The Baltimore Ravens schedule was released Thursday night. Here are three big things (Assuming the schedule goes as planned, fingers crossed).
1. Ravens have five prime time games and a holiday battle with the Pittsburgh Steelers:
The first thing I take note of every year when the Baltimore Ravens schedule is released is where the Ravens battles with the Pittsburgh Steelers fall on the calendar. This year the Ravens will be done with their two Steelers games after Thanksgiving night. The Ravens travel to Pittsburgh to take on the Steelers in the night cap on Thanksgiving. It’s a match up that really doesn’t make for the best family dynamic in a lot of cases, so that’s going to be interesting. The NFL does have a tendency to schedule the prime time battles in this rivalry in Pittsburgh, however the last Ravens vs. Steelers battle on Thanksgiving was in Baltimore.
The Ravens are the prime time darlings of the NFL this year. The Ravens have two Monday Night Football games, two Thursday night games and one game on NBC’s Sunday Night Football. The first prime time game is at M&T Bank Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs in week three. The Ravens Sunday Night Football experience will be on the road against the New England Patriots, in week 10. After a Sunday afternoon rematch with the Tennessee Titans, the Ravens have three prime time games in a row.
Weeks 12-14 are prime time games. First is the aforementioned Thanksgiving battle with the Steelers. Then it’s a second consecutive Thursday game, this one against the Dallas Cowboys. In week 14 the Ravens have a Monday Night Football appearance on the road against the Cleveland Browns. It wasn’t a surprise to see the Ravens have five prime time games. That’s the side effect of having the NFL MVP and coming off of a 14-2 season. It is probably the longest in regular season stretch the Ravens will ever had of games not on a Sunday though.
Lamar Jackson has had some of his best games in prime time. Last year he put on a show against the New England Patriots, destroyed the Los Angeles Rams and lit up the scoreboard against the New York Jets. Jackson’s regular season success in prime time games is an exciting thing to take note of for this season. Baltimore finally gets to take on the Chiefs in Baltimore and that could be the biggest game of the NFL season.