Report Card: Ravens Pass, But Not “With Honors,” in Minnesota

With a friendly tip of the cap to the Vikings for their continued false starts in front of a home crowd, this was one of those “We’ll-take-the-win-thank-you-very-much” performances that the Ravens need to bank in order to continue to crawl out of their dreary 1-5 start.

Though there were some headaches along the way, there were also some good performances out there that helped the Ravens get this win against a confounding defensive coordinator and some scary skill-position guys on offense.

Let’s see the grades.

Offense Overall: C

The Ravens only had 321 yards of offense, were 2-for-5 in the red zone and just never put together one of those five-possession blitzes of scores you often see from this team when they are rolling. Some early drops certainly hurt the team’s game script, and the offensive line again struggled to open run lanes in the first half. But the four-play, 63-yard drive to pick up a field goal at the end of the first half, and going field goal-touchdown to start the second half was enough to put them in commanding position — before the typical late-game heart-palpitations. It’s fair to point out that Brian Flores is really good at what he does with that Minnesota defense.

Quarterback: B-

Lamar Jackson was 17-for-29 for 176 yards and a touchdown, good for a rating of 87.7. He also ran for 36 yards. It wasn’t electric, but he was pretty efficient in getting rid of the ball quickly and letting his receivers try to get upfield with the ball in their hands, and he didn’t turn the ball over. Now, he had two throws that were nearly picked, and he made a heads-up play to swat down a batted pass that could have been intercepted. But there was a gorgeous tear-drop pass to DeAndre Hopkins in the first quarter, and the 27-yarder to Zay Flowers in that late 2:00 drill was terrific. He also showed his arm talent in back-to-back throws with his touch to Mark Andrews in the back of the end zone for a touchdown, before firing a bullet to Rashod Bateman on the two-pointer. He also had an amazing escape from a sack in the second quarter before picking up three yards, and was impacted by some drops early that could have kept the team in better rhythm.

Running Backs: B-

Derrick Henry had another blue-collar game, fighting, slipping, sliding and stiff-arming his way to 75 yards on 20 carries, and catching three balls for another 9 yards. He was huge during the Ravens’ final touchdown drive, including back-to-back runs of 8 and 14 yards. Keaton Mitchell added a boost again, with 31 yards on four carries, including a 22-yarder that made you stand up. Justice Hill did a good job getting low to power in his touchdown run, and Patrick Ricard converted a big third-down in the fourth quarter. Ricard also paved the way for Henry’s 14-yarder, but got beat bad on the fourth-quarter sack, along with half of the Ravens’ line on that particular play.

Receivers: C

There were some good moments. Flowers had 75 yards on four catches, and it felt like he milked out every yard he could possibly get on every catch with nifty running once the ball got in his hands. He had one batted pass go off his hands that he probably could have caught on the very first play, but he was mostly good out there. Andrews also had a catchable ball go off his hands that could have been a big play, but he redeemed himself later with a touchdown catch. Isaiah Likely had one go right off his hands, but Charlie Kolar made a big 23-yard play. Rashod Bateman let a touchdown pass go through his hands on a throw that was behind him, but made a nice catch-and-run the next play and later caught that two-point conversion.

Offensive Line: C-

Again, they were better in the second half than the first, and it did look like they were starting to lean on the Vikings’ front a bit at points, but Henry kept losing footing when hitting the gap. The sack we talked about above, with Ricard getting beat? It looked like Andrew Vorhees and Daniel Faalele were also getting pushed back into Jackson. It was not a pretty view from the television angle. Vorhees also had a false start in the first quarter, but did get a nice block on Henry’s fourth-quarter 8-yard run. Faalele whiffed on a screen pass to Henry that resulted in a loss, and got beat along with Roger Rosengarten on that violent hit on Jackson at the end of the first half that got wiped out by penalty. Ronnie Stanley and Tyler Linderbaum had nice blocks on Jackson’s third-and-2 conversion in the fourth quarter. Rosengarten also got beaten on that amazing escape Jackson had in the second quarter. They were under duress for much of the game, but there were good moments in the run game at times.

