ExtremeRavens Posted September 23 Posted September 23 The Ravens nearly blew a 22-point lead in a game they had to win, but Lamar Jackson put away the Cowboys with a clutch throw and run. Here are five things we learned from the game: The Ravens needed Lamar Jackson to play like the MVP to avoid an existential meltdown They could not start 0-3. No way, no how. They were the best team in football going into last year’s playoffs. They’re loaded with Pro Bowl talent, led by reigning Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson. They expect to play meaningful games in January. But the history could not have been clearer. None of that would have mattered if the Ravens lost three games to start the season. NFL teams rarely dig pits that deep and climb out to play in the postseason. For three quarters in Dallas, they answered this threat to their very identity with overwhelming force, running as they pleased and clamping down on any threat from the other side. They led 28-6 to start the fourth quarter, and narratives of a season reborn danced in all our heads. Then, they did everything they could to toss it away, just as they had a week earlier against the Las Vegas Raiders. Too many penalties? Check. The Ravens committed 13 for 105 yards, not aided by an embarrassingly misguided roughing call on a routine hit by outside linebacker Odafe Oweh. Shoddy coverage and missed tackles? Check. Dak Prescott drove the Cowboys to three touchdowns in six minutes. Special teams nightmares? Check. The Ravens could not corral a slippery onside kick, and Justin Tucker hooked another field goal attempt, this one from 46 yards, outside the left upright. Vanilla play calling? Check. They went just 40 yards on a pair of fourth-quarter drives that could have extended their lead. So there they were, up just 28-25 and staring all their demons dead in the eyes. They had the ball, and they needed Jackson to pull them back from the lip of the abyss. On third-and-6, he threw fearlessly to the right sideline, where he saw Zay Flowers against one-on-one coverage. That 9-yard connection guaranteed Prescott would not receive the ball with ample time to operate. Jackson still needed one more first down. He faked a handoff to Flowers and picked his way past three would-be tacklers to gain those precious 10 yards. “That’s almost unfair right there,” Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of them all, said on FOX’s broadcast. “What a run.” Lamar Jackson’s 87-yard rushing performance gave Baltimore a boost in its 28-25 win over Dallas. (Gareth Patterson/AP) We thought we were watching one kind of story for most of this afternoon in Texas — the Ravens rising to meet their desperate moment. It turned into something different — one of the greatest athletes Baltimore has ever seen saving his teammates and coaches from crushing humiliation and demands for sweeping change. “I thought Lamar was just phenomenal throughout the game and then took over the last drive,” coach John Harbaugh said. It had to be Jackson in the end, and he played his part. The defense did nothing to erase worries over its inability to protect leads It was downright spooky watching the Ravens stumble into the same patterns that cost them victory against the Raiders. Did special teams mishaps and tepid fourth-quarter drives put a proud defense in bad spots, having to stop Prescott on short fields as fatigue set in? Sure. Justin Tucker misses from INSIDE 50 yards this time. Yikes. One of the few things that hasn't gone right today. #RavensFlock — Brian Wacker (@brianwacker1) September 22, 2024 The fact remains that Dallas went 64 yards in 1:48, 56 yards in 1:46 and 91 yards in 2:33 on three consecutive drives in the fourth quarter. This against a Baltimore defense that controlled the action with aggressive coverage and steady pressure for most of the afternoon. Jackson prevented the need for a final stand, but would anyone watching have felt confident in that scenario? Earlier in the week, Harbaugh had said: “Plays need to get made to get yourself off the field. Offenses don’t take themselves off the field — you have to get them off the field by the way you play.” Again, the Ravens’ top defenders could not muster those plays with a lead dwindling rapidly. Whether that meant receivers springing open in the middle of the field or a missed tackle by safety Kyle Hamilton that allowed fullback Hunter Luepke to take a short pass 24 yards, the results looked alarmingly familiar. The NFL’s best pass defense of 2023 went missing when it was needed most. “It definitely has a sour taste in our mouths, just based on how good we started and what the score looked like,” Oweh said. This was especially puzzling, because, as Oweh indicated, the Ravens set the tone they wanted early in the game. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey swarmed wide receiver Brandin Cooks and batted down Prescott’s pass to get Dallas off the field on its opening drive. They gave little breathing room to the Cowboys’ unimpressive ground attack, and their pass rushers hit Prescott seven times, with outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy sacking him twice (the second of those off a beautiful spin move). Prescott got to them on Dallas’ third drive, connecting with Pro Bowl tight end Jake Ferguson for a 24-yard gain on third down after he slid into a gap in the Ravens’ zone. But rookie cornerback Nate Wiggins quickly erased the Cowboys’ opportunity, knocking the ball from All-Pro receiver CeeDee Lamb’s arms for a red-zone takeaway. In addition to highlights from stars such as Humphrey, Hamilton and Van Noy, the Ravens received a stellar effort from oft-overlooked safety Ar’Darius Washington, who allowed one completion on seven targets, per Pro Football Focus. It was the formula that contributed to so many blowouts in 2023 and