Baltimore (0-2) at Dallas (1-1)
Sunday, 4:25 p.m. EDT, Fox.
BetMGM NFL Odds: Ravens by 1.
Against the spread: Ravens 0-2, Cowboys 1-1.
Series record: Ravens lead 5-1.
Last meeting: Ravens beat Cowboys 34-17 on Dec. 8, 2020, in Baltimore.
Last week: Ravens lost to Raiders 26-23; Cowboys lost to Saints 44-19.
Ravens offense: overall (1), rush (7), pass (4), scoring (14T)
Ravens defense: overall (15), rush (1), pass (32), scoring (28)
Cowboys offense: overall (17), rush (25), pass (9), scoring (7)
Cowboys defense: overall (19), rush (20), pass (16), scoring (30)
Turnover differential: Ravens even; Cowboys plus-1.
RB Derrick Henry is a power back facing an interior defensive front that's been a nagging weakness for the Cowboys for a long time. There is an injury issue for Dallas as well. Veteran DT Jordan Phillips went to injured reserve with a wrist problem, leading the Cowboys to reunite with Carlos Watkins this week. DT Mazi Smith missed practice to start the week because of a tight back. Henry had 84 yards and a TD in the loss to the Raiders, and Dallas allowed 190 yards rushing and four TDs in the loss to the Saints.
WR CeeDee Lamb is still looking for a breakout game coming off an All-Pro season that included eight 100-yard outings. The Ravens are giving up a league-worst 257 yards passing per game through two weeks. Lamb hasn't been completely bottled up, though. He had a big catch on an early touchdown drive in the Week 1 win at Cleveland. His 65-yard score after ducking out of a tackle briefly got Dallas back in last week's game against New Orleans. Lamb can become the sixth player in NFL history with at least one touchdown catch in nine consecutive regular-season home games.
Cowboys pass rusher Micah Parsons vs. Ravens QB Lamar Jackson. It's always intriguing when an elite speed rusher faces one of the league's best running quarterbacks. And this is the first time Parsons will see the reigning NFL MVP because the most recent meeting between the clubs was 2020, the year before Dallas drafted Parsons in the first round. Parsons is in rare company as an All-Pro selection in two of his first three seasons, and Jackson is a two-time MVP.
CB Nate Wiggins, the Ravens' rookie first-round draft pick, didn't practice to start the week after missing the loss to the Raiders because of a neck injury sustained in a car wreck. ... LB Adisa Isaac, a rookie third-round choice, could be in line for his NFL debut. Isaac missed the first two games with a hamstring issue. ... Cowboys TE Jake Ferguson appears set to return after missing a game with a knee injury. ... Lamb (ankle) and CB Trevon Diggs (foot) showed up on the injury report Wednesday, but coach Mike McCarthy there wasn't concern with either player. ... DT Mazi Smith left practice Wednesday when his back tightened up, and his status is in flux.
The only victory for the Cowboys in the series came during the remarkable rookie seasons for QB Dak Prescott and RB Ezekiel Elliott in 2016. Dallas won 11 consecutive games and was the top seed in the NFC when those two finished neck-and-neck in voting for AP Offensive Rookie of the Year (Prescott won). The 27-17 win over the Ravens at home was the ninth victory in that run. Prescott threw for 301 yards and three touchdowns and Elliott had 97 yards rushing. They have been reunited this season after Elliott spent last season in New England. He was let go in a cost-cutting move after the 2022 season.
The Ravens, who reached the AFC championship game last season, are 0-2 for the first time since 2015, when they lost their first three games and missed the playoffs. That was the middle of a stretch of Baltimore missing the playoffs four times in five seasons after winning a Super Bowl. ... The Cowboys have allowed 92 points in their past two home games — the loss to the Saints that ended a 16-game home winning streak in the regular season and a 48-32 wild-card defeat against Green Bay in January. The franchise worst is 93 points from consecutive home games in the winless (0-11-1) expansion season of 1960. ... Since 2021, the Cowboys are 12-2 coming off a loss. That .857 winning percentage is tied with Buffalo for the best in the NFL during that span. ... Jackson needs one more game of leading the Ravens in passing and rushing yards to tie Cam Newton for the NFL record at 40. ... TE Mark Andrews needs one TD receiving to tie TE Mark Heap for the most in franchise history at 41. ... LB Kyle Van Noy had two sacks against Las Vegas a week after fracturing an orbital bone against Kansas City. ... LB Odafe Oweh had a career-best 2 1/2 sacks against the Raiders. ... Prescott needs 69 yards passing to join Tony Romo and Troy Aikman as the only Dallas QBs to reach 30,000 yards. CB Trevon Diggs has one more chance to reach 20 interceptions in his first 50 games. Only three others since 1990 have done it — Marcus Peters, Richard Sherman and Pro Football Hall of Famer Ed Reed. ... Ravens K Justin Tucker needs one FG of at least 50 yards for 59 such kicks in his career, which would break a tie with Sebastian Janikowski at No. 2. Cowboys second-year K Brandon Aubrey is 13 of 13 for his career from at least 50. That's the most without a miss from 50-plus in league history.
