Ravens must be conservative against Cards, but need to sprinkle in aggression too

Joe Flacco must take advantage of his time in the pocket against one of the league’s worst pass rushes.

By: Corey Johns

How does a team go into a game as a major underdog and come out victorious? They have to a) play a perfect game, and b) pull out all of the tricks. The Ravens don’t appear to have much a chance to beat the Arizona Cardinals on Monday night. The Ravens defense might be the worst in the league and making matters worse, they very well may have the worst receiving corp in the league without Steve Smith. The Cardinals, on the other hand, have Carson Palmer, who at 35-years-old, is playing like one of the best quarterbacks in the league. And he has a great group of receivers to throw to with Larry Fitzgerald, John Brown and a healthy Michael Floyd.

But this is why they play the games and as the saying goes any team can win on any given Sunday. Well, in this case Monday.

The Cardinals should beat the Ravens, but the Ravens will be out there doing everything they can to get a surprise win. To pull that upset they have to play smart but take some chances at the same time.

Arizona leads the NFL in interceptions. Without elite wide receivers who can fight for the tough catch, the Ravens need to pick up the easy yards. Basically, they need to play a very conservative style of offense, go for four years on every play instead of 12, and move the chains. This serves a lot of purposes. First, it will wear down the Cardinals defense; two, it will keep Palmer and company off the field; and three, it will week the Ravens defense fresh off the sidelines.

Despite the Cardinals defensive dominance this year, they struggle getting sacks. Joe Flacco must uses the time he will have to find the open receiver instead of rushing and throwing up lame passes off his back foot that are going to do nothing but get intercepted. It can be frustrating to check down play after play after play, but it is frustrating for the defense two when every two or three plays they have to line up to defend a first down.

But while the Ravens must play it safe, they need to pull some tricks plays and open up the playbook. The greatest upsets always happen because the underdog did something nobody saw coming. Some end-arounds, a designed hook-and-ladder, wide receiver screens, who knows what they could pull, but they have to pull something.

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