Ravens Drop Fascinating Opener

If this was any indication of things to come, the NFL is looking at a pretty memorable 2024 season.
The Ravens battled through an inconsistent effort from their offensive line (expected), a few breakdowns on a defense peppered with new coaches (expected), and some pretty impressive plays by one Patrick Mahomes (expected). The end result was a 27-20 loss on the road in a game where the Ravens can look back at several missed opportunities, while also patting themselves on the back for a pretty resilient showing.

Let’s look at some grades.

Offense: B

The Ravens generated 452 yards of offense, allowed one sack and only had one turnover. Those numbers are pretty good. They’re a little misleading, too. Quarterback Lamar Jackson was under fire quickly throughout the game, and was largely relegated to a very short, fast passing game. There were also less runs by Derrick Henry and Justice Hill than I would have expected. But there were some really good individual performances against a really good defense.

Quarterback: A-

Let’s get this out of the way: Jackson missed a few opportunities at the end to connect on a touchdown to narrow the score, was off on a few deep passes he did fire and lost a fumble on a sack. That is why he doesn’t have a higher score. He threw for 273 and a touchdown, ran for 122 yards and seemingly threw the team on his back during a frantic comeback effort. He looked fast and decisive running, and did show nice touch on several passes. Best player on the field tonight.

Running backs: C+

Derrick Henry didn’t have a lot of room to work with, but he showed off his power on a first-quarter touchdown run, and a fourth-and-one conversion in the fourth when he was hit behind the line of scrimmage. Justice Hill caught six balls for 52 yards, and looked like a legitimate weapon in that role.

Receivers: C+

Isaiah Likely was tremendous, hauling in 111 yards on nine catches, a memorable catch-and-run 49-yard touchdown and just missed hauling in a heroic TD pass as time expired. Zay Flowers was active, but didn’t do much downfield. Rashod Bateman had a quiet night, but made a huge 38-yard catch in the fourth quarter where he high-pointed a pass down the sideline. Mark Andrews had two catches, one of which saw him slip before being able to convert a third-down pass.

Offensive Line: D

There were so many penalties — so, so many penalties. And Roger Rosengarten and Daniel Faalele struggled mightily against Chris Jones. That being said… we all kind of expected that, right? I thought when he wasn’t getting whistled, Ronnie Stanley was pretty effective all night. Andrew Vorhees had a great block on a Jackson first-quarter run. And Tyler Linderbaum seems to get out of the pile downfield after every long run. This was pretty expected, with maybe a few silver linings, and a group that should send flowers to Jackson for bailing them out a few times tonight.

[Related Article: Knee-jerk Reactions to the Ravens Opening Game Loss in KC]

Defense: C

They gave up 353 yards of offense, forced Patrick Mahomes into an INT and did a pretty solid job against the run. They also had some huge stands against the Chiefs in the red zone when put in tough situations. But they had a few major breakdowns, and some schematic issues in coverage over the middle of the field.

Defensive Line: B

The D-Line did a good job controlling the line, limiting the Chiefs’ running backs to 48 yards on 17 carries. Nnamdi Madubuike picked up his good play from last year, getting two quarterback hits, half a sack and flushed Mahomes out of the pocket for a third-down incompletion in the first quarter. He did have a huge penalty that extended a touchdown drive for the Chiefs. Travis Jones and Michael Pierce both flashed throughout the game, and David Ojabo and Odafe Oweh brought solid pressure from the edges.

Linebackers: C

Roquan Smith had a huge pick and led the team in tackles, but he got beaten on several passes by Rashee Rice, and added insult to injury with a horse-collar tackle after one such play. Trenton Simpson had a great pass breakup in the third quarter, and then batted a Mahomes pass back into the quarterback’s hands. Malik Harrison had a rough night, in coverage and tackling. Kyle Van Noy flashed a few times before exiting with an injury, and Tavius Robinson did a great job setting the edge on a short third-quarter run,

Defensive Backs: C

This is probably lower than it should be, but the busted plays looked bad, and doomed this loss. Marlon Humphrey was involved in one of those broken plays, but also made a great open-field tackle on Travis Kelce in the second quarter, and looked sticky in coverage. Kyle Hamilton was kind of quiet, but did blow up a first-quarter run. Marcus Williams and Ar’Darius Washington both made terrific plays on third-down passes to force field goals.

Special Teams: C+

Justin Tucker was 2 of 3 on field goal attempts, but is probably stewing over his 53-yard miss. Jordan Stout only punted twice, but he caused fair catches at the Kansas City 10 and 9, respectively. That’s great improvement on those opportunities for him. The kick coverage unit wasn’t great, and Deonte Harty had 3 yards on his only punt return.

Coaching: C

I loved how the Ravens came out running the ball on their opening drive, and liked the plan to go with short passes to combat a leaky offensive line. And I thought both sides of the ball battled all night. The defense, as expected, had some communication breakdowns given the unit’s new signal caller (Zach Orr), and there were way too many flags for illegal formations across the offensive front. That must be emphasized this week in practice. I also hated that the Ravens were down to one timeout with 6:29 left in the third quarter. There was some stuff to like and the team was ready to roll… but like the players on both sides of the ball, there was a little rust from the coaching staff.

And maybe that too, was to be expected.

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Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2024/09/06/report-card/expected-results-in-kansas-city/