Tennessee Titans vs Baltimore Ravens: 3 huge matchups to look out for
Marshal Yanda vs Jurrell Casey:
The future hall of fame guard will be in for a battle this coming Saturday. Jurrell Casey is one of the most underrated interior defenders in all of football, but he is a consistent force on the Titans defensive line. He finished this year with five sacks and 44 tackles. He is one of the Titans best defenders and will be key to the Titans stopping the Ravens running game.
Marshal Yanda was named to his seventh all-pro team this year and is maybe the best run-blocking guard in the game. The Ravens constantly run behind Yanda for positive yardage as he is the most dominant force on the interior of their offensive line. Marshal Yanda winning his battle vs Casey will be critical for the Ravens offense.
A strategy that the Ravens can use to help with Casey is to bring Nick Boyle to the right side of the line and have Orlando Brown Jr. chip Casey, then move to the next level of the defense. Nick Boyle is the Ravens best blocking tight end on the roster and has the ability to block edge defenders one on one, which he probably will need to do during this game. Or the Ravens can try to double team Casey on every play, something they did to Aaron Donald to great success. The downside to this is that one defender will take up two offensive players, so I still expect Yanda to be left alone to block Casey himself the majority of the time.
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An advantage for Marshal Yanda will be the two full weeks of rest that he received. Yanda is 35 years old and did not play against the Steelers in the final game of the season, and then he got even more rest during the bye week. Marshal Yanda should come out ready to go when the Ravens suit up against the Titans. Yanda winning his matchup will be huge for the Ravens, if he is able to consistently beat Casey the Ravens have a great chance to win this game.