Raiders Stun Ravens, 26-23

The Las Vegas Raiders beat the Baltimore Ravens 26-23 in Week 2 of the 2024 NFL season.

RSR staff react to the loss here.

Derek Arnold

The youth movement along the offensive line is an abject failure. Daniel Faalele lost Maxx Crosby on what should have been the Ravens’ game-winning drive, putting the team behind the sticks immediately. For some reason the Ravens refuse to put in Ben Cleveland, and John Harbaugh’s stubbornness (assuming this is a dog house issue) is completely unacceptable. Roger Rosengarten looked pretty good against Crosby (with RB help at times, yes), yet Patrick Mekari was in there for most of the second half. Harbaugh’s ridiculous un-winnable challenges cost the team valuable seconds in both halves, especially the second. It’s the same thing year after year after year. But yay, continuity.

And yes, I’m going to criticize the officials. They were atrocious, and never more so than on the pass interference on 3rd-and-goal. The Raiders would have had 4th-and-goal from outside the 15, and instead had a fresh set of downs on the 1. The flag, as always, wasn’t thrown by the official STANDING RIGHT THERE, but by a guy 15 yards away. Why is that even allowed? Jordan Stout was plowed into on his first punt of the day, but instead of a roughing that would have given the Ravens a first down, it was just running into the kicker? Nnamdi Madubuike was flagged for a facemask when he never touched any part of Gardner Minshew’s helmet. The Ravens SHOULD be 1-1, with a ton of problems to address. Instead, thanks in large part to the unacceptable officiating, they’re 0-2 with a ton of problems to address.

Chad Racine

Maybe Minshew has the Ravens’ number. It was ugly offensively early on for the Ravens but felt like the game was theirs until the 4th quarter when nothing went their way. Starting off 0-2 is bad but I believe they’ll be much better later in the season than what their record says they are.

Chris Schisler

The Ravens messed around and they found out. They made terrible mistakes. The problems that stood out in Kansas City stand out even more in Week 2. The Ravens can’t defend tight ends. Brock Bowers lit them up. They had no answer for Davante Adams. The transition from Mike MacDonald to Zachary Orr has not been seamless and it’s the biggest reason this team is winless. This doesn’t look like the same defense.

John Harbaugh either needs to get better with challenges or he needs a new guy upstairs. The Ravens were without timeouts in desperation time. It’s getting old.

The last play with Lamar Jackson’s odd lateral doesn’t matter. The oven already beeped and the Ravens were cooked. The Ravens lost control of the game and they self-destructed. This team doesn’t look like one led by a head coach that’s been doing this since 2008.

Brennan Stewart

Minshew strikes again in Baltimore.

Baltimore’s adversities today: offensive line performance (right guard is a huge concern), timeout management, clock management, play design (how do you not give Derrick Henry the ball on 3rd & 1?), third down efficiency, the zebras (abysmal), and perhaps… the secondary.

Baltimore’s strengths: Derrick Henry (minus the false start penalties), Zay Flowers, and most definitely Odafe Oweh.

It was a frustrating watch, and it just makes me wonder what the communication is like between John Harbaugh and the guys up top when he decides to throw those challenge flags. On the other side of that coin, many calls against Baltimore today should not have been made. The whole situation as can only be described as a dumpster fire.

This feels very reminiscent of Baltimore’s late-game implosion against Indianapolis year, but we still managed an AFC Championship appearance months later and showed up when it mattered. This isn’t time to freak out, but maybe it is time to consider some new coaching personnel for the long term.

Kevin McNelis

For the eighth time since the beginning of the 2022 season, the Ravens have lost a game in which they held a two-possession lead in the second half. That is by far the most such losses in that timeframe in NFL history. Gardner Minshew has now led two of those.

It’s way beyond concerning at this point. It’s absolutely inexcusable to play down to competition like this over and over again. They’re now starting the season off their backs at 0-2 in arguably the strongest division in football. They need to figure it out, and fast. A good start would bring playing to win, not playing not to lose.

