Titans at Ravens Odds point spread game

lovelystyle

The nightcap of the first day of the divisional round pits the probable NFL MVP against its leading rusher. The Lamar Jackson-led offense attacks defenses in a variety of ways, testing their ability to cover every inch of the field. The Derrick Henry-led offense tries to impose its will, overpowering opponents and battering them into submi sion, just before hits them over the top with a play-action pa s.It's a fascinating contrast, one that is more about style than kind. Both teams base their offense around a dynamic rushing threat, but they attack in Tim Lopes Jersey  extremely different ways and largely want to accomplish different things. Both teams have solid defenses, but their strengths on that side of the ball are in different areas as well.All of this should make for a wildly entertaining game. Let's break things down.How to watchTime:Saturday, 8:15 p.m. ETLocation:M&T Bank Stadium (Baltimore, Maryland)TV:CBS |Streamine:Ravens -9.5When the Titans have the ballLast week, the Titans were able to escape Gillette Stadium with a win despite their quarterback completing only 8 of 15 Reggie McClain Jersey  pa ses for 72 yards, one touchdown, and one interception. If they plan on winning that way again this week, I have some bad news for them: not gonna happen.  Although it might be tempting to just ram down the Ravens' throats all game long, Baltimore's quick-strike explosive offense will almost surely put up more than the ' 13 points, which means Tenne see is going to have to score a heck of a lot more than 14 offensively this week. That means leveraging Henry's succe s last week to get the efficient and explosive pa sing game that led this team on its playoff run, back on track.Tannehill had played extremely well down the stretch of the season, leading the league in both pa ser rating and yards per attempt. Despite that fact, the Titans appeared to enter last week's game with the intention of avoiding having to put the game in Tannehill's hands against Brandon Brennan Jersey  arguably the 's best pa s defense. The Patriots' secondary played as well as any in the NFL this year, and Bill Belichick has made plenty of quarterbacks look silly by confusing them with his schemes and fronts. So, the Titans punted on even testing the back end of the defense, content to let Henry pound away all night long, and kick the ball back to a non-threatening Pats offense if they didn't get into scoring range.Baltimore is also better against the pa s (fourth in DVOA) than the run (19th), but the difference here is that the Titans can't just be comfortable giving the ball back to and company. More aggre sion is called for.  When Tannehill looks downfield in this game, though, he'll be looking into another very strong pa s defense stacked with shutdown corners and arguably the NFL's best safety. Since arrived in Baltimore prior to the team's Week 7 game, the trio of him, , and has absolutely smothered opposing receivers. Among the 116 cornerbacks who have played 200-plus snaps during that time, Smith ranks 11th in pa ser rating allowed (65.4), while Peters ranks 16th (69.8) and Humphrey ranks 37th (87.0).Baltimore will likely feel comfortable with any one  Felix Hernandez Jersey of those three matching up with dynamic rookie A.J. Brown, so they won't nece sarily have to shadow him with one guy (Humphrey). Even if they do, though, it's not like and will get to work against weaker corners. There are no real weakne ses here. That's true at the safety spot as well, where , , and form one of the best and most versatile groups in the NFL. is typically far more athletic the a lot of the linebackers and safeties he matches up against ( ), but that's probably not an advantage he'll have against the likes of Thomas.That's where the Titans' extensive use of play action has to come in. Baltimore was one of the NFL's better play-action pa s defenses this season (7.5 yards per play, per Football Outsiders), but they were far better against straight drop-back pa ses (5.8 per play). That 1.8 yards per play difference in play-action Gerson Bautista Jersey  concepts was 10th-largest in the NFL, highlighting the benefits of faking the run before throwing the ball against this Baltimore defense. Luckily, that's right in Tannehill's , as we wrote in our Titans vs. Patriots preview last week.  Tenne see utilized a ton of play action for Tannehill, allowing him to find windows that were far wider than those afforded him on straight drop-backs. Throws after run fakes accounted for  Erik Swanson Jersey 30 percent of his pa s attempts during the regular season, and he registered a league-best 143.3 pa ser rating on those plays, per Pro Football Focus. The use of play action will be of particular importance against New England, whose defense saw the fourth-largest drop-off in yards per play allowed against play-action pa ses (7.3) vs. straight drop-backs (5.1), according to Football Outsiders.It's been shown numerous times that play-action pa sing can be succe sful independent of whether your run game is succe sful or even existent, but the Titans' ability to marry Tannehill's play-action succe s with their Derrick Henry-led ground game is a large part of what made them so dangerous during their run to the playoffs. Henry averaged just 3.7 yards per carry during the six games started by Mariota, and after six weeks he had just 416 yards on the ground. Henry only played in nine of Tannehill's 10 starts, and yet he still managed to rush for 1,124 yards during that time, averaging a completely absurd 5.9 yards a pop and storming his way to the NFL rushing title by season's end. The Titans' succe s rate on run plays spiked from 45 percent with Mariota under center to 51 percent with Tannehill, Shed Long Jersey  per Sharp Football Stats.Whether or not the Titans can find a pa s game complement to Henry's exploits could very well be the determinative factor in their ability to stay competitive with a Ravens team that just has so many different ways to beat you. Tannehill found a ton of succe s toward the end of the regular season, but he also faced defenses that were not quite at the same level as this Baltimore unit.When the Ravens have the ballThe Titans did an excellent job of holding down the Patriots' offense in the wild-card round, but they're about to face a whole different kind of test this week.  Edwin Encarnacion Jersey The Ravens finished the season second in total yards, first in points, third in yards per play, second in yards per drive, first in points per drive, first in the percentage of drives that ended in a score, fifth in the percentage of drives that ended in a turnover, and first in rushing, pa sing, and overall offensive DVOA. In other words, they're really freaking good.Obviously, everything starts with Lamar Jackson, and his ability to do things that nobody else on an NFL field can do. He might be the most unique player in NFL history. Jackson finished sixth in the NFL in rushing yards this season, and first -- by a mile -- among 47 qualified pla