Baltimore Ravens: 3 players vital to beating Jaguars
By Dustin Cox
This week the Baltimore Ravens travel to London for the first time to face off against the Jacksonville Jaguars. How far can the Baltimore Ravens defense take this team?
The Ravens have had several close games against the Jaguars in recent years. The Ravens offense is still finding its groove and the Jaguars may have the best defense they have faced yet.
Buck Allen
Going into the preseason, third year running back Buck Allen was a player many people thought was in danger of not making the 53 man roster. Buck had a promising rookie season in 2015 after starting running back Justin Forsett suffered a season-ending injury. The next year Terrance West surfaced as the team’s No.1 running back and the Ravens drafted potential star Kenneth Dixon in the fourth-round. This caused Buck Allen to fall on the depth chart and see reduced playing time in 2016. Many people thought he was in danger of being released, but a season-ending injury to Kenneth Dixon made way for him to once again find a spot on the roster.
Allen looked good in the preseason and so far that has carried over to the regular season. Terrance West is still the starting back, but he is currently injured and may miss the game against Jacksonville this Sunday. This leaves Buck Allen and Alex Collins, who was just promoted from the practice squad last week. I expect Allen to get a very heavy workload against Jacksonville.
The Jaguars have a very talented defensive line and it will provide a huge challenge for the Ravens offensive line who just lost their best OL in Marshal Yanda. The Ravens have shown how committed they are to running the football throughout the first two games of the season, but they haven’t exactly had a test like this yet. How will the Ravens respond if the running game isn’t going as well? Buck Allen must find success if the offense wants to find it as well.