4 battles will decide Ravens vs. Bengals in Week 2: Ja'Marr Chase vs. the Rain, more

The Ravens and the Bengals have faced each other 55 times throughout history. Baltimore holds a 28-27 tiny edge that Cincinnati will try to bring to a draw on Sunday.

The recent history of the rivalry is heated and unbalanced, though, with Cincy beating the Ravens on their last two, back-to-back games played last January to put an end to the regular season and then send Baltimore home in the AFC Wild Card round.

Baltimore (1-0) is looking at a rather fantastic start to the 2023 season if the Flock can come out of the Jungle with a victory, as that would mean going two games up the Bengals (0-1) following their Week 1 loss to AFC North rival Cleveland.

This matchup won't win Baltimore nor Cincy the Super Bowl, but you while you cannot clinch the chip in September, you can start losing it if you don't put on solid results early. And let me tell you, starting 2-0 with Cincy going down 0-2 is something Baltimore and all Ravens fans would be ecstatic about.

Here are four battles that could shape the outcome of Sunday's game and end up deciding the matchup between Bengals and Ravens in Week 2 of the 2023 regular season, with the kick-off scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET at the Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati.

4. Ja'Marr Chase vs. Cincinnati's Weather

Turns out Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase is more into talking than into balling this season. But hey, the Ravens can't complain!

The Cincinnati Bengals visited the Cleveland Browns on Week 1 for a season-opening game that they ended up losing 24-3 without ever putting on a nearly strong effort to try and pull off a comeback.

Chase himself grabbed a few passes for 39 yards, which is far from the player we know and the performer that has done wonders multiple times in the past. Chase, in fact, has 30 catches for 462 yards and 2 TDs in four games against the Ravens.

A lot of Bengals fans, pundits, and players--including Chase--have blamed their Week 1 defeat on... the rain? Welp.

Asked about whether the Bengals lost because of the Browns' pass rushing or the weather, Chase told Olivia Ray of Channel 5 (h/t Bengals.com) "You need to grip the ball to throw the ball, so I'd say rain." The receiver added "If we get rain, we just have to adjust to it this time. The ball was slipping out of [Burrow's] hand. Then when we'd catch the ball, it slipped through the glove. It was horrible."

According to Forecasat.io (h/t RotoWire), there is a "19% chance of precipitation" at 1:00 PM EST on Sunday. Will Chase be able to do anything in the rain?

3. Lamar Jackson vs. Joe Burrow

Also known as The War of the Rich Quarterbacks.

The Ravens entered the offseason with Lamar Jackson still sitting on the shelves, without an agent, and trying to convince the franchise to hand him all of the daugh they were in possession of.

Things got so ugly at a point that Jackson had the courage to drop a message on Twitter (now known as X) demanding a trade away from Baltimore after he got tagged a few weeks earlier. They say the devil is in the details, which was true here because Jackson hit "send" the minute head coach John Harbaugh sat at a table to discuss the plans of the team for the 2023 season. The audacity.

After all of the fights and the talk, both parties agreed to the then-richest deal in the history of the league, the Ravens gave Lamar a hefty five-year, $260 million deal with $185 of it guaranteed, and it was all colorful rainbows.

One of the main beneficiaries of the saga (and that ending), was Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow and his team, as they could work on a contract extension with Lamar being the one laying the groundwork for them and setting a reasonable baseline for the contract figures.

It took some back and forth between Burrow and the Cats to reach an agreement, but the QB inked his deal mere hours before the Bengals season opener. Burrow will get as much as $275 million over five years, with $219 of them guaranteed.

The best and most ridiculous thing of all of this? Burrow and Jackson have only faced each other twice since 2020 on a football field.

Jackson has only started two games against the Bengals since Burrow entered the league, and he hasn't played at Cincinnati since 2020 as he suffered a season-ending injury in 2021 and then another one last December that ruled him out of the back-to-back matchups played between the two franchises in January 2022.

We've been waiting for years to see these two go against each other, and Sunday will finally bring that battle to our lives. It's about time!

2. Ravens Offensive Line vs. Bengals Pass Rush

The injury report released by the Baltimore Ravens on Friday was dreadful at best, murderous at worst.

The Flock will fly to Cincinnati without five of their surefire starters including RB J.K. Dobbins, OT Ronnie Stanley, C Tyler Linderbaum, S Marcus Williams, and CB Marlon Humphrey. Start praying, fellas, cause we might be in for a tough one here.

The Cats, on the other hand, have a pretty clean bill of health and their latest report only included a few banged-up buddies but none of them remarkable or that impactful.

The most crucial players listed in the latest Ravens report are easily the two offensive linemen, Stanley and Linderbaum. One is the best LT in the league. The other is coming off a ROY-type season and made the PFF's Team of the Week last Sunday. No joke.

Patrick Mekari (LT) and Sam Mustipher (C) are the next men up in the Ravens roster expected to start in place of the two ruled-out starters on Baltimore's lineup come Sunday's kick-off, pending more late roster transactions. It's going to be a long day for the two newcomers because Cincy is going to launch a mammoth amount of pass rushers and blitzes toward them.

The Bengals boast a couple of elite interior defensive linemen in DJ Reader and B.J. Hill. The former put up an 84.1 PPF pass-rushing grade. The latter set a career-high in pressures with 45, according to The Baltimore Sun.

Add edge rushers Trey Hendrickson and Sam Hubbard and all of a sudden you have a stout line facing a depleted (and struggling) one in Baltimore's unit.

If the Ravens want to come out of the Jungle alive they will need to find a way to escape this dangerous matchup. It's going to take a hellacious effort, but it feels like the only way for the Flock to earn a W this weekend. Fingers crossed.

1. Baltimore Rushing vs. Bengals Run Defense

J.K. Dobbins is out for the season after tearing his Achilles in Week 1. Gus Edwards, Justice Hill, and (it's expected) Melvin Gordon will split touches in Baltimore's backfield on Sunday and going forward. How does that sound?

The Ravens decided to go with an "in-house" solution to fix their backfield following the injuries of Dobbins' injury, the nth in his career and one that might have put an end to his tenure in Baltimore as he was playing under the final year of his rookie contract.

Dobbins has played two times against the Bengals in regular-season games rushing for 194 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries combined. He also caught three passes for 21 yards in one of those two outings.

The injured rusher also appeared in last January's loss to Cincy in the playoffs having one of his best games putting up 62 yards on 13 carries including grabbing four-of-five targets for 43 yards and a receiving touchdown.

Gus Edwards has rushed the rock 62 times against the Bengals through seven games against them racking up 306 yards and scoring one touchdown. The per-game averages are at around 43 yards per game, and 4.9 yards per attempt.

Justice Hill has gone for 97 yards on 17 carries through five games, averaging 19 yards per game and 5.7 yards per attempt.

Melvin Gordon has played two times against the Bengals, and he will do so with a third different team if he graces the field at the Jungle on Sunday.

Last season, according to Team Rankings, the Bengals allowed the fifth-fewest rushing yards per game (103.5) to their opponents and the seventh-fewest (100.6) when playing home.

Baltimore's rushing offense ranked third in the NFL in rushing yards per game (159.7) as a team, racking up the second-best average in games played on the road (144.3).

This season, the Ravens rushers (who can be considered "backups-turned-starters") will need to do all in their power to try to at least approach those heights if Baltimore wants to have another successful campaign, no matter what new OC Todd Monken wants to implement.

Sunday feels like the first real test the backfield with need to pass on their way there.

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