Arizona Cardinals vs. Baltimore Ravens: 3 Bold predictions for Week 2

The Baltimore Ravens come off a dominant win to host Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals. Bold predictions for this Week 2 matchup.

Buzz around Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens reached critical mass after Week 1. Even if they were playing the lowly Dolphins, the second-year quarterback looked masterful as he diced up the Miami defense on his way to a perfect quarterback rating — all this without using his elite rushing ability. In Week 2, he’ll look to build off that as he faces another young, dynamic quarterback with Kyler Murray and the Arizona Cardinals coming to M&T Bank Stadium.

In truth, Murray and new head coach Kliff Kingsbury‘s team looked awful for much of the season-opener against the Lions. When crunch time rolled around, though, they spread out the offense and clawed their way back into the game, forcing overtime. And even though it ended with a tie, there were still plenty of things to work with from what we saw in Murray’s NFL debut.

What’s interesting for this Week 2 contest, though, is the difference in matchups in relation to what each team saw last week. Arizona offers the Ravens a bit more of a challenge, particularly in regards to containing their offense. Meanwhile, the Baltimore defense (and maybe offense) are a tier above what the Lions bring to the table.

Having all of this in mind, let’s preview this matchup by making three bold predictions for the Baltimore Ravens welcoming the Arizona Cardinals in Week 2.

3. Andrews plays, enjoys another huge day

Rookie wide receiver Marquise Brown lived up to his Hollywood moniker as he put on a show in Week 1 but he overshadowed an almost equally impressive showing from tight end Mark Andrews. The Oklahoma product was the team’s leader in targets and receptions, hauling in all eight throws that went his way for 108 yards and a touchdown.

Leading up to this Week 2 matchup against Arizona, Andrews has been dealing with injuries but looks like he’s on track to play. In the season-opener, the Cardinals allowed Detroit rookie T.J. Hockenson to eat them alive for a 100+ yard performance. With Andrews being a focal point of the Ravens offense, expect their tight end to do the same with his second 100-yard showing of the season already.

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2. Kyler sacked 6 times, still puts up numbers

After 60 minutes of regulation and then 10 of overtime, Cardinals rookie quarterback Kyler Murray ended up with an impressive day, throwing for 308 yards, two touchdowns and just one interception. However, that doesn’t tell the entire story as he was awful for much of the game but then picked up speed in crunch time.

Not helping Murray is the fact that the Cardinals offensive line is quite bad. That’s not good news against this Baltimore defense which will get after him. Specifically, the Ravens are going to bring down Murray at least six times in this game.

While that may be the case, expect Murray to still finish with a big statistical day. The pressure he’ll face will force him to use his legs and put up nice rushing numbers. On top of that, the Ravens have the potential to jump out to a big lead, which could again open up the offense and allow Murray to sling it all over, which is where he had the majority of his success against the Lions in Week 1.

1. Jackson shows off his legs more, wows again

There were plenty of people that expected Lamar Jackson to have a big game against the Dolphins in Week 1. What wasn’t completely expected, though, was how the Baltimore Ravens quarterback accomplished that. Known for his dual-threat abilities, Jackson only rushed three times on the day and finished with 324 yards passing to go with five passing touchdowns.

While the weak Cardinals secondary gives Jackson a good matchup to throw against — which he will effectively — the one thing Arizona’s defense does well is rush the passer. As such, they’ll put pressure on the speedy quarterback in this game, thus allowing him to showcase his rushing ability. He’ll run more in this game but that will only make his performance more impressive as he’ll gash the Red Birds defense with his legs and his arm.