Lamar Jackson seems to step it up when a team from the other conference pops up on the schedule…
will that continue tonight?
Lamar Vs. The NFC
What Happened: We’ve got another Monday Night Football doubleheader, as the Ravens and Buccaneers do battle in the early game, with the Chargers taking on the Cardinals in the late contest.
These games both feature significant trends, and whether they continue or fade tonight will ultimately determine who finishes Week 7 in the win column.
Why It Matters: For Tampa Bay to taste victory tonight, it will have to do something NFC teams haven’t had any success doing: stopping Lamar Jackson. The Baltimore quarterback is an astonishing 22-1 against non-AFC teams in his career. One thing to expect here: points, and lot of em. The over has hit in all three Baltimore road games this season, and in three straight Bucs games.
In the night’s second game, Arizona’s path to victory runs through the other Harbaugh brother and his ability to make opposing teams play at his pace. The Chargers are allowing the fewest points per game in the league (13.2) and their games have come in under the projected points totals in four of five to start the season. That’s in keeping with prime-time games over the last three seasons, which have gone under 81 times in 134 contests.
Kyler Murray and the Cards offense run the third-fewest plays per game this season, so maybe a slower pace will suit them. But if Harbaugh gets the Bolts’ ground-and-pound attack going early, Arizona won’t have many opportunities to get itself back into the game before it’s too late.
What Weâre Watching Today
Ravens at Buccaneers (8:15 PM ET) – The Bucs are 4-2 and sit atop the NFC South due in large part to their offense, scoring at the league’s third-highest rate. A Todd Bowles team powered by its offense? Didn’t see that one coming honestly.
Chargers at Cardinals (9:00 PM ET) –Â Jim Harbaugh’s dedication to the run will have to give way to allowing Justin Herbert more freedom to sling the rock once and a while at some point, right? Please?
The Look Ahead
Mark Andrews ANYTIME TOUCHDOWN – Andrews and Lamar Jackson are finally getting into the swing of things together. After a barren stretch in which Andrews garnered just two targets combined across Weeks 3 and 4 and had zero catches, he’s produced back-to-back games with 50+ yards and had the ball thrown his way nine total times. He also found the end zone for the first time in 2024 last week, and if Jackson and the Ravens are going to continue to stomp out NFC foes, surely the QB will toss a TD or two. Don’t be surprised when Andrews hauls one of those scores in.