This won't be the week to try to figure out how the Cowboys might use Elliott and Rico Dowdle. The run game was probably the top concern for Dallas coming into the season and hasn't had a chance to find a rhythm. Baltimore has the NFL's best rushing defense through two weeks.
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Las Vegas Raiders defensive tackle John Jenkins (95) tackles Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry (22) during the second half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver CeeDee Lamb (88) reacts in front of New Orleans Saints cornerback Alontae Taylor (1), cornerback Will Harris (5) and safety Tyrann Mathieu (32) while scoring on a long touchdown catch during the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Arlington, Texas. (AP Photo/Jeffrey McWhorter)
Dallas Cowboys' Micah Parsons celebrates as he walks off the field after the team's NFL football game against the Cleveland Browns in Cleveland, Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024. (AP Photo/David Richard)
Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) warms up before an NFL football game against the Las Vegas Raiders, Sunday, Sept. 15, 2024, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Wednesday it will permanently block its border with South Korea and boost its front-line defense posture to cope with “confrontational hysteria" by South Korean and U.S. forces, while not announcing an expected constitutional revision to formally designate South Korea its principal enemy and codify new national borders.
While the moves were likely a pressure tactic, it's unclear how they will affect ties with South Korea since cross-border travel and exchanges have been halted for years.
North Korea's military said it will “completely cut off roads and railways ” linked to South Korea and “fortify the relevant areas of our side with strong defense structures,” according to the North's official Korean Central News Agency.
The North's military called its steps a “self-defensive measure for inhibiting war and defending the security” of North Korea. It said that “the hostile forces are getting ever more reckless in their confrontational hysteria.” It cited what it called various war exercises in South Korea, the deployment of U.S. strategic assets and its rivals' harsh rhetoric.
North Korea said it sent a message to the U.S. military to explain its fortification activity to prevent any misjudgment and potential accidental clashes.
South Korea's Defense Ministry said it confirmed the North Korean message with the American-led U.N. Command. It said South Korea is closely communicating and coordinating with the U.N. Command but didn't elaborate.
South Korean officials earlier said North Korea had already been adding anti-tank barriers and reinforcing roads on its side of the border since April in a likely attempt to boost its front-line security posture and prevent its soldiers and citizens from defecting to South Korea. In a report to parliament on Tuesday, South Korea's Unification Ministry said that North Korea has been removing ties on the northern side of cross-border railways and nearby lamps and planting mines along the border.
KCNA earlier Wednesday said the Supreme People’s Assembly met for two days this week to amend the legal ages of North Koreans for working and participating in elections. But it didn't say whether the meeting dealt with leader Kim Jong Un's order in January to rewrite the constitution to remove the goal of a peaceful Korean unification, formally designate South Korea as the country’s “invariable principal enemy” and define the North’s sovereign, territorial sphere.
At the center of outside attention was whether North Korea makes new legal claims on the waters currently controlled by South Korea off their west coast. The poorly marked western sea boundary is where three bloody naval skirmishes and two deadly attacks blamed on North Korea happened in the past 25 years.
Some experts say North Korea might have delayed the constitutional revision but others speculated it amended the constitution without announcing it because of its sensitivity.
Kim's order stunned many North Korea watchers because it was seen as breaking away with his predecessors' long-cherished dreams of achieving a unified Korea on the North's terms. Experts say Kim likely aims to diminish South Korea’s voice in the regional nuclear standoff and seek direct dealings with the U.S. They say Kim also likely hopes to diminish South Korean cultural influence and bolster his rule at home.
Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest point in years, with North Korea continuing a run of provocative weapons tests and South Korea and the U.S. expanding their military drills. KCNA said North Korea on Tuesday tested a long-range artillery system that observers say pose a direct threat to Seoul, the South Korean capital, which is only an hour’s drive from the border.
Follow AP's Asia-Pacific coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/asia-pacific
Visitors watch North Korean side from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
North Korean soldiers stand at the North's military guard post, seen from Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A visitor watches North Korean side from the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A North Korean flag is seen in North Korea's town Kaepoong, seen from Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A South Korean national flag flutters in the wind at the Unification Observation Post in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A visitor walks past a signboard showing the distance to North Korea's capital Pyongyang and to South Korea's capital Seoul from Imjingang Station in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
A North Korean flag flutters in the wind atop a 160-meter (525-foot) tower in the North's Kijong-dong village near the truce village of Panmunjom, seen from Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
In this photo provided Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, by the North Korean government, assembly members attend the Supreme People’s Assembly at the Mansudae Assembly Hall in Pyongyang, North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
Barricades are placed near the Unification Bridge, which leads to the Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone in Paju, South Korea, Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)
In this photo provided Wednesday, Oct. 9, 2024, by the North Korean government, Choe Ryong Hae, the chairman of the Assembly’s Standing Committee, speaks during the Supreme People’s Assembly in Pyongyang, North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this undated photo provided on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2024 by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, watches an artillery exercise at an undisclosed place in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
In this undated photo provided on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2024 by the North Korean government, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, center, visits to watch an artillery exercise at an undisclosed place in North Korea. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: "KCNA" which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)
