The Baltimore Ravens will be back on the road in Week 5 under a national spotlight for the first time this season when they take on the red-hot Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football.

Coming off an injury-riddled victory over the Tennessee Titans in Week 4 at home, in which they held on to establish their first winning streak, the Ravens are currently tied for the best record in the AFC North division, right next to the competitive 3-1 Cleveland Browns.

There are several intriguing storylines surrounding this interconference matchup between these two teams. Here are the top four.

Ravens are wise for ruling out highest-paid stars

Absent from all three days of practice this week as they prepare for this matchup have been two players who rank among their highest cap hits for the 2026 season. Franchise quarterback Lamar Jackson is dealing with an ankle sprain, and prized offseason addition and star pass rusher Trey Hendrickson is still recovering from finger surgery.

Earlier in the week, head coach Jesse Minter expressed that players of Jackson status and experience could play in a game despite not having practiced all week. As a four-time Pro Bowler and former First Team All Pro, Hendrickson likely falls into that category as well, but following Friday's practice, Minter ruled out both of them.

With the Ravens' first AFC North matchup coming up next week against the Browns, with whom they're currently tied atop the division, risking the long-term health of two of their most pivotal players on the team for a nonconference primetime game doesn't make much sense.

Cornerback Marlon Humphrey, the longest-tenured defensive player, is suffering from both hamstring and calf soft tissue issues, but he was on the practice field on Friday, and Minter expects him to be available.

A week of rest for each would increase the likelihood that they'd be closer to full strength for a game with major implications. Even if the Ravens fall to the Falcons on Sunday and the Browns prevail over the New York Jets, a win in Cleveland in Week 6 would still put them back atop the division standings.

Can Snoop come up clutch against another NFC foe?

The Ravens are fortunate to not only have one of the best backup quarterbacks in the league in Tyler 'Snoop' Huntley, but he possesses a skill set that is very similar to their starter's, which means the playbook won't be limited. With a full week of reps instead of just being thrust into the starting lineup at halftime like he was last week against the Titans, the former Pro Bowler will be much sharper in the passing game because he'll have had the necessary time on task to get more in tune with top pass catchers, especially two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Zay Flowers, who has been off to a torrid start to the season.

This will mark Huntley's 17th career regular-season start, but it wouldn't be the first time ever, or even in the last year, that he's been asked to help lead the team to victory against long odds. The former undrafted gem was under center for two of the Ravens' most impressive wins of the 2025 season, both of which came at junctures when they desperately needed to come out on top to keep their playoff hopes alive. Huntley led them to a 30-16 home win over the Chicago Bears in Week 8 to avoid falling to 2-6, and he stepped up again in Week 17 in a 41-24 road win over the Green Bay Packers.

Back in Week 16 of the 2022 season, Huntley picked up his third career win as a starter against the Falcons. That was two offensive coordinators ago, and count first-year play-caller Declan Doyle among the coaches and teammates who have unwavering belief in the seventh-year veteran's ability to answer the call once again and perform at a high level.

"I have a lot of confidence in him to be able to operate the system," Doyle said. "I don't think the mentality of how you want to run the offense changes at all. You're trying to hunt explosives. The standard is still the standard regardless of who's in there and that can't change."

Will defense rise to the challenge under a national spotlight?

As tough as a blow as not having a two-time league MVP at the helm will be for the Ravens' offense, the side of the ball facing the toughest task in this matchup is their defense. After being the most inept offensive unit in the league with former Ravens backup Cooper Rush under center, the Falcons have fielded the most productive and well-balanced offenses in the league over the past two weeks since 2024 first-rounder Michael Penix Jr. was inserted as the team's starting quarterback.

The third-year signal caller has helped their play-action passing game take flight. Still, their offense begins, ends and is predominantly predicated upon their dominant rushing attack, spearheaded by star running back Bijan Robinson. The two-time Pro Bowler and frontrunner for Offensive Player of the Year is second in the league in rushing yards and yards from scrimmage and is a house-call waiting to happen anytime he touches the ball.

Slowing down Robinson on the ground will be an all-hands-on-deck situation for the Ravens in this game, as tackling in space and maintaining gap integrity will be paramount. Failing to execute either would almost certainly result in a long night for them, and they'd be the third straight team to get embarrassed by the "Dirty Birds" in primetime.

"It is a necessity against guys like Bijan, 11 is needed because he can make 10 miss," safety Kyle Hamilton said. "That 11th guy might be the touchdown-saving tackle, game-saving tackle — whatever it may be — but you have to go in there confident. I think if we run and hit well, we will do what we need to do. And at the end of the day, that is what this game comes down to — a very fundamental approach to this game."

Can Ravens stop killing themselves with penalties?

No matter who's been under center for the Ravens through their first four games, the only obstacle, aside from injuries, that has kept them from taking full control, putting opponents away sooner and avoiding late-game theatrics has been themselves. According to NFLpenalties.com, they've been flagged the fourth-most times (39) and have accumulated the fifth-most penalty yardage (329), narrowly behind the Green Bay Packers (344). In Week 4 alone against the Titans, they were flagged a season-high 13 times for a season-high 131 penalty yards.

The bulk of their infractions have been committed by their offense as far too many times; they're having chunk plays and key first-down conversions negated and promising drives are stalled out because of a false start, illegal shift, ineligible man downfield or an unnecessary hold downfield away from the ball carrier. While some growing pains were expected, as the Ravens are in their first year of a new offense under Doyle. His scheme uses a lot of pre-snap motion, heavily utilizes screens and requires skill players to block downfield to turn chunk plays into explosive plays of 20-plus yards.

"You do want to use motions and shifts and cadences as a weapon, and I think when we see our offense really operate, it creates problems," Miner said. "It creates explosives. It creates running lanes [and] it creates angles blocking.

"We need to make sure that we are doing the things with the guys that they are capable of doing, that we are not trying to do too much, that it might not be something that is a one- or two-time thing [and] that it is things that we are working on a lot. Again, I challenge the coaches and myself more than anybody for us to get that right, and we will continue to strive for that."

Defensively, they've been penalized at the most inopportune times and for chunks of yardage and key drive-extending conversions for the opponents, which has prevented them from getting off the field consistently and when it's mattered most, late in games. They needed to keep their composure in coverage, especially on third downs where they're ranked in the middle of the pack in terms of conversion rate (37.5%).