Two Ravens fined for hits in Week 7 game against the Lions

Two Ravens fined for hits in Week 7 game against the Lions, and the bigger fine came on a play that wasn’t penalized

The Baltimore Ravens’ win over the Detroit Lions in Week 7 was an expensive one for a couple of Ravens players. Two of them were fined for illegal hits in the game against Detroit.

One of them came on a play that earned a penalty in the game. Ravens LB Roquan Smith was fined $16,391 for a hit on Detroit QB Jared Goff that drew a roughing-the-passer penalty on the first play of the fourth quarter.

The other fine comes from a play that resulted in no penalty, but a larger fine. Wideout Odell Beckham Jr. was fined $21,844 for lowering his helmet to initiate contact with Lions safety Kerby Joseph, also in the fourth quarter. Joseph had to leave the game to get cleared in the concussion protocol after being on the receiving end of the helmet-to-helmet hit from Beckham.

No Lions committed any fine-worthy offenses in Baltimore.

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Video: Detroit Lions Podcast on the Lions stumbling upward

Video: Detroit Lions Podcast on the Lions stumbling upward in Week 7 and looking forward at the Raiders matchup

The latest episode of the Detroit Lions Podcast is now available for viewing or download. In this week’s show, recorded live on YouTube on Wednesday night, the focus is on how the Lions can move on from the ugly loss in Baltimore and take out some frustration on the Las Vegas Raiders on Monday night.

There were a lot of Lions to blame for the team’s poor showing in Week 7, Which ones were one-off bad days and which were more troubling for potential long-term issues? Also, the Lions somehow moved upward in the NFC standings despite the blowout loss.

It’s also coming up quickly on the NFL trade deadline. There’s a lengthy discussion about what the Lions might do, why they probably won’t do other things, and what the impact of any moves would have beyond the season.

Lomas Brown breaks down the Lions bad day in Baltimore

Brown gave a lot of credit to the Ravens but also found some nits to pick with the Lions in the loss

Watching the Lions get slaughtered by the Baltimore Ravens in Week 7 was not fun. Imagine the perspective of a Lions team legend having to not only watch the game in person, but broadcast the brutal beatdown.

Such was the case for Lomas Brown. The longtime Lions left tackle and current color analyst for the team’s radio network had a long day on Sunday in Baltimore. He joined Matt Dery of Locked On Lions to break down where he thought the 38-6 game was lost.

Brown pointed out the relative youth of the Lions roster, noting that “sometimes you’re going to have games like that.”

He was quick to credit Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken for “a great offensive plan” and also that Baltimore QB Lamar Jackson “executed it to a T.” Brown also stated that the Ravens defense deserves a lot of credit for “getting pressure on us, getting sacks on us. They sped Jared (Goff) up and they stopped the run.”

Brown remained critical of the decision to play “soft” coverage on the Ravens receivers. The Lions legend repeatedly made that point during the radio broadcast on Sunday.

“We were kind of soft on the receivers. We didn’t throw off any of their rhythm or jam those guys and get them off,” Brown stated.

It’s an interesting conversation and always good to get the input from someone like Lomas Brown.

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Lamar Jackson has season-high 357 pass yards in week 7 win

Lamar Jackson’s stat line for week 7 featured a season-high 357 pass yards to nine different Ravens receivers.

Sunday’s performance from Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was simply phenomenal. By continuing to avoid throwing interceptions, Jackson went 21-27 on pass attempts and registered a completion rate of 77.8% in the win versus the Lions.

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND – OCTOBER 22: Lamar Jackson #8 of the Baltimore Ravens warms up before the game against the Detroit Lions at M&T Bank Stadium on October 22, 2023 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Greg Fiume/Getty Images)

Jackson’s stat line for week 7 also featured 357 pass yards to nine different Ravens receivers. Things went so well, even fullback Patrick Ricard caught a pass for 28 yards. As expected, wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. had a breakout performance with five catches for 49 yards and was targeted seven times.

Jackson tossed two of his three touchdown passes to tight-end Mark Andrews who continues to wreak havoc on opposing safeties and linebackers.

An infused calm covered Jackson the entire afternoon. Playing with extreme confidence after the week 6 win in London, UK the Ravens seemed almost unmoved by the hype that surrounded the Detroit Lions.

Currently, no hype surrounds the Arizona Cardinals who have been allowing 26 points per game to opponents. Jackson will be looking to carve up the Cardinals’ defense in week 8 with a performance like the one fans saw at M&T Bank Stadium Sunday afternoon.

