BALTIMORE (4-3) at TAMPA BAY (3-4)
Thursday, 8:15 p.m. EDT, Prime Video
BETTING LINE: Ravens by 1½, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.
AGAINST THE SPREAD: Ravens 3-4, Buccaneers 2-5.
SERIES RECORD: Ravens lead 4-2.
LAST MEETING: Ravens beat Buccaneers 20-12, Dec. 16, 2018, at Baltimore.
LAST WEEK: Ravens beat Browns 23-20; Buccaneers lost to Panthers 21-3.
RAVENS OFFENSE: OVERALL (14), RUSH (5), PASS (26), SCORING (6).
RAVENS DEFENSE: OVERALL (23), RUSH (10), PASS (26), SCORING (21).
BUCCANEERS OFFENSE: OVERALL (22), RUSH (32), PASS (6), SCORING (21).
BUCCANEERS DEFENSE: OVERALL (7), RUSH (17), PASS (6), SCORING (5).
TURNOVER DIFFERENTIAL: Ravens plus-5; Buccaneers plus-3
RAVENS PLAYER TO WATCH: LB Jason Pierre-Paul. Baltimore signed him last month to help its pass rush, and now he goes up against the team he played for the past four seasons. Pierre-Paul had 33 sacks from 2018-21 for Tampa Bay.
BUCCANEERS PLAYER TO WATCH: Tom Brady leads the NFC in passing yards with 1,492, yet has thrown for just eight touchdowns. He’s 6-2 in eight career regular-season starts against Baltimore, averaging 272.1 yards per game passing with 10 TDs.
KEY MATCHUP: Lamar Jackson vs. a Buccaneers defense that not only has struggled against the run lately, but also has an injury-weakened secondary. The Ravens QB has rushed for 510 yards this season, 59 more than Tampa Bay (451) as a team.
KEY INJURIES: Ravens WR Rashod Bateman (foot) returned last weekend but missed practice this week. RB Gus Edwards (knee) is coming off his first game since January 2021. … TE Mark Andrews (knee), LB Josh Bynes (quad), DE Calais Campbell (illness) and T Ronnie Stanley (ankle) missed practice time. Buccaneers S Antoine Winfield Jr. (concussion), CBs Carlton Davis (hip) and Sean Murphy-Bunting (quad), G Luke Goedeke (foot), WR Russell Gage (hamstring) and TE Cameron Brate (neck) are out. DT Akiem Hicks (foot) is doubtful, while WR Julio Jones (knee) will be a game-time decision.
SERIES NOTES: The Ravens have won the past four meetings, including the most recent matchup when Jackson was a rookie four years ago.
STATS AND STUFF: The Ravens had a season-high five sacks against Cleveland. Baltimore is the second team to have three players on the active roster with at least 90 career sacks — Justin Houston, Calais Campbell and Pierre-Paul. The first team to do it was the 1994 Green Bay Packers with Reggie White, Steve McMichael and Sean Jones. … Baltimore has a takeaway in nine straight games. … Justin Tucker of the Ravens has 401 extra points, one shy of Matt Stover’s franchise record. Tucker has also made 62 consecutive field-goal attempts in the fourth quarter and overtime. … Lamar Jackson needs 57 yards rushing to pass Steve Young for fifth on the career list for a quarterback. … Brady is 14-2 in Thursday games. He’s thrown for 4,779 yards and accounted for 39 touchdowns (35 passing, four rushing) vs. nine interceptions in those 16 games. … Brady hasn’t thrown an interception since Week 1. His streak of 271 passing attempts without an interception is the longest in franchise history. … The Bucs are averaging a league-low 64.4 yards per game rushing. Carolina limited them to 46 yards on 16 attempts last week. … Tampa Bay’s offense hasn’t scored a first-quarter touchdown. … The defense has gone three consecutive games without forcing a turnover.
FANTASY TIP: Bucs WR Mike Evans is motivated to rebound from dropping a potential 64-yard touchdown pass that set the tone for a stunning 18-point loss at Carolina last Sunday. Brady targeted him 15 times against the Panthers, and Evans finished with nine receptions for 96 yards.