The Eagles and Ravens are just hours away from facing off at Lincoln Financial Field, where a limited capacity crowd will get to see Lamar Jackson up close and personal.

We went Behind Enemy Lines with Matthew Stevens, the managing editor of The Ravens Wire, to talk about the AFC North powerhouse and the matchup with the struggling Philadelphia Eagles.

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1. Lamar Jackson hasn’t resembled his MVP self this season. Are critics and analysts simply overreacting or is there more to his perceived slow start?

People really should have expected a bit of a regression from Jackson simply for the fact it’s near impossible to sustain that level of success in this league at quarterback. But Jackson’s issues are rightfully concerning at this point, though they could just as easily disappear overnight as well.

First and foremost, Jackson isn’t playing very smart football at times. He’s struggling to make reads on the fly and he’s hyper-focused on tight end Mark Andrews and wide receiver Marquise Brown to the point that opposing defenders have publicly called it out. That’s led him to force balls into tighter windows than he should or even throwing into double coverage while someone else is wide open.

Part of that is also because Jackson keeps trying to find the deep ball even when it’s so clearly not there, failing to take what a defense is giving him underneath. Jackson has also been far more reserved when running the ball. Last season when guys were locked up and no one was open, Jackson would be far more willing to let his legs either open things up or make a play himself. Though I feel like he relied on that a bit too much at points last season, he’s gone the polar opposite direction in 2020.

Now with no one open and a clear rushing lane in front of him, Jackson will still try to throw the ball. The end result is far more stalled drives and defenses beginning to throw fewer people at containing Jackson, which is only making throwing and running the ball harder.

2. The Ravens may have the top CB duo in the NFL. Tell us what makes Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters so special together?

Thank you for calling it out and both players are dramatically different, which I think is why they work so well together. Both are supremely athletic, can play both inside and outside, man and zone; which helps defensive coordinator Don Martindale immensely. It gives him more flexibility when it comes to mixing up coverages and blitzes, making the defense far harder to diagnose by opponents.

Beyond that, Humphrey is your classic lock-down cornerback. He’s physical, quick, and smart, and matches up well with a large variety of receivers while being super consistent. Peters is all of those things too but he’s a gambler in coverage who has a knack for undercutting routes. That can and has burned him more than a few times in his career, but he also has a ridiculous number of pick-sixes as well. That means quarterbacks have to be extra smart when they throw to those guys. You need to know how each corner will play a situation, and what you can and can’t get away with, which is hard to do on the fly.

If you press Peters thinking he’ll play it like Humphrey, you’re liable to see him posing in front of the cameras with the ball in his hands. If a receiver doesn’t cover up well enough after the catch, Humphrey is liable to cause a fumble. It’s already hard enough playing quarterback in the NFL but the combination of Humphrey and Peters makes it so much harder.

3. What’s Going on With the Offensive Line?

The easiest and quickest answer is that Marshal Yanda retired. It’s impossible to replace a Hall of Fame-caliber guard who was the heart of the offense overnight and while Baltimore has done a pretty solid job thus far, they’ve had some struggles. I also think a lot of Baltimore’s problems upfront have to do with the lack of offseason and injuries. They haven’t gotten a chance to truly gel together in the preseason and with some nagging injuries keeping guys out, they haven’t even had the time to do it through five regular-season games. Combine those issues with Jackson holding onto the ball for longer and running back Mark Ingram may be missing a little of the pop he had last season and you get a unit that is still playing fairly well but nowhere near the impressive standard set in 2019.

4. Can you give us one under the radar Ravens player to look out for?

One guy I’m super excited about is rookie wide receiver, Devin Duvernay. Baltimore’s struggles with scouting, drafting, and developing the position are pretty well known at this point and while they’re starting to turn it around, they still haven’t quite gotten over the hump. Marquise Brown gets all the attention in this offense because he’s so fast and elusive in space but Duvernay has shown a bunch of flashes despite getting very little playing time.

Duvernay is ridiculously fast . . . like, he could challenge Brown in a foot race type of fast. While he’s not nearly as electric in space as his teammate, he’s also quite a bit heavier than Brown and he plays like he knows it too. You can see a lot of Steve Smith’s game in Duvernay throughout college and that makes him intriguing in this offense. The Ravens are just starting to get him involved in the offense and I’m half waiting for him to shoot up the depth chart and get a ton of playing time in a game suddenly, which could be this week. Not to oversell him, but I think once Duvernay gets his feet under him and the game slows down for him a bit, he’s going to be a serious problem for defenses to counter.

5. Baltimore has the top defense in the NFL. What makes them special and is it a Super Bowl-caliber unit?

Well, you pinpointed the secondary earlier, which is led by Pro Bowlers Humphrey and Peters. In a pass-heavy league, having three starting-caliber cornerbacks (Humphrey, Peters, and Jimmy Smith) is the perfect counter. Add in safety Chuck Clark, who has earned a reputation for having a high football IQ and an impressive work ethic, and you’ve got a well-rounded secondary capable of handling most. The defensive line got a massive boost with offseason acquisitions Derek Wolfe and Calais Campbell. Those two players and a restructuring of the defensive line has done wonders to improve Baltimore’s run defense after struggles there last season.

Linebacker Patrick Queen, the Ravens’ first-round pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, has been outstanding as well, earning the AFC’s Defensive Player of the Week award last week. He’s still young and inexperienced, which has seen him struggle in some ways. But he’s also super athletic and has been given the freedom to fly around the field and make plays without too much fear of screwing up. He’s beatable in the middle of the field in coverage at times but the guy doesn’t often make the same mistake twice and he’s talented enough to turn an offense’s mistake into a big play the other way. (edited)

6. Who wins and why?

I think the Ravens win this game by at least two touchdowns. Though Baltimore has been far from perfect this season, all four of their wins have been complete beatdowns on the scoreboard while their lone loss has come at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs. With Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz not playing well and looking more like a sitting duck in that offense, this defense has to be licking their chops this week. The big question is if the offense can finally get out of their funk and play to the level we saw last season. But even if they can’t, they’ve been good enough to still spank teams thanks to the defense’s efforts.

I’m pulling the score out of my butt here but Ravens 31 – Eagles 10