worked right through their AFC championship game loss to Kansas City, but the Ravens could not sustain it for four quarters. Until they deliver a complete performance, first-year coordinator Zach Orr is going to face questions about why his defense cannot finish. The Ravens put their offensive identity crisis to rest They came out for the second half up 15 on a reeling opponent that had been blown out on the same field a week earlier. Would the Ravens press the pedal to the floor, or would they let the Cowboys linger? They chose to be the not-messing-around crew, running right at Dallas with Derrick Henry the hammer — hello, stiff arm — and Jackson the jet. Five runs, 70 yards, 28-6 lead. Sunday was Derrick Henry’s first dominant rushing performance as a Raven, with the bruising running back surpassing 150 yards and scoring two touchdowns in the win over Dallas. (Julio Cortez/AP) This was the offense Ravens fans wanted in the AFC championship game eight months ago, the one they wanted with the game on the line against the Raiders a week earlier. For two weeks, we had heard national commentators decry their lack of offensive identity. Well, they stamped it all over the Cowboys’ heads as Henry power glided his way to 151 yards on 25 carries — his first huge game as a Raven — and Jackson played off him beautifully, carrying 14 times for 87 yards without taking worrisome punishment. They knew Dallas was weak up the gut and proved it with 274 rushing yards. The Ravens strolled 71 yards on five plays the first time they got the ball, with the Cowboys seemingly caught off guard by their every move. They’d show power to one side, and then Jackson would zip the other way untouched or dump an easy throw to uncovered tight end Charlie Kolar. The next time they got the ball, Jackson beat pressure with a quick outside throw to Nelson Agholor, who took advantage of undisciplined coverage to scoot 56 yards down the sideline and set up an easy touchdown by Henry. The Ravens averaged 8.8 yards per play in the first half and 7.6 for the game, easily their most efficient performance of the season. They won’t always win throwing the ball 15 times, but if we needed proof of concept on the Henry-Jackson partnership, this was it. John Harbaugh doubled down on his widely criticized offensive line, and his faith bore fruit The Ravens teased going with a reconfigured offensive line during the week, but come Sunday afternoon, we again saw Daniel Faalele at right guard and Patrick Mekari at right tackle. In fact, the Ravens showed more faith in their maligned blockers, declining to rotate Roger Rosengarten in for Mekari and keeping Faalele on the field for all 63 offensive snaps. Though some fans might have written this off as bullheaded, the strategy worked against a Dallas defense that’s suspect up the middle. The Ravens ran at will and largely neutralized superstar edge rusher Micah Parsons, who finished with just one quarterback hit. Harbaugh didn’t switch in other linemen because he saw no reason. Derrick Henry on the #Ravens OL. Added they were aware of what was being said #RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/yykoVvMIbo — Brian Wacker (@brianwacker1) September 23, 2024 Parsons streaked past Tyler Linderbaum for a third-down pressure in the second quarter after he lined up over center instead of on the edge. He might have done more damage had Jackson needed to drop back more. But the fact is, many fans and analysts worried he would wreck the game by targeting Faalele, Mekari and left guard Andrew Vorhees. That never happened. Jackson seemed particularly happy for Faalele, whose missed block on a stunting Maxx Crosby led to a key sack in the Raiders loss. “It’s not like he’s trying to mess up,” he said. “All of us make mistakes out there on that field. But, he came in clutch for us today, and I want the same people who were giving him that doubt to praise him and give him that credit for what he deserves.” Before the game, Henry told the line, “Where you go, I go.” “I think the offensive line allowed that to happen,” Henry said when asked how he found his rhythm in Dallas. “They came out with a mindset of moving guys off the line of scrimmage, being physical and playing the Ravens style of football. I think they did a great job of that today.” We saw 2023 Kyle Hamilton assert himself in the first half Hamilton couldn’t get away from “kind of annoying” aches and pains, including a back injury that limited him in practice last week. But he did not blame those or his role in Orr’s schemes for his pair of subpar games to start the season. “He’s given us all the answers,” Hamilton said Friday. “We just need to go out there and do it. It’s up to us, the leaders on the defense and on the whole team as a whole, to go out there and execute the game plan.” He jumped into that mission with aplomb in the first half against Dallas, swooping off the edge for a pressure on Prescott, slicing in to drop running back Ezekiel Elliott for no gain and crushing wide receiver KaVontae Turpin on an attempted end-around. His helmet came off on that last hit, and Hamilton hefted it like a war hammer as he celebrated. This was the unique player we saw last season, when the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Hamilton morphed from edge rusher to inside linebacker to sticky nickel back depending on what the Ravens needed for a given series. He finished with a career-high 12 tackles in Dallas, and though he wasn’t perfect (see that aforementioned missed tackle in the fourth quarter), he was back to being a noticeable force. Hamilton will need to be that every week for the Ravens to resume their expected perch among the league’s top defensive teams. Other than Jackson, no one on the roster is more important. View the full article Quote
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