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

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.