Tanner George

For whatever reason, this feels like the 2022 implosion against Miami, and that’s not a good feeling. Even though there were a few positives from today’s game, it’s incredibly disheartening to drop to 0-2 to start the season.

Let’s start with what was good. The offense showed flashes of elite ability in the second half, rolling down the field on a 6-play, 70-yard drive. It took a while for the run game to get going, but Derrick Henry looked very good after some struggles in the first 30 minutes of play. Zay Flowers appears to be a legitimate WR1. The defense forced pressure all game long, and it was nice to see Odafe Oweh have success after a tough few seasons.

Now for the negatives. The clock management was nothing short of abysmal, and once again, we’re talking about Harbaugh making bad decisions that end up costing his team opportunities. The challenges were just bad and really hurt the Ravens down the stretch… not to mention the fact that Harbs seemed content to play not to lose, rather than to win, in the fourth. The offensive line is dysfunctional at best, and until they jell, the Ravens won’t be consistently able to do anything meaningful on offense. Doing next to nothing to replace Kevin Zeitler at guard is panning out to be a very, very poor decision, and it’s time for the front office to wake up and realize that Daniel Faalele is not the answer.

The Ravens head to Jerry’s World next week and, if they don’t clean it up, there’s a good chance that they hit three in the loss column.

Jared Pinder

At this point this feels like the 2022 season all over again. The offense is being held back by one group (the O-Line) and the defense is still trying to get acclimated with a new coordinator. It looks like letting Mike MacDonald walk out the door was a massive mistake the Ravens are paying for right now. John Harbaugh has not lost his edge, but he has lost the ability to get his team ready to play. He isn’t a good head coach and his flaws are only magnified this year. Two straight weeks of horrible time management and today was the egregious challenges that cost the Ravens big. Not only is he hurting the team in this sense, but he is killing them in another way as well with the talent as he continues to put Ben Cleveland in the doghouse for no good reason while trying to make Falelee work at guard. Rosengarten also had a good day against Crosby, but let’s continue to work in Mekari for no good reason. Honestly, a ton of blame should be placed the owner’s way on how this is going. He is the one who allows Harbs to stink up the joint, and he doesn’t catch nearly as much criticism as he should. Now because of Harbs being dumb, we’re 0-2 with the Cowboys, Bills, and Bengals coming up.

I hope “stability” was worth it to waste another year, Bisciotti. (And don’t try to blame the referees for this one.)

Rob Shields

Is the season over? Since the schedules expanded, only two of the 32 teams to start 0-2 have made the playoffs. Historically, less than 10% make it.

This is the 11th game in the last 2+ seasons where the Ravens lost a game when having a seven-point or larger lead in the 4th, which is easily the worst in the league.

The Chargers ran all over the Raiders last week and the Ravens were awful running it in the first half. Yet again, they let Minshew carve them up. The Ravens vaunted secondary looked abysmal in the second half and yes, the Raiders were essentially only passing, but still.

The refs, yet again, were an issue with a bad facemask call and a bad DPI in the end zone.

But this was a team loss. Stout continues to look like a horrible pick. Tucker can’t make long field goals. Faalele is terrible. Mekari struggled with Crosby all day.

Bateman had a catchable ball bounce off his hands but it was also a forced throw by Lamar in tight coverage. Bad hands by Bate and equally bad decision by Lamar.

But ultimately, this is on coaching. Yes, Henry shouldn’t false start but why is Charlie Kolar doing a tush push when you need less than a yard? Why get cute? I don’t get the thinking of this coaching staff.

I said it in the offseason but the football IQ on this team, both coaches and players, is what will cost them again. I didn’t think it would happen by Week 2 but the team is staring at Dallas (who looked horrific today), Buffalo and Cinci the next three weeks. They have a tough schedule this year. Missing the playoffs is very much on the table now.  If Harbaugh is fired (or he steps down), that “bad season” may be a blessing in disguise. Too many of the same things keep happening. All fingers should be pointed at Harbaugh. He is the constant over the last decade plus of these types of things.

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