The Baltimore Ravens (1-0) will try to start the season with back-to-back victories (spoiler) for the first time in three years when they visit the Cincinnati Bengals (0-1) for a ferocious divisional matchup coming early in the season.
The Flock stayed home last weekend for what amounted to their first win of the season while hosting the lowly and inexperienced Texans. The Cats played against the never-quite-there Browns and dropped the ball mightily as QB Joe Burrow played one of his worst games as a pro... one day after signing the richest contract in NFL hitsory.
Those are only a few of the main things that popped up on Sunday across the NFL nation, but there is plenty of more saucy stuff worth knowing as we appraoch the final day of the weekend.
Here's every interesting storyline that you need to know ahead of the Week 2 divisional clash between birds and cats, Ravens and Bengals, scheduled for Sunday, Sept.17, if you don't want your mates to sound clever than you come game day.
1. The Ravens can being 2-0 for the first time since 2020
Baltimore is in possession of the best Week 1 record in the past eight seasons, this one included. The Ravens are 7-1 in that span, tied for first with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs after they won and lost their season-opening games last week respectively.
The Ravens, though, are now looking at breaking out of a two-year slump in which they couldn't start any of the last two years with back-to-back victories.
In 2021, Baltimore kicked their season off by losing an OT game in Las Vegas, their lone Week 1 defeat in the last eight years. That was followed by five consecutive victories from Sept. 20 through Oct. 17 before they dropped their second game of the season... against the Bengals.
Last year, the Ravens started the season on the right foot by beating a lowly New York Jets team in Week 1 only to lose their next matchup at home hosting the Miami Dolphins. It took the ravens until late October to string two consecutive victories, when they did so in Weeks 7 (vs. CLE) and Week 8 (at TB).
2. Lamar Jackson hasn't played in Cincinnati since the 2020 season
The last time Jackson visited Cincy for a divisional matchup against the Bengals we had barely flipped the calendar page to 2021, as that game took place on Jan. 3rd.
Jackson put together a rather awkward outing back then, completing a meager 10-of-18 passes for 113 yards albeit three of those ended in touchdowns. He was picked one, and the Ravens went away with a solid 38-3 victory on the road.
This will mark the first time in two seasons and more than 18 months in which Lamar will arrive in Cincinnati and start a game for the Ravens while facing their divisional foes and supposedly AFC North favorites.
3. The Ravens have a 6-1 record against the Bengals when Jackson starts
Jackson has faced the Bengals eight times. Or that's what the stats will tell you. The truth is that he only had a cameo back in 2018 when he rushed the rock a couple of times for six yards in Week 2 at Cincy, but he didn't attempt a single pass and only was present on six snaps.
Following that thing, however, you call it, Jackson is a near-perfect 6-1 against the Bengals, counting both home and away games. He's completed no fewer than 10 passes in all of those outings, he's thrown a touchdown or more in the last five, and he's topped 220 passing yards on three occasions.
Jackson missed the Dec. 2021 and Jan. 2023 games on the road against Cincinnati, but he's ready to go this weekend in what will be his actual ninth meeting with the Bengals but only his virtual eighth game of real action against the cats.
If we're going to make a prediction about this upcoming Week 2 matchup, then the track record is looking rather good when Jackson is out there in the Ravens' pocket facing some cats clad in orange and black.
4. The Ravens have lost in their last three visits to Cincinnati
This sounds bad, very bad, but the fact that Jackson didn't start any of those games is what you should really pay attention to.
As we already discussed in the first three points, the Ravens are facing history this weekend and they will do so with Lamar Jackson starting the game in the Flock's pocket.
The Ravens dropped two regular-season games in 2021 (21-41) and 2023 (17-18) before losing a postseason game last January (17-24) just days after getting defeated on the road in Cincy to wrap up the regular season.
Josh Johnson was the starter in 2021 completing 28 of 40 passes for 304 yards that day, connecting for 2 TDs, and getting picked once while fumbling twice.
Now-released Anthony Brown started last January's regular-season matchup going 19-of-44 for 286 and no touchdowns against two interceptions, fumbling (and losing it) once.
Then, in the playoffs, Tyler Huntley was the Ravens starter and he completed a measly 17 passes for 226 yards, two scores, against one interception and one fumble lost. He rushed the rock for 54 yards on nine carries, but that fumble murdered the chances of Baltimore advancing.
5. Sadly, this won't be a Revenge Game for J.K. Dobbins
If you remember what happened last January, then you know Dobbins probably had this matchup marked in his personal calendar.
