What’s at Stake for the Ravens & Jaguars on TNF to Kick Off NFL Week 9

The Baltimore Ravens were supposed to be a Super Bowl contender. Instead, they open Week 9 at 4-4, starting a third-string quarterback on Thursday Night Football against a Jacksonville team that just rampaged through Indianapolis. Rich laid out on The Rich Eisen Show exactly what's riding on it.

For the Jaguars, the stakes are about joining the AFC's elite. A win puts them at 6-2, alongside the Broncos, Bears and Steelers, and in the six-win club with the 49ers and Vikings. "The Jaguars essentially stamping themselves as AFC contenders, if they already haven't," Rich said, while "staying right there for the one seed in the AFC."

For the Ravens, it's about not losing touch. Rich pointed out the irony of the 4-4 record, the same mark as the Raiders, the team that felt "kind of hosed" by Baltimore in the spring when the Ravens made a deal for Maxx Crosby and then reversed course. Rich imagined the Raiders saying, "Thanks so much, because we're now four and four just like you are."

Ravens fans never could have pictured this, Rich said. Baltimore sits a game behind the Browns and a game and a half behind the Bengals, who scored 35 unanswered on them in the second half a couple of weeks ago. That was back when the Ravens thought Lamar was about to return, not knowing he would break his thumb in his attempt to come back against the Bills.

The Ravens did make a move, acquiring Jacoby Brissett, and the show was happy to take credit. They had said on Overreaction Monday that Baltimore should do something, and the Ravens did it "on a Tuesday, literally the next day," it was noted on set. "You could go ahead and still take in the whole program because we're right," Rich joked.

In all seriousness, Rich said, the Ravens need a bridge "to get to Jacoby Brissett, words that I don't think I've ever said before." And they need Derrick Henry to succeed against a Jacksonville defense that has allowed a 50-yard rusher only once this season. Rich expected "a minimum of eight in the box" from the Jaguars. The plan, as the table put it: make the quarterback beat you, and "don't let 22 beat you."

Then came the bit. The crew hoped the new quarterback had at least introduced himself to Zay Flowers, and acted out how that might go. "I'm Zay Flowers." "Throw me the ball, I'm open. Nice to meet you." "I'm fast." "Lead me." Rich's point underneath the jokes: "It's not like they don't have the pieces."

Rich's hope for Ravens fans is that last week was just "the fog of the Week 8 war" in Buffalo. Lamar broke his hand. Snoop needed a cart because of a "jacked-up toe." Then a third-string quarterback suddenly found himself trying to go point for point with Josh Allen. Rich noted it's not as if the Ravens got blown out, or that Allen "put up 90 on them."

"So let's see what happens tonight," Rich said. "Stranger things have happened." And since it was a higher register Thursday, he figured that line deserved the higher register treatment too.