By the Numbers: One ugly stat sums up the Lions 38-6 loss to the Ravens

Of all the ugly stats from the Lions’ 38-6 loss to the Ravens, one figure stands out above all the others

Normally we do a “By the Numbers” breakdown of all the key figures that led to the final score of the Lions game. Good or bad, the various numbers and statistical figures typically do a fine job of fleshing out how the game was played.

This week, in the 38-6 blowout loss to the Ravens, there was only one number that stood out as the most emblematic of the game. That number is one.

As in, 1 – the number of QB hits the Lions defense registered on Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.

That number could go up once the official statisticians review the game (adjustments on the next day are not uncommon). But the official game log on Sunday night recorded exactly one QB hit by Detroit, from EDGE Julian Okwara. It doesn’t count the Aidan Hutchinson hit on Jackson that was penalized on a very suspect roughing the passer foul.

The number zero was also prominent, including the related “number of sacks by the Lions defense.” That was also the number of Jackson passes that the Lions defense touched in the air.

One QB hit is not going to win many football games at any level. It’s not even giving your team a chance when it’s facing an MVP candidate like Lamar Jackson. By way of comparison, Baltimore’s defense hit Lions QB Jared Goff nine times, including four sacks.

Quick takeaways from the Lions Week 7 embarrassment in Baltimore

Quick takeaways from the Detroit Lions Week 7 embarrassing loss to the Baltimore Ravens

The best thing about Detroit’s Week 7 trip to Baltimore is that it’s over. The actual game between the Lions and the Ravens could not end soon enough.

Baltimore won 38-6 in a game that wasn’t nearly as competitive as the final score would indicate. It was 21-0 Baltimore before Detroit picked up its initial first down. The Lions didn’t score until the fourth quarter and already down 35-0 on the road to the AFC North leaders.

Here’s what stood out from the 38-6 shellacking after watching the game broadcast in real-time.

The Lions get blown away in awful loss to the Ravens

The Lions get blown away in an awful 38-6 loss to the Ravens in Week 7 that was never competitive.

In a season filled with abundant sunshine for the Lions over the first six weeks, Week 7’s trip to Baltimore was a thunderstorm of a reality check. The Lions defense appeared to be an umbrella attempting to stop a Category 4 hurricane.

It was 14-0 Ravens before the Lions even reached for the storm shutters. Baltimore just kept raining points and toppling over the house of cards that was the Detroit defense.

At the half, it was 28-0. Baltimore’s defense might’ve been more impressive than the Ravens offense, too. Like lightning, they flashed and thunderously crashed all over everything the Lions offense tried in the first half.

At one point, the FOX broadcast pointed out that the Lions had run seven offensive plays and the Ravens already had seven plays that gained at least 20 yards. It was that bad of a tsunami.

The thrashing Ravens storm of devastation waned after the half, but only a little. There’s only so much low pressure in the air, and the Lions sucked it all in early. A Jahmyr Gibbs touchdown run in the early part of the fourth quarter was a brief pass through the eye of the hurricane. That was the only bright spot in a 38-6 loss for Detroit.

There were myriad reasons why the Ravens rained all over the Lions’ parade. Many of them involve the home team being really good, better than their 3-2 record. Many also involve the Lions coming in flat, unprepared and unable to stop the hailstorm of destruction Baltimore unleashed.

We’ll break down — in due time — how the Ravens blew through the Lions like a haboob through a kindergarten sandbox. Right now, Dan Campbell’s team, not to mention a shocked fan base, is just happy that the storm finally blew itself out with the final whistle.

 

 

 

 

Lions vs. Ravens: Last-minute thoughts and final score prediction

Lions vs. Ravens: Last-minute thoughts and final score prediction for the Week 7 matchup

The coffee is flowing hard on a chilly Sunday morning. Hoping the chill doesn’t extend to the Detroit Lions in their 1 p.m. game in Baltimore against the Ravens.

This is a tough one for Dan Campbell’s Lions. It’s also the biggest challenge for John Harbaugh’s Ravens in the young season. Here’s what I’m thinking about the matchup of first-place teams with MVP candidates at quarterback.