Back in the cold winter, the Ravens and the Bengals faced each other in the AFC Wild Card game and Baltimore went on to lose against their foes. The main reason for that, at least the one Dobbins came up with, was the decision to allow Tyler Huntley to dive for the end zone instead of handing him the rock.
You know the outcome. Huntley fumbled, Sam Hubbard picked the ball and returned it all the way home for 98 yards and a score, and the Bengals advanced in the postseason while sending the Ravens packing back to Baltimore.
Dobbins, who started the season strong as an ox on Sunday, was forced out of the Week 1 eventual victory against the Texans after tearing his Achilles and he's been ruled out for the season.
It's unknown (and fairly, too early) whether or not Dobbins has played his last game for the Ravens, but if that's the case then he might never avenge that decision nor prove the Ravens coaches wrong about that play call.
6. Will we ever watch Lamar, Ronnie Stanley, Mark Andrews, Rashod Bateman, and Dobbins in a game together?
Not this week, at the very least.
As ridiculous and unbelievable as it sounds, these five have never appeared in the same single game together because of injuries. They have never been able to make a gameday roster and take the field at once.
Dobbins is gone for the season, so you can forget about this happening before next year at the soonest. That is also contingent on Dobbins re-signing with the Ravens, of course.
In Week 2, Stanley is highly questionable to play while Andrews also popped up in the injury report released by the franchise on Wednesday.
Lamar has missed time in years past, Bateman has been injured more often than not, and although all four Ravens outside of Dobbins should be on the field together at different/some points going forward, it's hard to be 100% convinced a four-man (let alone five-man) reunion will assuredly happen later this year.
Here's to hoping that's the case, though!
7. QB Lamar Jackson and WR Zay Flowers approached league-leading perfomances in Week 1
Jackson completed more than 77 percent of the passes he attempted last weekend. He went 17-of-22 against Houston, reached 169 yards, and was picked once. That completion rate was the third-best figure league-wide to start the season.
Lamar's 7.7 Y/A were the sixth-best figure of Week 1, and currently the highest number Jackson has ever put up since he became a full-time starter back in 2019 when he also became one of two unanimous MVPs.
Flowers had a rather astonishing debut. He hit the ground running catching nine passes when getting targeted 10 times through the Week 1 game against the Texans.
Only nine other players reached 10+ targets last week, and just six (including Flowers) caught 9+ passes in the season opener. While the total yardage wasn't great (78) and he didn't score a touchdown, Flowers couldn't have had a much better debut with the Ravens.
The rookie also added nine yards on two carries, and although it's not reasonable to expect him to feature heavily on that front, that was another positive thing to watch happen on the field last week.
8. Mark Andrews could debut, make it three consecutive games with 85+ yards and TD vs. Cincinnati
After missing Week 1 with a quad injury, Andrews could finally make his 2023 debut this weekend in a divisional clash against the AFC North favorites Cincinnati Bengals. That's still far from being set in stone, but Andrews is inching closer to that moment.
If Andrews is out there, he will be in a position to do something glorious: bash the Bengals defense with his third consecutive 8+ receptions, 85+ yards, 1+ TD game against Cincy.
Last season, Andrews caught 8-of-10 passes for 89 yards and a score. In 2021 he went for another 8-of-10 racking up 125 yards and another touchdown.
The Bengals seemed to have come up with a solution for Andrews after he scored touchdowns in back-to-back years (2019 and 2020) limiting him to just three receptions, 48 yards, and no touchdowns in 2021, but it turns out that was just a fluke.
Bonus! Will Melvin Gordon face the Bengals for a third time with a third different team?
Assuming Gordon gets promoted from the Ravens' practice squad into the active roster for Sunday's matchup, the veteran running back will be playing against the Bengals for a third time in his career having done so as a rookie in 2015 and for the last time in 2021.
Gordon went on to lose both of those games while a member of the San Diego (yes) Chargers and the Denver Broncos respectively, but he will have a chance at redemption this weekend as the Ravens enter Week 2 as the underdogs on the road but boasting a favorable 1-0 record to Cincinnati's 0-1 through one week of play.
MG3 rushed the rock 16 times in 2015 against the Bengals racking up 88 yards, while he did so 15 times as a member of the Broncos reaching 53 yards.
If Gordon plays and also scores a touchdown donning Baltimore threads, that'd also become his first score against Cincinnati.