Defense Overall: B

It got a little dicey there for a minute, but this was a good performance against a talented team, despite the lack of a consistent pass rush and some issues defending the edge in the run game. They gave up an 86-yard touchdown drive on the Vikings’ first possession, and didn’t allow another touchdown until 3:23 remained in the game. They only had one sack, but did get some turnovers and held the Vikings to 3-for-14 on third downs (and 1-for-12 after giving up the first two), and 2-for-5 on fourth. The Vikings helped themselves by dead-ball penalties, but the Ravens largely tackled well and won big moments. This is the fourth straight solid defensive performance.

Defensive Line: B-

They gave up too much on the edge at times in the run game, and got gouged for a few chunk runs to start the third quarter. But they were pretty tough up the middle, batted down a few balls and did get some timely pressures. Newcomer Dre’Mont Jones didn’t record a tackle, but I had him forcing the quarterback into incompletions with interior pressure two different times. Travis Jones was a beast in the first half, getting two run stops and a deflected pass in the first two quarters, and notched a sack in the fourth quarter. John Jenkins and CJ Okoye both destroyed runs, as did Mike Green, who had a tackle for a five-yard loss in the first quarter. Green and David Ojabo combined to hit McCarthy on fourth down at the end of the game — but not before the young quarterback had about two-and-a-half hours to scan the pocket again.

Linebackers: C+

Roquan Smith and Teddye Buchanan combined for a dozen tackles, but it didn’t feel as dominant a performance as we saw from the duo last week. Smith had two pass-interference penalties, and an interception overturned on review — it would have been a remarkable pick, had it counted. Buchanan forced McCarthy into Jones on his sack, and also had a big tackle in the open field in the fourth quarter. Smith later had a great pass break-up against Justin Jefferson.

Secondary: B+

The big 61-yard pass to Jalen Nailor was bad, as Marlon Humphrey seemed to anticipate a short pass on third down and was left chasing Nailor, who then shook Chidobe Awuzie and turned upfield to help the Vikings to their opening touchdown. That was the second time Humphrey was beaten on third down that drive, but he was good the rest of the game, and hauled in an easy interception in the second half when Jefferson fell down. Kyle Hamilton was good again, batting down the very first pass of the game for the Vikings, batting down a third-and-2 in the third quarter and closing on a short pass to force a punt. Nate Wiggins went for the hit instead of the tackle on Jordan Addison in the third quarter, allowing some additional yards, and was beaten later by Nailor on his touchdown. But he did break up a big fourth-down pass in the third quarter. Malaki Starks had his second pick in as many weeks, making the play in centerfield, and he also had four tackles, one of which was an open-field tackle on Jefferson in the second quarter to force a field goal. Awuzie had a pass-interference against Jefferson, but also broke up a two-point conversion to him. He was also in tight coverage on at least two other incompletions I noted. Alohi Gilman had three tackles, and was in good coverage against Jefferson on an incompletion at the goal line in the third quarter.

Special Teams: A

The only real blemish here is Tyler Loop’s missed field goal, but he was 4-5 on the day, and the miss was from 56 yards. Jordan Stout continued his breakout season, averaging 49.6 yards a punt and putting three inside the Vikings’ 20. LaJohntay Wester had a 19-yard punt return, and he, Justice Hill and Keaton Mitchell all had solid kick returns. The Vikings, meanwhile, had five yards on three punt returns. Keyon Martin blew up one of those returns, and Keondre Jackson forced a fumble and recovered it on a third-quarter kick return.

Coaching: B-

On defense, I had concerns coming in about Jefferson and Addison, and chunk runs on offense. Well, the Ravens seemed to have a nice plan to mix up coverages against the star Vikings receivers, but they did give up some chunk runs, and allowed Nailor to go crazy. Still, it was a good plan, and the Ravens defenders played aggressively, which is always appreciated. On offense, the plan the Ravens had was pretty obvious — try to run inside, quick passes and a play-action shot now and then. Dropped passes and an offensive line that wasn’t cooperating on play action forced a change, and they did start running outside a little more and receivers started making coaches look smarter. It was just kind of flat, especially on offense. Some of that credit goes to the Vikings and Flores, for sure. But there were times it just seemed disjointed, too. Ah, we had the Andrews Tush Push with a twist — a pitch to Jackson that nearly went over his head. Let’s just… stop. Please.

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