Ravens have had Lions' number - Week 3 presents a chance to flip the script

Two of the NFL’s best teams are set to square off under the lights when the Detroit Lions travel to Baltimore and play the Ravens Monday night. Both franchises have Super Bowl aspirations this year, but historically the head-to-head matchup between them has been quite lopsided.

Baltimore leads the all-time series 6-1, with Detroit’s lone victory coming in their second ever meeting on October 9, 2005. The games haven’t been particularly close either, with Baltimore outscoring Detroit 203-107 in their seven matchups.

Dan Campbell’s Lions have lost to John Harbaugh’s Ravens twice. Their first meeting was at Ford Field in Week 3 of 2021, back in Campbell’s first season when the Lions had a scrappy, yet bare-bones roster that would only go on to win three games and the Ravens had their sights set on making the Super Bowl.

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This game served as one of the first indicators of the “grit” you always hear about with Campbell’s Detroit teams. The Lions fell down 13-0 in the third quarter and 16-7 in the fourth, but scratched and clawed their way to 10 unanswered points in the fourth quarter to take a 17-16 lead with just over a minute remaining. 

The Lions had the Ravens dead to rights facing 4th-and-19 at their own 16-yard line, but then Lamar Jackson calmly stood in the pocket and found Sammy Watkins for a 36-yard gain.

A few plays later, then-kicker Justin Tucker drilled a 66-yard field goal at the buzzer to steal the game– which still remains the longest field goal in NFL history.

Two years later the teams met again, this time on more equal footing with Detroit sitting at 5-1 and starting to realize itself as an NFC power. It didn’t matter.

The Ravens humiliated the Lions in Baltimore, crushing Detroit 38-6. The Ravens scored four touchdowns before Detroit even got a first down, and kept the Lions off the scoresheet entirely until Jahmyr Gibbs’ first career touchdown came in the fourth quarter.

It remains the only true, wire-to-wire thumping of the Lions since their midseason turnaround in 2022. 

“You don’t forget those,” Campbell said of the 2023 blowout loss on Thursday. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance. By the end of the first quarter, we were in a bad way. I think the environment, the opponent, most of our guys have seen them up close in real time. So, if you didn’t have an idea, you’ve got a really good idea now what you’re going into. Which is always good, the experience is good.”

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Baltimore’s dominance over Detroit is in line with the rest of the Lions’ conference foes. It’s tough for anyone to prepare for a talent as unique as Jackson, but especially if you’re an NFC team that only plays him every few years. Since becoming the starter late in his 2018 rookie year, Jackson is 24-2 against NFC teams.

And there are more trends working in Baltimore’s favor this week. The Ravens have won five straight Monday Night Football games, tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers for the longest streak in the league. Baltimore is 22-3 in primetime home games under Harbaugh, which is the best mark in the NFL since his arrival in 2008.

Baltimore announced that they will be wearing their all-black alternates, which they have a 20-6 all-time record in. The uniforms’ most recent appearance was in a 35-10 beatdown of the Buffalo Bills on Sunday Night Football last September.

The Ravens certainly have history on their side, but Campbell’s Lions have broken a few long-lasting streaks of futility before and would like nothing more than to stun Baltimore on their home field with America watching.

“It’ll be a good challenge, but man, I tell you, we’re excited for this challenge,” Campbell said. “We recognize this opponent and we respect what they’re about, and we’re looking forward to this, going out there to their place on Monday night. So this is gonna be fun, this is one of those, this is why you do it.”