ExtremeRavens Posted September 19 Posted September 19 The second week of the NFL season is often a time for evening out after the small-sample insanity of Week 1. That’s not the case in Baltimore this year, where fans are panicking (or flat disgusted) after the Ravens blew a 10-point lead against the Las Vegas Raiders to fall to 0-2. It’s a shocking record for a team widely favored to make another deep playoff run, and the climb back to respectability won’t be easy given that the Dallas Cowboys, Buffalo Bills and Cincinnati Bengals are the next three teams on the Ravens’ schedule. Given the team’s struggles, the takes are flying hotter than usual for the third week of September. It’s time to render verdicts: Overreaction or properly concerned? Take: The Ravens have already dug themselves too deep a hole Within minutes of the final whistle Sunday, we began seeing statistics portraying just how daunting an 0-2 start is for a team’s playoff chances. Essentially one team a season — the Houston Texans in 2023, the Bengals in 2022 — pulls off such a reversal of fortune. The aforementioned schedule crunch — three games against opponents widely picked to make the playoffs with two of those on the road — makes the Ravens’ situation feel that much more dire. Not to mention they’ve lost these games with a largely healthy roster. There’s no savior returning to practice this week. Coach John Harbaugh used the word “consistent” more than a dozen times during his Monday news conference to describe the team’s shortcomings. Whether in coverage, blocking or avoiding debilitating penalties, the Ravens have been maddeningly self-defeating. That said, there are reasons to think this is the team that will cast off the 0-2 albatross this year. Most teams that lose their first two games are bad (the Ravens did it just once before under Harbaugh and finished 5-11 in 2015). The Ravens, meanwhile, were the best team in football as recently as December. They lost some key players, but they still have the reigning Most Valuable Player at quarterback, playmakers to help him and Pro Bowl talent at all three levels of their defense. Say what you will about Harbaugh (and Ravens fans have said plenty over the past eight months), but he has never lost his handle on a season when he had a healthy, stocked roster. There’s no reason to think this team, built to chase a Super Bowl, will roll over. Think back to 2019. The Ravens fell to 2-2 when the Browns thrashed them 40-25 on their home field. How bleak was their outlook at that moment? They won their next 12. Or last year, they dropped to 3-2 with a miserable loss in Pittsburgh, then won 10 of their next 11. This team has resilience baked into its DNA. Will that argument become more difficult if the Ravens lose in Dallas this weekend? Yes. This isn’t baseball. Every defeat is significant to a team’s playoff positioning, even if the underlying talent is strong. But the sky hasn’t fallen yet. VERDICT: Overreaction Take: The Ravens need to replace Daniel Faalele with Ben Cleveland Skepticism around Faalele at right guard crescendoed when he could not stop a stunting Maxx Crosby from smashing Lamar Jackson to the ground at the start of a do-or-die drive against the Raiders. The play encapsulated fears about Faalele’s lack of quickness, which also limits him as an interior run blocker. Dark times lead fans to create unusual heroes, and in this case, that’s Cleveland, the 2021 third-round draft pick who has performed reasonably well when called upon in games but has never won coaches over with his practice performance. Ravens fans are clamoring for Ben Cleveland to see increased playing time at right guard. (Kim Hairston/Staff) Harbaugh made no concessions Monday when asked about Faalele vs. Cleveland. “Our evaluation right now is that Daniel outplayed Ben — just a fact, straight up, matter of fact,” he said. “If we had thought Ben had outplayed Daniel, he’d be the starting right guard. So, when I see, if I see, that Ben is playing better than Daniel, then Ben will be the starting right guard.” Moments earlier, however, he described the inconsistency he’s seeing from his young starting guards, Faalele and Andrew Vorhees. Given that and given their embrace of rotations at tackle the last few seasons, why do the Ravens refuse to use Cleveland for at least a few series a game? He graded well as a pass blocker the three times he started in 2022 and 2023. Why not give him a chance to outperform Faalele on meaningful snaps? Perhaps the Ravens see greater developmental potential in Faalele, who was drafted a year after Cleveland, but they’re in must-win mode. If they stick to the same lineup and Dallas’ brilliant pass rusher Micah Parsons runs wild, they’re going to face justified criticism. VERDICT: Properly concerned Take: The Ravens can’t protect leads They seemed on the verge of blowing out the Raiders for much of the second half, with their edge rushers menacing Gardner Minshew and Derrick Henry picking up steam. But we’ve seen this script before. The Ravens let a lesser opponent hang around. A few brutal penalties, a few coverage lapses and a few empty drives later, they were stuck with a loss no one saw coming. We remember the other examples. In Pittsburgh last year against a Steelers offense that had no business keeping pace, they dropped every other pass until the guys on the other side finally made a few critical plays in the fourth quarter. Against Miami at home the year before, they built a 35-14 lead and gave it all away in an epic defensive collapse. Whenever the Ravens lose a game like this, fans haul out statistics showing that they’ve blown more fourth-quarter leads than any other team in recent seasons. Sep 15, 2024: Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker reacts after missing a field goal against the Las Vegas Raiders during the NFL home opener in Baltimore. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Sept 15, 2024: Ravens’ Derrick Henry, right, runs against the Raiders’ Christian Wilkins, left, in the fourth quarter. The Raiders defeated the Ravens 26-23 at M&T Bank Stadium. