Things are going to get worse for the Baltimore Ravens
Adam Martin 
It's been a tough start to the season for the Baltimore Ravens, and things are going to get worse. The team that made it to the AFC Championship game last season are struggling to win now.
Antpost favourites to win the AFC North, the Ravens are now on the drift at UK betting sites, with the Steelers topping the table with a 3-1 record.
NFL expert Adam Martin takes a closer look at what's going wrong for the Ravens and whether they can turn their season around.
Over the first four weeks of the season the Ravens are sitting with a 1-3 record. They lost a tight game against the Bills in week one when they should have won. They then destroyed the Cleveland Browns 41-17 in week two.
At 1-1 things were not bad but after successive defeats to the Lions and the Chiefs, in weeks three and four respectively, things do not look great. Fans will tell you that it’s just a tough start against some of the best teams in the league.
That’s a fair argument as going up against the Bills, Lions and Chiefs in the first four weeks is a brutal schedule. However, it’s more than just that as the Ravens are a team that should be able to compete against the best.
Lamar Jackson has been receiving criticism, unfairly, as people expect him to play at an MVP level. So far over the four games Jackson has 869 passing yards, ten touchdowns and only one interception.
That’s a decent return for a quarterback who has been sacked 15 times in four games. Only rookie quarterback Cam Ward has been sacked more times so far this season. Clearly the offensive line is not protecting him as well as they have in previous years.
You can see that the offensive line isn’t working as well because it is also affecting the running game. Derrick Henry, who had the second most rushing yards last season and was joint top for rushing touchdowns at 16, is struggling as well.
Henry has rushed for 284 yards and three touchdowns so far this season. Not bad for four games but not at the level he was at last year. He has also had multiple fumbles on top of that which is uncharacteristic for him.
Don’t think it’s all on the offence though. If anything, they have been the better part of the team as the defense has struggled massively. After four games the Ravens defense gave up a league high 133 points.
A lot of this can be attributed to injuries with star defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike out for the season. Not only has he been missing but also Roquan Smith, Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins all got injured against the Chiefs last Sunday.
Then after all that, the really bad news was seeing star quarterback Lamar Jackson come out with a hamstring injury. At the time of writing we don’t know how bad it is but for him to leave the game puts significant doubt on him being fit for next week.
The Ravens must go up against the Texans and the Rams over the next two weeks before they have their bye week. Two teams that have good defenses and will be tough to beat.
With Cooper Rush possibly playing at quarterback it feels like the Ravens will struggle to put up points. At the same time, they can’t seem to stop teams from scoring. Overall, it looks like things are only going to get worse in the next few weeks for one of betting favorites for the Superbowl.
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