The Baltimore Ravens had been dealt a significant blow on Thursday heading into their wild-card sport towards the Pittsburgh Steelers on Saturday night time.
In accordance with NFL Community’s Ian Rapoport, the Ravens have dominated out WR Zay Flowers (knee) for the sport.
Flowers injured his proper knee within the Ravens’ regular-season finale towards the Cleveland Browns. After not working towards all week, head coach John Harbaugh made the official announcement on Thursday that Flowers won’t play.
Whereas the Steelers convey a four-game shedding streak into the wild-card matchup, the lack of Flowers is big for the Ravens regardless.
In his rookie season in 2023, Flowers had 858 receiving yards and 7 complete TDs (one dashing). Though Baltimore misplaced to the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs within the AFC Championship, Flowers had 5 catches for 115 yards and a TD. This season, Flowers leads the Ravens with 74 receptions and 1,059 receiving yards. He has 4 TD catches and have become the primary Ravens participant to make the Professional Bowl as a large receiver final week.
One thing else price maintaining in thoughts is Baltimore’s postseason struggles with QB Lamar Jackson beneath heart. Jackson is simply 2-4 in his profession within the playoffs, having accomplished 57.4 % of his passes with six passing TDs and 6 interceptions. Since 2019, the Ravens have solely averaged 16 PPG within the playoffs, down from their 27.4 PPG through the common season, per NFL.com’s Kevin Patra.
Earlier than a 34-17 win over the Steelers on Dec. 21, the Ravens had misplaced eight of their final 9 to their division rivals. Nevertheless, the Steelers are limping into the playoffs, so this may very well be an excellent alternative for Jackson and the Ravens offense to get the ball rolling.
Nonetheless, the absence of Flowers is a big blow to the passing sport because the Ravens look to place an excellent postseason run collectively, which has not been frequent as of late.
