Baltimore Ravens at Arizona Cardinals Halftime: Ravens Recover From Early Tough History

The Baltimore Ravens' defense has paced the way in the early going, guiding them to an early lead over the Arizona Cardinals.

The Baltimore Ravens' defense has paved the Week 8 way against the Arizona Cardinals, forcing their Sunday hosts into two turnovers on downs and an interception en route to a 14-7 lead on Sunday at State Farm Stadium.

While it's far from the dominant scoring effort on display last week against Detroit, the Ravens took advantage of Arizona mistakes to the tune of touchdowns for Mark Andrews and Gus Edwards while Brandon Stephens earned an interception that set up the latter.

Ravens (14)

PASSING: Lamar Jackson (12-of-18, 116 yards, 1 TD)
RUSHING: Gus Edwards (6 carries, 20 yards, 1 TD)
RECEIVING: Justice Hill (2 rec., 29 yards

Cardinals (7)

PASSING: Josh Dobbs (8-of-12, 55 yards, 1 INT)
RUSHING: Emari Demercado (14 carries, 60 yards)
RECEIVING: Marquise Brown (3 rec., 20 yards)

If At First You Don't Succeed...

The Ravens set a negative brand of history in the opening stanzas, giving up a touchdown on the opening possession for the first time in 16 games. But just because the team is capable of winning in shootouts, doesn't mean that they should ... and the defense has taken that to heart, recovering from a slow start to force two turnovers on downs and a punt.

D-Bateman

It has taken Rashod Bateman a while to fully work back into the swing of things since coming back from an injury that wiped out most of his 2022 season, but he might have made the play of the day in terms of securing Baltimore momentum: On Baltimore's scoring drive, Bateman doubled as a defender, yanking away a would-be interception from Marco Wilson and turning it into a 29-yard gain that eventually led to Andrews' touchdown.

Lack of Charm City

Arizona, on more than one occasion, at proven to be far more dangerous than its 1-6 record has indicated. But the fact remains: Baltimore should be capable of running away with games such as these. Are the Ravens destined to be a team that plays up or down to its competition? Teams like that tend to lose the victorious script come playoff time and the Ravens would be wise to try and run away with this one before the hosts get any ideas of an upset.