If it wasn't Harbaugh and the Ravens, it would be soooo much more enjoyable to watch what LJ is doing. I wish it was like, Cleveland or Detroit or Cincinnati, it would be more fun that way.
@patfanken already made this thread from a strategy perspective with his post, and that all seemed sound to me - Bill isn't fooled by this, it's about getting the DL/LBs in the right positions and then executing. But it's not realistic to expect them to hold up for 70 plays...more of an unknown at this point is whether the offense can/will be in a good enough place to hold up their end by putting some points on the board to make the Ravens play from behind, and to at least sustain some drives to keep our D from being fatigued at the end.
I think a lot of what many posters are saying - Jackson being a runner does put him at more risk for injury, maybe the Ravens are peaking too soon, that the league will catch up to this offense - that's all true. But that doesn't help NE beat them in January. I mean, it starts to seems like people are just hoping he gets hurt or that someone else will beat them? Do people get a prize for predicting that Lamar Jackson is an injury risk because he runs? That's easy to say, and a little bit of a lazy way to approach what he's doing. He has been incredible this year - I'd vote for him for MVP myself if I could. Just because it won't last forever doesn't mean you can't appreciate it, and it certainly doesn't mean his team won't whip NE's ass this year if they don't bring their A-game. I want to play them, and I want to play them healthy, and then have it out.
But I do want to play them in Foxboro Where this potential game is played will likely matter greatly, less for the defense than because I think that this year's version of the offense needs the relative quiet and support of a home crowd more than last year's did. Whatever improvements they can make, they won't be the Gronk/Develin/Allen and fully healthy OL battering ram that went to Arrowhead last year. Even that game, they dominated out of the gate, gave the lead back, made some dumb plays (Jules), tried to give it away again, got a fortunate penalty call, and still needed OT to win. It was as tough a road game as they've ever won and they aren't nearly the squad offensively that they were a year ago.
