur Maulet (calf). If Jones can’t play, the Ravens might need to elevate nose tackle Josh Tupou, too.
Prediction
Chargers 27, Ravens 20
The Ravens have been meh offensively in six of the past eight quarters. Hope that their struggling defense found something in Pittsburgh is somewhat mitigated by the health of Smith and Jones, two key cogs in the middle, and the weekly secondary juggling. Special teams hasn’t been very good all year. The Ravens need to find another level as a team and fast, but LA is going to be a tough place to find it. The Chargers are a hot team playing with a lot of purpose and belief. The Ravens, meanwhile, look like a team that needs its bye week in a bad way.
(Top photo of John Harbaugh: Charles LeClaire / Imagn Images)
