The Ravens blew a 35-14 fourth quarter lead and fell to the Miami Dolphins, 42-38 in Week 2. RSR staff react to the loss here.
Derek Arnold
A collapse for the ages wastes an amazing performance by Lamar Jackson. A 28-7 second-half lead evaporates in what felt like the blink of an eye.
Mike Macdonald was undermanned for much of the day (HOW does this keep happening, btw? Steve Saunders still employed?), but blowing that large of a lead is completely inexcusable. Time and again he opted to rush three (or even two) against Tua on big third downs and got burned. Time and again, Ravens defenders had a chance to make a tackle only to whiff and allow even more YAC. Time and again Jaylen Waddle was inexplicably uncovered.
Greg Roman gets some blame as well, as does John Harbaugh. The team failed to get a yard on 3rd and/or 4th-and-1 how many times today? Why wasn’t Nick Boyle active? Why do you keep running the ball from heavy formations when you keep getting stuffed again, and again, and again, and when your QB is obviously dialed in? Why not take the FG to go up by 10 in the fourth instead of trying (and failing) again for one yard that wasn’t going to come?
The only saving grace today is that Cleveland also collapsed, and the Steelers lost, so all AFC North teams will be, at best 1-1.
The sting of this one is going to last for a long time though. It’s completely and utterly unacceptable.
Darin McCan
There was so much to enjoy about this game. We’ll get there someday.
Someday.
This was an excruciating loss against a team that figures to be competing for a playoff position later in this season, but it was also bad because it was a putrid waste of a spectacular performance by Lamar Jackson. The defense offered little to no resistance against Miami all game, only to be saved by a few Marcus Williams interceptions (one more would have been just dandy, but hard to complain.).
This was a defensive collapse, and a failure by the offensive line to generate any kind of consistent push in critical third- and fourth-and-short situations.
Gross game.
Ron Toothe
What can you say about this game? One of the tougher losses in recent memory, even tougher than the one we saw last year in Miami.
Lamar Jackson looked incredible, but two 4th and 1 gambles that didn’t pay off ultimately made the difference in a game that they really shouldn’t have lost.
Every player on defense besides Marcus Williams, yikes. I don’t really know how else to put it, but the lack of depth in key spots like corner and edge were on full display and will continue to be unless some mid-season moves are made.
Deflating loss, deflating second half effort, very unfortunate on a day where we should be talking about Lamar Jackson being back in the MVP race. On to New England.
Rob Shields
Well that one hurts. Everyone is going to blame the defense and they obviously have a lot of issues but the offense was atrocious in the second half.
They had six drives, including the last 14 seconds, in the second half. The total TOP of the first five drives was just over 10 min. Three of those drives lasted 1:35 or less. I know people will say, well look the offense scored 28 points and that’s true but 14 of those points were on two big plays. They had the first sustained drive but once they got around the goal line, the play calling became terrible.
Miami’s interior Dline was doing well all day and stuffing the runs between the tackles and yet Roman kept going to it, including on the 4th down stop on Lamar in the 4th that changed the game. That seemed to be a very ego driven play call and decision there, instead of making them defend the whole field.
Roman kept going to those same runs despite Lamar throwing it so well.
Defensively, they obviously got tired. You also had Humphrey not playing late in the game. You were relying on a lot of youth and they faltered. Marcus Williams had the two big picks but it was the pick he dropped that proved huge as well.
I will give Tua credit. I never would have thought he would do what he did today. It helped that he was throwing to some wide open guys but he still made the plays he needed to.
The Ravens are a work in progress. This is a game you obviously should have won but it doesn’t make me think less of them. They are still battling back from the injuries from last year and they have secondary issues as well, both health and just youth and that will hurt you against receivers like Miami has.
Let’s see if we get back Stanley, Jones and Dobbins next week. See if they can start to get healthier going forward. Today hurts a lot especially since you could have gotten a stranglehold on the division early.
Chad Racine
I’m still reeling emotionally from this 4th quarter collapse. Everything was clicking on both sides of the ball for three quarters. Then came one of the worst 4th quarters I can remember.
Yes the defense fell apart, but the offense also took the foot off the gas. Prior to that the Ravens gave every reason to be excited for the offense moving forward. We need to see four quarters of football on both sides of the ball.
The injuries to Pepe Williams and Steven Means are big concerns. The injury bug is already hitting hard in Week 2.
Adam Bonaccorsi
Absolutely embarrassing fourth quarter, from the defensive miscommunications and injuries leading to massive chunk plays, to the offense going cold looking more intent on running clock than keeping their foot on the gas with what was effective through three quarters. Guys lost their assignments, lost their man, and lost the game. And let’s be clear: this was a TEAM loss.
This needs to be a gut check game. Face the hard truths, find a way to build off of it, and come out better for it. How the Ravens respond next Sunday in Foxboro will truly set the tone for the season.
Could really use some healthy reinforcements any week now…
Kevin McNelis
“Disgusting” isn’t a strong enough word for it. This matches the largest blown lead in the franchise’s history and squandered a fantastic day from Lamar and company.
Today should’ve been about setting the tone and creating a new narrative for what we can expect for this season. Instead, it ended up being more of the same problems we had last year.
It’s gonna take a while to wash the feeling of this one off. Let’s hope it doesn’t come back to bite us at the end of the year.
Jared Pinder
This was a horrible, disgusting, embarrassing, and personnel-firing game. If you are optimistic about anything other than Lamar, Bateman, and Andrews on offense and Marcus Williams on Defense, I need what you are smoking right now. The run game was unwatchable, the drops were crucial, the blocking made me want to punch a hole in my TV, and the fourth down plays were awful as they have been for the last couple of years.
Nothing gets me angrier than how the defense played because I am ashamed of everyone today outside of Williams. Nobody stepped up in the second half outside of Lamar, and Hill and Waddle crushed their weak secondary again.
Injuries are a part of this as well, but holy heck, these corners couldn’t cover.
We heard this team was different in the offseason, but this loss was a 2021 Ravens special.
This better change quickly because some coaches will be out of a job if it doesn’t.
This team is Lamar Jackson and a couple of good players on offense and a defense full of underwhelming players, and a good Free Safety.
