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FanSided

The Ravens are the AFC’s best right now

By John Buhler

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The Baltimore Ravens are humming along at 8-2 on the season. They are staking their claim as the best team in the AFC right now.

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The Baltimore Ravens have built off last year’s success with quarterback Lamar Jackson during his rookie season. Now in his first full year as the starter, he is playing at an MVP level and has his team at 8-2 through 10 games this season. Is Baltimore the best team in the AFC right now?

On the week’s episode of Stacking the Box, FanSided‘s Matt Verderame and Mark Carman, along with former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz, assess what the Ravens have done as a football team through 11 weeks and decide if they are the best team in the AFC at this juncture (3:55).

“I think right now, with six games to play, in the AFC, I think they’re the best team,” said Verderame. He would say that the Ravens just played their best game of the season by slaughtering the Houston Texans at home in Week 11, dominating them in all three phases of the game.

Verderame spoke very glowingly about the Ravens and thinks that they are poised to make a deep run in the AFC playoffs this year. While he is concerned about how the plus-one offense will work in the latter stages of the postseason, Verderame feels that both of the Ravens coordinators in Greg Roman and Don “Wink” Martindale will be serious candidates for head coaching positions.

Having the head-to-head tiebreaker over the New England Patriots gives the Ravens a leg up in the pantheon of the AFC in 2019. New England is still the team to beat, but the Ravens have shown that the Patriots are indeed beatable. But are they destined to clash once more this season in January, either in Foxborough or better yet, in Baltimore?

The Ravens seem to be finding their stride at the right time. They will have to play the Los Angeles Rams on the road on Monday Night Football this week. Los Angeles is coming off a primetime win over the Chicago Bears, but Jared Goff and the Rams are about to get a taste of Baltimore football and a heavy dose of the plus-one offense on Monday night.

Here are a few other topics discussed on this week’s episode of Stacking the Box:

  • Who wins the AFC Wild Card spots? (10:31)
  • Is the NFC playoff picture already set? (13:28)
  • Rams-Ravens odds (33:39)
  • Will a team sign Colin Kaepernick after workout? (46:56)

All this and more!

Next. Baltimore Ravens: The coaching staff is the real MVP. dark

Subscribe to Stacking The Box and follow Geoff Schwartz, Matt Verderame and Mark Carman on Twitter.

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