While the Cincinnati Bengals lost their season opener by double-digits, they managed to avoid injuries. The same cannot be said for the Baltimore Ravens, who won their season opener by double-digits but paid the price with all of the injuries they suffered.
The Ravens lost J.K. Dobbins for the season during the game. They also saw Tyler Linderbaum, Ronnie Stanley, and Marcus Williams get nicked up during their Week 1 blowout over the Houston Texans. Not only that but Marlon Humphrey is also injured and might not play when the Bengals host the Ravens this weekend.
According to Jeff Zrebiec, the four aforementioned players did not practice for Baltimore on Wednesday.
The four Ravens I didn’t see practicing: C Tyler Linderbaum (ankle), OT Ronnie Stanley (knee), CB Marlon Humphrey (foot) and S Marcus Williams (pec)
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) September 13, 2023
Bengals will face a beat up Ravens squad in Week 2
If Linderbaum and Stanley are out, expect Trey Hendrickson and the rest of the Bengals pass rush to feast against the Ravens offensive line. They surrendered four sacks on Lamar Jackson last week so Hendrickson and company should be licking their chops for this match-up.
If both Humphrey and Williams miss the game, the Ravens secondary is going to be severely weakened. This bodes well for Joe Burrow and the Bengals offense, who struggled majorly in the season opener. Burrow threw for just 82 yards and Tee Higgins was held to zero catches.
Years ago whenever these two teams would meet up, it felt like the Bengals had all of the bad injury luck on their side. It's definitely flipped over the years, however, as the Bengals have mostly avoided major injuries during their playoff runs. In fact, they only had one player not practicing on Wednesday and it was a backup defensive lineman.
The Cincinnati Bengals are poised for a bounce-back game and they have the chance to do just that against an injury-riddled Baltimore Ravens team.