Ravens vs. Falcons: 5 things to watch, including Bijan Robinson, Calais Campbell and crowd noise

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After a depleting, disjointed win Sunday over the Tennessee Titans, safety Kyle Hamilton had a message for his Ravens teammates. It was not all rah-rah. His words were laced with self-aware sarcasm, too.

“Let’s not be afraid to stack these games and go on a streak,” Hamilton remembered saying Wednesday. “It’s OK to go on a win streak, and we don’t have to regress every few weeks.”

The Ravens are 3-1 because they lost a game they shouldn’t have. They’re 3-1 despite nearly throwing away another win.

But this weekend, the Ravens head to Atlanta as “Sunday Night Football” underdogs. And the barriers to another winning streak are considerable: The Ravens will take on a 2-2 Falcons team that has won its past two games by a combined 80-38 margin, and they’ll do it without quarterback Lamar Jackson (ankle). Top outside linebacker Trey Hendrickson (finger) will also be unavailable, coach Jesse Minter said Friday.

Here’s what to watch in the Ravens’ Week 5 matchup at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. All stats are courtesy of Sports Info Solutions, Pro Football Focus and the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, unless otherwise noted.

1. On Thursday, Ravens running back Derrick Henry called Falcons running back Bijan Robinson “the best in the game right now.” The burden to prove him wrong will fall largely on the Ravens’ run defense. And it’s a big burden.

In the Ravens’ two games this season against functional rushing attacks, they’ve struggled to defend outside-zone and stretch run concepts, which the Falcons lean heavily on. The Indianapolis Colts rushed for 62 yards (6.2 per carry) on those types of plays in Week 1, and the Dallas Cowboys went for 76 yards (5.8 per carry) in Week 3.

The Falcons have rushed for an NFL-high 512 yards (6.9 per carry) on the two horizontal run concepts this season — 162 yards more than the second-place Chicago Bears. Robinson, a first-team All-Pro last season, has a league-leading 376 yards (7.5 per carry) on outside-zone and stretch handoffs, with 15 first downs on 50 carries. The play of the Ravens’ Nnamdi Madubuike, one of the NFL’s best zone-run-stopping linemen before his neck injury last season, will be crucial.

“It all comes down to setting firm edges on the front side, thinking [about] knocking back [the blockers], and staying alive on the back side,” Ravens defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said Thursday, calling it a “pack-hunting game” for the unit. “I think they have a really, really good group of athletic offensive linemen who work in cohesion and work well together. … Then, obviously, the back is special.”

2. Robinson will have the Ravens’ full attention on every play Sunday. But the most interesting chess matches might come on plays where quarterback Michael Penix Jr. fakes a handoff.

In his two games since returning from a knee injury, the 2024 first-round pick has feasted on play-action opportunities. Penix is 12-for-18 for 261 yards and a touchdown, with an elite 66.7% success rate and 0.91 expected points added per play. Star wide receiver Drake London has six of those 12 completions, racking up 154 play-action yards.

But Minter’s defense will pose a far stiffer test. With their variety of coverage changeups and the range of inside linebacker Roquan Smith and Hamilton, the Ravens have been one of the NFL’s best play-action stoppers. Opponents are a combined 16-for-30 for 129 yards, a touchdown and an interception after run fakes this season. Only the Pittsburgh Steelers have allowed fewer passing yards (107).

3. Under offensive coordinator Declan Doyle, the Ravens have built an explosive passing game around a reliable running game. But Atlanta could test that structural integrity.

The Falcons have the NFL’s best run defense, leading the league in yards per game allowed (48.3) and yards per carry allowed (2.7). Even more remarkable, Atlanta is averaging minus-0.13 yards before contact per carry this season, making them the NFL’s only defense with a typical line of scrimmage established, quite literally, in the opponent’s backfield.

But the Falcons’ defensive structure can leave them vulnerable. Atlanta has played single-high coverage on nearly two-thirds of its snaps this season, which means the Ravens should have one-on-one opportunities outside the numbers and throwing windows down the seams on Sunday. Doyle was optimistic Thursday that even a quiet run game wouldn’t significantly limit the Ravens’ opportunities on drop-backs. But backup quarterback Tyler Huntley will have to take his chances.

“If they can defend you in two-high shells and defend the run game, they are taking away a lot of the play-action opportunities,” Doyle said Thursday. “Now, if they are stopping you in the run game because they are playing one-high and they are playing a down safety and they are fitting it fast, a lot of times, that opens up some of those play-action opportunities. … Sometimes they’re stopping the run for a reason. Generally, when a defense does something, something else opens up. That is kind of the mindset.”

4. With the Ravens’ trade for Cam Jurgens, Vega Ioane’s second career start at center could be his last of the season. But the challenges he’ll face in Atlanta will be different from what he faced Sunday in Baltimore.

The first-round pick won’t just have to deal with the Falcons’ elite run defense. He won’t just have to worry about a pass rush that ranks among the league’s best in pressure rate despite rarely blitzing. Ioane will also have to deal with a lot more noise when the Ravens have the ball inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

As center, he’ll have a different role in the Ravens’ silent count, the nonverbal system the offensive line uses when it’s too loud to hear the quarterback’s cadence. Ioane, along with guards John Simpson, Emery Jones Jr. and Andrew Vorhees (foot), who’s questionable for Sunday, will have to manage the Ravens’ presnap operation smoothly. He also can’t be predictable with his snapping.

“He understands exactly how that works,” Minter said Monday. “Sometimes the silent count for a center is actually easier in a sense, because the guard is controlling a little bit more of the tempo of the count based on how you are doing it. There are a bunch of different ways you can do it. So, again, confident in Vega that whatever he puts his mind to for a week, that he will be ready to roll.”

5. Sunday will be a homecoming of sorts for a handful of Georgia-born and Georgia-raised Ravens.

Hamilton, who went to high school in the city’s suburbs, will have friends and family on hand. Smith, who grew up in the state and starred at Georgia, estimated that he’d have over 100 well-wishers in the stands. Cornerback Nate Wiggins and outside linebacker Zion Young are Atlanta natives.

But a return to the Peach State will be especially poignant for defensive lineman Calais Campbell, who played for the Falcons in 2023. Ciarre Campbell, Calais’ brother, was charged with murder this summer after Atlanta police found their 71-year-old mother, Nateal, dead at her home. Campbell was excused from training camp in July to attend her funeral service in Colorado.

Campbell did not speak to reporters this week, and Weaver acknowledged that Sunday’s game could be “difficult.”

“I know he is going to have those emotions out there,” he said. “I know he is going to want to put on a show for everybody in this stadium and watching from above. And ultimately, it is one of those things where you do not really get over it. You just learn to live with it. I know how much the guys in that locker room care about him, and I expect everybody to try to pick him up and lift him up during this trying time.”