Ravens vs. Bengals Critical Matchups: Limiting impact of Ja’Marr Chase will be paramount

This AFC North rivalry features key battles between specific players, units, and coaches.

The Baltimore Ravens will be back on the road in Week 5 where they will travel to face the Cincinnati Bengals in the first AFC North showdown of the 2024 regular season. For the fourth straight week, the Ravens are favored to come out on top in the first edition of this heated rivalry of the year.

However, games aren’t won on paper or decided by betting odds. There are some pivotal matchups between individual players, units, and coaches that will go a long way in determining the outcome of this contest.

Below are a handful of those key battles that could be deciding factors in Week 5.

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Ravens cornerbacks v. Bengals wide receiver

Baltimore’s secondary is coming off its best performance of the season to date in which they shut down the Buffalo Bills passing game and will need to bring their A-game again to keep Cincinnati’s talented group of wideouts in check. The Bengals have a pair of No. 1 caliber players at the position at their disposal with the return of Tee Higgins but limiting the impact of three-time Pro Bowl star Ja’Marr Chase is of the utmost priority. All three of the Ravens’ top three cornerbacks—Marlon Humphrey, Nate Wiggins, Brandon Stephens—could and likely will line up across from him at some point and none of them can afford to let him go off and take over a game.

While Chase has been heating up as of late with over 200 receiving yards and three touchdowns of over 30-plus yards in his last two games combined, he has not fared well statically against the Ravens in the previous four meetings between the Ravens and Bengals. He hasn’t recorded more than 86 receiving yards in a single game during that span and was held to just seven receptions on 15 targets for 43 receiving yards and a garbage-time touchdown in last year’s two meetings combined. If Higgins or one of their two young promising receivers—Andrei Iosivas and Jermaine Burton—has a bigger game but Chase’s impact is limited, that is a result the Ravens would likely be willing to live with because of how he can change momentum and score on any given play.

“The biggest thing is Joe Burrow and the receivers,” Humphrey said. “You’ve got to win those matchups. I think the biggest task this week defensively will be our DB’s versus their receivers. It’s a tough task but that’s the biggest thing.”

Ravens rushing offense v. Bengals run defense

Baltimore’s ground game isn’t just the best in the league by a wide margin with an NFL-best average of 220.3 yards per game, 6.4 yards per carry and 881 total yards, it’s off to a record-breaking start to the season. With last week’s steamrolling of the Buffalo Bills, the Ravens became the first team in NFL history to outrush their opponents by 100-plus yards in each of their first four games and are on pace to break the record for the most rushing yards in a single season that they set during their historic 2019 season when Lamar Jackson was named league MVP unanimously.

Going up against a Bengals defense that among the worst in the league at stopping the run, allowing an average of 145.5 yards per game—25th and 5.8 yards per attempt against 12-personnel—31st, the Ravens are poised to rinse and repeat their dominant game plan for a third week in a row. Derrick Henry will likely have another monster game in which he carries the ball 20-plus times for 150-plus yards and Jackson will be primed to gash Cincinnati with his legs, especially in the red zone where his perimeter blockers have been excellent in getting him into the end zone unscathed the past two weeks.

“That’s cheating,” Chase told reporters. “If I’m playing Madden, RPO read with those two… In real life, they’re still doing the same thing. It’s a great duo they have back there.”

Ravens pass rush v. Bengals offensive line

This is one of the pivotal matchups that could play a big factor in deciding the outcome of the game because if Burrow is given enough time to find and deliver the ball to his talented pass catchers, it will be a much more competitive game than many anticipate. The Ravens’ have a pass rush that has racked up the fifth-most sacks (13) in the league through four games and will be going up against an offensive line that has given up the fifth-fewest sacks (eight) during that span.

The individual matchups to watch in this game will be both edges between the Bengals’ starting offensive tackles and the Ravens’ top outside linebackers. AFC Defensive Player of the Month, Kyle Van Noy, will be looking to add to his conference and team-leading sack total going up against first-round rookie Amarius Mims making just his second career start.

On the other side of the line, fourth-year pro Odafe Oweh—who is second on the team in sacks with 3.5—will be lining up across from four-time Pro Bowl blindside protector Orlando Brown Jr. who has the third-highest pass block win rate. Oweh was acquired with the first-round pick the Ravens received for trading Brown Jr. to the Kansas City Chiefs and he has gotten the better of the seven-year veteran whenever they’ve gone up against each other since his rookie year. Brown Jr. has always had a harder time slowing down athletic pass rushers who can bend and quickly get around the edge such as Oweh.

An area where the Ravens have a clear advantage and could absolutely wreck the game from a pressure perspective is up the middle. The Ravens’ destructive duo of interior defensive linemen Nnamdi Madubuike and Travis Jones have the disruptive potential to collapse the pocket and prevent Burrow from stepping up into the pocket as well as flush him out of the pocket and into the grasp of the edge rushers, hopefully.

OT Ronnie Stanley v. DE Trey Hendrickson

The top battle in the trenches on the opposite side of the ball for both teams will be between the Ravens’ Pro Bowl blindside protector and the Bengals Pro Bowl edge rusher. Stanley missed both matchups with Cincinnati last season and in his absence, Hendrickson got blanked by veteran utility lineman Patrick Mekari in the first game but notched a sack, two tackles for loss and a quarterback hit in the second.

Stanley is having an impressive start to his resurgent season with the highest pass block win rate in the league through four games while Hendrickson leads the Bengals with three sacks and no other defender on the team has more than one. This matchup will be one to keep an eye on if the game gets tight and during two-minute situations at the end of either half.

“He’s a good player. He’s a leader for that whole defense,” Stanley said. “I expect it to be a battle for the whole game.”

DC Zach Orr v. QB Joe Burrow

The Ravens have done a great job of keeping the Bengals star signal caller from putting up prolific passing numbers in each of their last four meetings from 2022-2023 under former defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald. During that span, Burrow averaged just 189 passing yards per game and completed less than 65% of his passes with five touchdowns to two interceptions and seven sacks taken. Orr will get his first chance to continue the impressive trend that centers around limiting explosive plays downfield come Sunday.

“Every year is different; every game is different,” Orr said. “I think part of the success has just been everybody being on the same page playing team defense and going out there playing as hard as we can and not giving up big plays. That’s a big focus for us going into this week is [for] everybody [to be] on the same page; us playing team defense and us eliminating explosive plays, because we know they’re a real explosive offense. I think if we do that, we give ourselves a good chance.”

The key to getting a player as cerebral and surgical with the ball in his hands as a passer as Burrow is to present one thing pre-snap and do something slightly or completely different once the ball is snapped. Whether it comes in the form of simulated pressures and deceptive coverages, the Ravens will need to do a mixture of both to disrupt the rhythm and efficiency of the Bengals passing attack. Orr was absolutely in his bag and completely in tune with his players and game plan against the Bills last week when they limited another star quarterback, Josh Allen, to his worst game of the year.

“I think the biggest challenge is not letting him know where to go with the football, and then really trying to switch stuff up on him,” Orr said. “He’s a really good football player; he’s really smart. He understands coverages; he understands pressures.

“It’s tough to confuse him; it’s tough to trick him, and even when you do, he has the ability to still beat you with his arm and move around the pocket and still beat you with his feet as well. We have a lot of respect for him; we know what he’s done; we know what he’s capable of, and we have to be on our A-game if we want to come away with a victory.”