Ravens land on Jacksonville

Baltimore Ravens (4-1) at Jacksonville Jaguars (1-5)
08:20 PM ET, October 24th, 2011
EverBank Field, Jacksonville, FL

Monday Night two of the top ten defenses on the league have their match; The Baltimore Ravens fly to Jacksonville to fight against the Jaguars in a match much more attractive than past Monday Night games. Baltimore comes to Jacksonville leading the AFC North while Jacksonville is 3rd on their division (AFC South) only ahead of the Peyton-less Colts.

Baltimore are finding their game this year based on a ferocious defense added to excellent games by their quarterback Joe Flacco (1278 passing yards and 4 touchdowns), Ray Rice (398 rushing yards and 2 touchdowns) on the back an Anquan Boldin (354 receiving yards and 1 touchdown) on the receiving tasks. Their defense is among the top ranked on the league and led by their three veterans, Jarret Johnson, Ray Lewis and Ed Reed they’ve spread some sort of fear and respect along the years and this year is not the exception, killing almost every opponent’s tries to pass through them.

Jacksonville is trying to establish their offensive game around rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert, who after the David Garrard’s era, and Gabbert seems to be NFL material and the Jaguars want to believe so. In his rookie season Blaine has pulled some good numbers throwing for 717 yards and scoring 4 touchdowns which might seem a bit low but don’t forget he’s getting his first snaps of this professional career and he counts will the coach and managers’ confidence, making his debut season a lighter weight to carry on, but not forgetting all eyes are on him as the new franchise quarterback for a team who seems to have all weapons to be a serious playoff contender but they always seem to fall short on the post season hopes every year. Behind Gabbert we can find a talented team, where Maurice Jones-Drew jumps as the main threat for every opponent while receivers Mike Thomas (301 receiving yards with 1 touchdown) and Jason Hill (239 receiving yards, 2 touchdowns) try to clinch with Gabbert throwing skills. The road for Gabbert is not going to be a walk on the park this season but give him time and let’s see if he turns into what everyone expects from him.

The Ravens have the lead on their particular matchup against the Jaguars, winning five of their last six encounters, and I don’t see a reason here to believe the Jaguars can turn this tendency. The line for the game has Baltimore as an 8 point favorite and they should cover that spread with not much difficulty. Take the Ravens here and enjoy the game.

WiseCat