Offense
1. First Down production: When the Ravens have had success on the offensive side of the ball, it is usually due to making solid gains on first down, the most pivotal down in football. The Ravens are traditionally a run first offense on first down, but they’ve had their most successful drives when they have been able to complete short passes on first down to gain 4-to-5 yards. Against a defense like Cincinnati which thrives on forcing offenses to make mistakes and getting sacks in obvious passing situations, it will be that much more important to keep out of third-and-long situations. The Ravens should use the pass to set up the run on second and third-down; ideally short-yardage conversion situations if they are able to gain some yardage on first down by completing passes.
2. Space balls: The Bengals are a poor tackling team, which is why they have had trouble stopping offenses from sustaining drives. If a defense gives up an extra yard, or two, or more an offense has less yardage to cover when they are trying to score points. The Ravens have a couple of talented receivers in Derrick Mason and Mark Clayton who can generate yards after the catch. Daniel Wilcox and Todd Heap are also able to break tackles and drag defenders in the open field. Getting the receivers involved in pass plays off the edges on screens or quick outs where they have room to operate would be a good strategy in this game.
3. Maintaining the running game: It’s important that the Ravens stick to their game plan of establishing the run against Cincinnati. In a game like this, it can be easy to stray from the run depending on how effective the Bengals offense is, and whether they can force the Ravens into a shootout. But even if the Ravens have to play catch up on offense, they should not turn solely to the pass. They will still need to run the ball because on the ground is where most of the yardage will be available.
Defense
1. Nickel and Dime: Stopping Rudi Johnson should be the Ravens’ primary objective on defense. But considering how good the Ravens are against the run, the Bengals may not even attempt to ram Johnson against Baltimore’s strong front seven. The Bengals may just depend on Palmer to carry them by spreading the ball around to his talented quartet of receivers (Chad Johnson, T.J. Housmanzadeh, Chris Henry and Kelly Washington). If Palmer gets good enough protection, he will throw for some long completions against a Ravens secondary which has been burned a number of times this season. The key for Baltimore is to guard against the pass by using Ronnie Prude and Gerome Sapp more as backup defensive backs. The reason that Baltimore had so much trouble against Cincinnati in the past is because they were not able to use a multitude of defensive backs to defend the spread attack, something that the Ravens will need to do a better job of on Sunday.
2. Pressure up the gut: In order to pressure Palmer and derail Johnson from running the ball effectively, the Ravens need to be able to split gaps and create pressure in the middle of the line. This is especially important considering that the Bengals are going to be without starting center Rich Brahm for yet another game. So there will be chances for Baltimore to create confusion and bait the Bengals into making the wrong protection calls at the line-of-scrimmage. If the Ravens are effective enough, they should be able to force Palmer to complete passes on the move, although in previous games Palmer was quite effective when he had to throw on the run against Baltimore’s secondary. If Palmer is able to get away, the Raven defenders in coverage need to do a good job of staying with the receivers they are responsible for in coverage.
3. Better discipline in the back end: The only sore spot in the Baltimore defense has been the secondary’s propensity to give up pass plays which generate a lot of yardage down the field. These coverage mistakes usually occur due to someone in the secondary moving out of position or covering the wrong receiver. Against the Saints, there were a couple of times when one of the safeties was either late in moving to his landmark or didn’t drop back far enough, leaving a lot of space for the receiver to run through to snag the deep ball. Against Cincinnati, it is imperative that the safeties and the corners are on the same page when it comes to understanding where they need to be. If there are any coverage breakdowns, the Bengals will be able to score quickly off of their explosive vertical passing game.
One-on-One Matchup to Watch: Chad Johnson versus Chris McAlister: Every season these two tangle, and every season Johnson comes out on top. Johnson has torched the Ravens repeatedly through his career. He has a knack for locating balls down the field against Raven cornerbacks. And considering that Baltimore usually plays man-to-man coverage on the outside, Johnson has had plenty of chances to exploit that type of coverage. Johnson has yet to put together a statistically dominant performance because defenses have double teamed him. It will be interesting to see what the Ravens, and Chris McAlister specifically, do to slow down "ocho cinco" on Sunday.
