OWINGS MILLS, Md. — When you are in a playoff race this late in the season, you don’t really need much more motivation than fighting for your postseason lives... even when you are taking on a team with one win and 12 straight losses like the Jaguars.
But for a couple Ravens there should be some added intensity when they take the field on Sunday.
"Naturally, being a competitor, you play on a team for three years, you know all the guys, I’m looking forward to the match-up," said defensive end Calais Campbell.
Campbell and Yannick Ngakoue are both set to face their old team for the first time. Both are in their first season with the Ravens. Ngakoue spent the last four with the Jags after being drafted by the franchise in 2016. Campbell spent the past three in a Jaguars uniform.
"A lot of those guys I’m real, real tight with," added Campbell. "So, it’s going to be fun competing and talking trash along the way and having some fun."
"I’m just treating it as another game," said Ngakoue. "We need the rest of these wins to get to where we’re trying to get to."
Ngakoue's time in Jacksonville came to a messy ending over money. They traded him to Minnesota in August before he ended up in Baltimore via an October trade.
"At the end of the day, I had my time with Jacksonville. That’s not a secret," he said. "So, at the end of the day I’m just going to treat it like another game, another Sunday."
It will be another Sunday the Ravens desperately need to win.
Jaguars quarterback Gardner Minshew knows what time it is. When asked about facing his former teammate Ngakoue he said, ‘Yannick is going to be out for blood'.
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