Why I think the Lions will win

  • They’re not going to be afraid of Lamar Jackson. More to the point, they won’t be surprised by his unusual speed. He’s different than Patrick Mahomes, who the Lions shut down in Week 1. Jackson is faster to top speed and more apt to take off, though he’s doing less of that in 2023. The Ravens offense is almost completely dependent on Jackson being elite. They don’t run the ball particularly well and they’re middle-of-the-pack in running after the catch. Detroit knows how to approach defending Lamar Jackson, even if they haven’t had a lot of success at it.
  • Detroit’s offense will be different than what they’ve shown on game film thus far. It’s not that David Montgomery’s injury is a blessing because that’s absolutely not the truth; Montgomery is having a Pro Bowl year at RB. But the Lions offense without him and instead featuring Jahmyr Gibbs at running back AND the speed of Jameson Williams on the field, that’s a dynamic we haven’t seen. They haven’t either, and that’s an advantage for Lions OC Ben Johnson. A big game for Williams could very well be in the works. It might need to be…
  • Those past nightmares against Baltimore, notably the 19-17 loss in Campbell’s first season on Justin Tucker’s record-setting field goal, are a blueprint for how not to win. Campbell has shown an underappreciated ability to adapt to past failures and not try to keep hammering a square peg into a round hole, or trying to win last week’s (or last year’s) game. I think these Lions will be prepared for the game and manage the game better than in 2021.
  • Jared Goff for MVP is real. He’ll need to prove it again on Sunday. And he can!

What worries me about Baltimore

  • The Ravens have played in the spotlight quite a bit over the years, a lot more than the Lions have. Detroit is learning fast and well, but there’s a time-tested element for the Ravens that shouldn’t be overlooked.
  • Lamar Jackson is an MVP candidate too, and he’s doing it with a lesser supporting cast–from OL to RB to WR–than Goff is. Jackson’s completion percentage is a career-high 69.9 percent (better than Goff’s 69.5) and he does more of that down the field than he has in prior years. He will make occasional mistakes, and the Lions have to make him pay for them.
  • Baltimore’s middle-of-field defense is as good as any, and it’s at all three levels. There isn’t another team that is better equipped to neutralize Goff’s mastery of the middle of the field and inside routes to Amon Ra St. Brown and Sam LaPorta than the Ravens are. They can take away the interior run without devoting extra players into the box, and that’s even more true with Montgomery and left guard Jonah Jackson out for Detroit.
  • Justin Tucker is a Hall of Fame kicker with an incredible clutch gene. The Lions can’t even begin to compete in a field goal matchup against Tucker and the Ravens at home. In what I think will be a low-scoring game, Tucker’s ability to hit from 55 emphatically outshines Riley Patterson’s uneasy reliability from inside 50.

Final score prediction

I expect a low-scoring game that hinges on special teams, takeaways and capitalizing on the few mistakes by the opponents. The banged-up Lions have a good chance to pull off the road upset, but the Ravens are a difficult matchup. Baltimore happens to need the win a lot more than Detroit in terms of playoff potential, too; all four teams in the AFC North have non-losing records, while the Lions could realistically lose their next three games and remain in first place. Detroit won’t think that way; not a chance. But the Ravens’ experience here helps them eke out a hard-fought home win. Ravens 23, Lions 21.

Lions vs. Ravens: How to watch, listen and stream the Week 7 game

Lions vs. Ravens: How to watch, listen and stream the Week 7 game

The Detroit Lions are ready for another matchup of first-place teams as they head to Baltimore to take on the Ravens.

Detroit Lions (5-1) at Baltimore Ravens (4-2)

Sunday, October 22nd

M&T Bank Stadium, Baltimore, MD, 1:00 p.m. ET

Watch

This game will be the featured FOX broadcast in the early Sunday viewing window. The broadcast crew of Kevin Burkhardt and Greg Olsen will have the call. Fans in markets in red on the map below (courtesy 506 Sports) will get the game on their local FOX affiliates.

 

Listen

The game will be broadcast over the Detroit Lions radio affiliate network. Dan Miller handles the play-by-play, with Lomas Brown as the color analyst and T.J. Lang reporting from the sidelines.

The flagship station is 97.1 The Ticket in Detroit. The full list of affiliates can be found here.

On Sirius XM, the Lions broadcast feed is available on channel 810.

Stream

The NFL+ app (subscription required) is the league’s own network to view the game via a streaming device.

FUBO TV (subscription required) is another option.

 

 

Behind Enemy Lines: Previewing Week 7 with Ravens Wire

Behind Enemy Lines: Previewing Week 7 with Ravens Wire and editor Glenn Erby

One of the best NFL matchups of the month will take place when the Detroit Lions visit the Baltimore Ravens in Week 7. Sunday’s matchup pits the NFC North leaders against the top team in the AFC North.

It’s a challenge for the 5-1 Lions, who have yet to drop a game on the road this season. Baltimore is a balanced team on both sides of the ball, and they’ve got an MVP candidate in QB Lamar Jackson who is playing some great football.

To help get more intel on the matchup with Baltimore, I turned to Ravens Wire editor Glenn Erby for a few questions. Erby graciously dropped some knowledge on what looks like a pretty even matchup.