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)Sept. 15, 2024: Ravens’ Odafe Oweh celebrates his sack of Las Vegas Raiders’ Gardner Minshew II in a game at M&T Bank Stadium. (Kenneth K. Lam/staff)Ravens wide-receiver Rashod Bateman, right, makes a catch against the Raiders’Robert Spillane in the first quarter. The Raiders defeated the Ravens 26-23 at M&T Bank Stadium. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)Sep 15, 2024: Baltimore Ravens defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike reaches for a pas by Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Gardner Minshew II during the NFL home opener in Baltimore. The Ravens lost their second straight game, 26-23. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Raiders tight end Brock Bowers, right, beats Ravens’ Trenton Simpson, left, for a catch in the fourth quarter. The Raiders defeated the Ravens 26-23 at M&T Bank Stadium. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry powers through the Las Vegas Raiders defensive line for a touchdown during the NFL home opener in Baltimore. The Ravens lost their second straight game, 26-23. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Tavius Robinson hits Las Vegas Raiders quarterback Gardner Minshew II, who makes a completion past inside linebacker Trenton Simpson to wide receiver Davante Adams during the NFL home opener in Baltimore. The Ravens lost their second straight game, 26-23. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Show Caption1 of 8Sep 15, 2024: Baltimore Ravens kicker Justin Tucker reacts after missing a field goal against the Las Vegas Raiders during the NFL home opener in Baltimore. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)Expand “Offenses don’t take themselves off the field — you have to get them off the field by the way you play,” Harbaugh said. “I just feel like we just need to do a better job with that. That’s something that over the past four or five years, that’s something that’s been the difference.” He also noted that the Ravens have given up more fourth-quarter leads than most teams because they’ve had more fourth-quarter leads than most teams, which probably isn’t going to sate critics but is an accurate point. On balance, the Ravens did not struggle to put opponents away last season. They rolled up the best point differential in the league because they hammered quality opponents. Their losses, by contrast, were close and felt magnified because they were unusual. Was the Ravens’ fourth-quarter performance against Las Vegas concerning? Absolutely. Was it indicative of a fatal flaw? It’s too early to say. VERDICT: Overreaction Take: The Ravens’ secondary is a massive disappointment This was the natural conclusion after the Raiders’ two most dangerous pass catchers, wide receiver Davante Adams and tight end Brock Bowers, did what they pleased down the stretch of Sunday’s loss. The Ravens didn’t agree with Brandon Stephens’ pass interference penalty against Adams that set up the tying touchdown, but that was beside the point after all the completions they’d surrendered in the second half. Brock Bowers and Davante Adams vs the Ravens: 18 receptions 208 receiving yards 1 touchdown pic.twitter.com/3EAn4Dhtwg — PFF (@PFF) September 15, 2024 Patrick Mahomes made mincemeat of the middle of their defense in the opener, so this was more of the same from a unit that was supposed to be the best on the team coming off a stellar 2023. In particular, Kyle Hamilton and Marcus Williams were frequently rated the best safety duo in the league coming into the season, and neither has performed up to expectations. Hamilton ranks 94th and Williams 96th in Pro Football Focus’ coverage grades for safeties through two weeks. Hamilton ranked third and Williams 17th last season. When Harbaugh answered for the blown leads Monday, he said “plays need to get made to get yourself off the field.” He could have been speaking directly to the stars in his secondary. Scrutiny will naturally fall on first-year coordinator Zach Orr as he tries to match the performance of his widely lauded predecessor, Mike Macdonald. But we can’t forget the Ravens also lost one of the league’s best secondary coaches in Dennard Wilson, who earned his chance to run the Tennessee Titans’ defense by pulling the best from every Baltimore defensive back. There’s too much talent here for the performance not to improve, but the Ravens need that to happen sooner rather than later given the quarterbacks they’ll face over the next three weeks. VERDICT: Properly concerned Take: Justin Tucker no longer belongs in the first rank of kickers We’ve all seen the statistics capturing how absurdly efficient modern kickers have become on long kicks. The league is 35 of 39 from 50 yards and beyond this year. Two of those misses belong to Tucker, who hooked a 56-yard attempt outside the left upright against the Raiders. He’s 1-for-7 on attempts of 50 yards or more over the past two seasons, a shock to Ravens fans who have taken for granted having the league’s best kicker for most of the past decade. Harbaugh and special teams coordinator Chris Horton have dismissed any concerns around Tucker, saying they have the “utmost faith” in him from any distance. He’s still as reliable as anyone from inside 50 (he was perfect from 42 and 48 yards against the Raiders) and has bounced back from long-distance misses at other points in his career. “It’s not my favorite topic of discussion, but I just missed the kick,” Tucker said after the Raiders loss. “I don’t want to continue having this conversation. When I go out on the field, I’m confident that I’m going to nail every single kick, no matter where we are on the field. Today was no different.” This is one of those topics where two things can be true at once. Tucker has earned the longest of leashes. He’s still very good at his job (two misses from inside 50 yards since the start of the 2022 season), and he’s a perfectionist who will turn over every stone to improve his performance on longer field goal attempts. At the same time, it’s difficult to stack him against the kicker who will be on the other side of the field Sunday — the Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey has hit 44 of 46 attempts and 13 of 13 from 50 or beyond over the past two seasons — and say he’s still the best in the world. VERDICT: Overreaction for now View the full article Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.