Week 3 GameScout: Ravens at Jaguars

Sep 21, 2017 - 10:00 AM BALTIMORE RAVENS (2-0) AT JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS (1-1)

KICKOFF: Sunday, 9:30 a.m. ET, Wembley Stadium (London). TV: Yahoo/CBS, Andrew Catalon, James Lofton, Alex Flanagan (field reporter).

SERIES HISTORY: 21st regular-season meeting. Jaguars lead series, 11-9. The Ravens have won two of the last three matchups, including a 19-17 verdict last September in Jacksonville. This will be Baltimore's first game in London, in stark contrast to Jacksonville, which is playing one of its "home" games there for the fifth year.

KEYS TO THE GAME: The Ravens are confident they have a successful blueprint for attacking opponents: play dominant defense, run the ball effectively and let quarterback Joe Flacco take an occasional shot downfield. Baltimore won't deviate from this plan, especially with the challenging logistics of playing its first-ever game overseas. The Ravens will likely use a tight end to help with Jacksonville's aggressive pass rush, which leads the league with 11 sacks. Baltimore will return the favor by pressuring Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles and forcing him to make mistakes. The Ravens lead the NFL with a plus-7 turnover ratio.

The loss of Allen Robinson was a huge blow to the Jaguars' passing game and that was shown a week ago when the Jaguars had less than 100 yards through the air after three quarters. It's an indication of the heavy emphasis that Jacksonville will place on the running game each week. With Baltimore already owning eight interceptions after just two weeks of play, the Jaguars won't invest in a game plan that calls for putting the ball in the air a lot.

Look for a heavy dosage of Leonard Fournette and Chris Ivory runs, like 30-35 between them, as the Jaguars try to establish a ground attack and stick with it. It's what they did a week ago and they were fairly successful with 75 yards on the ground at halftime. But when they fell behind early in the third quarter, they had to take up a passing attack as their running backs had just four carries in the second half. Jacksonville would like to have 15-20 running plays in both halves as they control the clock and grind out yardage and points.

MATCHUPS TO WATCH:

--Ravens RG Tony Bergstrom vs. Jaguars DT Calais Campbell. Bergstrom will face a tough test in his first start for Baltimore in place of the injured Marshal Yanda. Bergstrom was effective against the Browns, but he faces a much bigger test against Campbell, who is tied with Dallas' DeMarcus Lawrence for the league-lead with four sacks. Jacksonville will attempt to keep the pressure on Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who missed all of training camp with an injured back. Bergstrom will have a busy day dealing with Campbell.

--Ravens CB Brandon Carr vs. Jaguars QB Blake Bortles. Carr was a key acquisition in the offseason and has an interception in each of the past two games. He will be making his 147th consecutive start -- the longest streak in the NFL among defensive players. Bortles has struggled this season and is the NFL's 25th-ranked passer, going 31 of 55 for 348 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions (72.4 passer rating).

PLAYER SPOTLIGHT: Jaguars WR Marqise Lee. Allen Robinson's loss may be Lee's gain. Robinson suffered a torn ACL last week and is out for the rest of the season. That will likely put Lee as the Jaguars' go-to receiver this year. With both Robinson and Lee about to have their original contracts run out at the conclusion of the 2017 season, that could give Lee a big advantage over Robinson in the structuring of a new deal. If he has a breakout season, Lee will be well-rewarded. In last week's game against Tennessee, Lee was targeted a team-high 12 times and finished with seven catches for 76 yards.

FAST FACTS: Ravens QB Joe Flacco added to his franchise records in completions (2,949), passing yardage (32,977) and TD passes (185) last week with a pair of scores in 24-10 win over Cleveland. ... Ravens S Eric Weddle intercepted the 24th pass of his career last week, good for fourth among active safeties. ... Jaguars QB Blake Bortles has thrown for 679 yards and four TD passes in the team's last three trips to London, winning two of them. His 8,681 passing yards since start of 2015 season are third in the AFC. ... DE Calais Campbell is tied for the NFL lead with four sacks through two games.

PREDICTION: The Ravens couldn't have scripted a better schedule to start the season, blanking the suddenly terrible Bengals and cruising by the feeble Browns. The Jaguars followed up a feel-good win at Houston with a stinker of a second half last week against Tennessee. Baltimore's defense makes the difference in a low-scoring game.

OUR PICK: Ravens, 20-13.

--Bucky Dent