NFL: Ravens vs.

Week 8 – the NFL season has already arrived at the halftime mark! The Baltimore Ravens (3-4) will receive the Miami Dolphins (4-2) and Baltimore in particular must win to open the eighth matchday. Miami, however, is a wildcard – Matt Moore will play for Jay Cutler for the time being and was able to lead the Dolphins to a comeback victory over the jets. Is there a victory in Baltimore, too? The game runs live on the night of Friday (from 2.25 a. m.) on DAZN!

The reaction of the fans was quite clear: the spectators in Miami cheered on Sunday, when the quarterback exchange took place in the game against the jets. In the past few weeks, there had already been clear calls for Backup Matt Moore from the ranks, and Jay Cutler, who was by nature critical of the situation, had shown little hope for a turnaround in the harmless offense.

Now, of course, the change of quarterback didn’t take place voluntarily, but rather Cutler pulled several rib breaks against New York during his best season so far and will probably miss at least the match against the Ravens. And yet it cannot be denied that the offense with Moore looked much better than in the past few weeks with Cutler.

This was particularly apparent in the Big Plays. Moore lived up to his reputation and did not waste any time with a lot of short pass games – rather, long passes shaped his performance right from the start. Not always error-free, but at least he gave his receivers possibilities to make their own plays. It was exactly this element and the aggressiveness that Cutler had so often lacked before.

The main problem, however, is and remains the weakening run game. Jay Ajayi has had a hard time this season, mainly due to poor run-blocking. It’s not without reason that the Dolphins, for whom the Run Game is supposed to be the offensive identity, are on the penultimate place with 3.3 yards per run and are the only team in the league to have not yet achieved a rushing touchdown. Cutler’s deficits were thus logically even more evident.

In this respect, however, the Ravens game of all things could mark a turning point, the Ravens front has so far been more than vulnerable. No team will accept more rushing yards per game (145.3), only nine teams will receive more yards per run than Baltimore (4.4). Of course, the loss of defensive tackle Brandon Willams, who made his comeback against Minnesota, played a major role. However, the Ravens Defense, which has been highly praised in the run-up to the event, has been lagging behind expectations for weeks.

“Pass-Rusher Terrell Suggs openly admitted that we’re bad at the moment, but Dolphins coach Adam Gase doesn’t want to know anything about it:” This is one of those matchups – if you look at the tape, it doesn’t match the statistics. Because you can see that they do a lot of things that make it very difficult for you. In my games against Baltimore, that was always very hard work. but a lot of runs against them weren’t good at all.”

If Miami doesn’t succeed in raising the Run Game again this week, then against a still very well occupied Secondary much will lie on Moore’s shoulders. But if the game against the jets reveals any tendency, it’s probably this: Moore gives the Dolphins stand today in any case more chances on Big Plays than was the case with Cutler.

The Ravens Offense on the other side? You don’t really know where to start. The offensive line is at least halfway solid, at least better than one had to fear after the injury of Marshal Yanda. But about there you can stop with the positive messages.

The passing game is a disaster and the most inefficient in the league. Joe Flacco plays a very weak season, but doesn’t get too much help from his wide-receiver corps. Michael Campanaro and Jeremy Maclin (both shoulders) as well as Breshad Perriman and Mike Wallace (both concussions) are shaken, all of them could possibly fail.

Accordingly, it could be of little importance that the Dolphins decided to dismiss Cornerback Byron Maxwell after last week’s disappointing appearances and build on Rookie Cordrea Tankersly instead. He was beaten against the jets twice to the touchdown and was also against the Saints in London several times the preferred attack point of Drew Brees. In this game, however, he should have fewer problems.

So where’s the passport production coming from against Miami? The Ravens live on nothing but short passes to tight ends and running backs, and there’s even a little hope here. Running Back Javorius Allen leads the team in Catches, against the Vikings he had eleven (!) targets – the Dolphins on the other side have revealed several times recently that they have big difficulties with screen passes and the like.

Baltimore Ravens (3-4) – Miami Dolphins (4-2) (Fri, 2.25 am live on DAZN)

The SPOX NFL Predictor, Week 8:

Pascal

De Marco

60-46