Three keys to a Raiders win on Sunday at the Baltimore Ravens
The Oakland Raiders will finish the second half of back to back road games, both with 10 a.m. PST starts. This week, they travel to Baltimore to take on a Ravens team that they beat last year in a game that helped the Silver and Black get back on track after a week one blowout loss. Now, Oakland will travel to Baltimore and try to unseat one of the remaining undefeated teams in the NFL.
And if the Raiders want to pull off an upset of the Ravens for the second straight year, these are some of the keys to getting that done:
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1 – Convert on third down
The Raiders currently sit at 19th in the league on third down conversions this season having only converted on just under 39% of their attempts. In raw numbers, they have converted 14 of their 36 third down attempts this year. That not only hurts the offense and it’s ability to put points on the board, it also gets the defense back on the field and we all know how many issues that unit has.
One of the primary goals of this Raider squad should be finding consistency from both sides of the ball. On offense, that means converting third down plays to extend drives and maintain control of time of possession.
2 – Win the turnover battle
This one seems obvious, right? But it’s especially important this week when the Raiders take on a Ravens team that currently has a giveaway takeaway ratio of -1 while Oakland is currently tied for fifth best ratio in the league with +4. Joe Flacco has thrown four interceptions in the past two weeks. Clearly they were able to win in spite of those ball security issues but if the Raiders want to pull off the upset, losing the turnover battle isn’t a good way to go about that.
The defense looked better last weekend in large part due to the fact that they forced three turnovers. If they can force multiple turnovers again this weekend, it will go a long way towards getting the win. But one thing is for sure, the Raiders won’t have a great chance at winning against Baltimore if they lose the turnover battle.
3 – Run it down Baltimore’s throat
While the Baltimore offense is nothing to write home about, the defense is having a very nice year. Their rush defense is currently top ten and only allowing opposing offenses to put up an average of 86 yards per game. Meanwhile, the Raiders are second in the league with over 148 yards per game through the first three weeks. Despite the fact that the Ravens have a strong run defense, the Raiders can’t back down from their run game.
The run game is increasingly becoming a significant portion of the Raiders’ identification. They can’t allow the Ravens to take them out of their normal game plan and abandon the run. The Raiders should start pounding the ball early ans set a physical tone behind the blocking of former Raven Kelechi Osemele.
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