Knee-Jerk Reactions: Ravens 24 Titans 16

The Ravens beat the Tennessee Titans, 24-16, at Tottenham Hotspur stadium on Sunday. RSR staff react to the win here…

Darin McCann

It is terrific to get a win against a conference opponent — particularly when you throw in the unknowns that often accompany overseas games. Still…

There were enough mistakes and general oddities out there again that led you to believe they could have wasted yet another impressive start to a game had they been playing a team a little more capable of offering serious resistance. There were some good moments out there again to hang their hat on, but also plenty to remind them that they have a long way to go before they reach what appears to be a high ceiling for this team.

By the way, this Ravens’ defense is borderline ferocious. Outside of two big those-guys-get-paid-too plays by Derrick Henry and Tyjae Spears, respectively, this unit was fantastic. Pocket the win, get back on the practice field and get moving forward.

Derek Arnold

Despite running into their usual cascade of errors to start the second half – interception, penalty (with ejection), TD allowed – the Ravens managed to bounce back and stop the bleeding, thanks to some big runs and throws by Lamar Jackson. The offense came out humming yet again, running up and down the field, but were unable to score touchdowns, preventing them from putting this one on ice much earlier than they did. It was like Todd Monken was terrified to throw the ball in the Red Zone after the late pick last week, and the OL was getting manhandled in short yardage all afternoon.

There was, of course, terrible officiating both ways. However, the awful calls on the Ravens always seemed to come on 3rd down, extending Tennessee drives. None were worse than the roughing the passer on Michael Pierce. The offensive PI on the two-point conversion was ridiculous as well – how many teams run that play every week?

Shout out to Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy, who turned up the heat on Malik Willis in the final moments.

Let’s clean up the red zone issues, eh? And let’s hope they escaped without any major injuries, as several starters, including Brent Urban and Marcus Williams, exited early.

Chris Schisler

The Ravens made it harder than they had to, but this was a good victory. The Ravens were the better team. The NFL officiating crew gave the Titans a lot of help, and the Ravens had several miscues. The flags got to a point of ridiculousness. Kyle Hamilton being ejected didn’t seem fair. Overall it’s a solid victory with some annoying story beats.

The Ravens offense moved down the field easily more often than not. Would it have been nice to settle for fewer field goals? Sure. But when Justin Tucker can deliver six field goals you take it. The defense gave up some plays but it got the job done.

Positives to rave about

• The pass rush was fantastic.
• Justin Madubuike played a ferocious game and wowed me.
• The offense was rock solid in between the 20s.
• Zay Flowers got his first touchdown.
• Justin Tucker helped my fantasy team – I’ll take it.
• Kyle Van Noy played great.
• Brandon Stephens had several pass breakups.

Kevin McNelis

Phew.

In the true spirit of playing on a Premier League pitch, today was a battle of kicks and awful officiating. The Titans got gifted a lot of new downs and about 10 points off the back of some brutal calls, but the defense stood firm despite losing bodies throughout the game. Geno Stone once again stepped up in a huge way.

There are a lot of things to iron out. Red zone efficiency on the season is good by the numbers, but the whole reason that the game looked tight was because they failed to punch it in on two trips early.

They’ve got a long flight back to rest up. These aren’t the same old Lions coming to town next week, and the defense will need to be ready.

Rob Shields

Well, they tried to give it away but they ended up making the plays needed.

Penalties were a killer today although there were many questionable calls with those.

Going from a Steelers game to traveling overseas and playing a physical Titans team isn’t easy but they were clearly the better team and their inability to punch it in the end zone, which hasn’t been an issue this year, is why the game was close.

Whatever, you got the win and you need to keep it going but they still aren’t close to being what they need to be.

Chad Racine

At halftime this game felt like it was already put away. The third quarter seemed like nothing was going right and then the Ravens got back on track. Until midway into the 4th quarter. It felt like penalty flags were just being thrown at random.

The Kyle Hamilton hit looked bad but I don’t think the helmet to helmet was intentional in the least. Removing him from the game seemed overboard. Vontaze Burfict used to get away with more on multiple occasions.

Geno Stone needs to be the starting safety for the time being. He’s making consistent plays and Marcus Williams is obviously not himself yet. That swat he made at Derrick Henry on the touchdown was confirmation. Geno Stone also bailed out Humphrey by intercepting the pass that would have burnt Humphrey.

The ejection of Hamilton and injury to Williams forced Brandon Stephens back to safety. Hard to believe the Ravens are this deep at cornerback and can afford to move one to safety. Personally I’d like to see Humphrey at safety in the next few weeks until he’s back to full strength.

Next week onto a much improved Detroit Lions.  For the time being the Ravens are back in first place.

Jared Pinder

This week just had a feeling of some weird things going down, but I didn’t expect just how weird this game got. Let’s get this out of the way: the refs were awful. From giving D-Hop flags because he was whining, to calling BS roughing the passer on Pierce to ejecting Hamilton, it was a mess. They gave the Titans so many points and opportunities today to come back, but the Ravens also did that themselves.

Lamar was fine today but it was another week of him having a bad second half, but he did bounce back and had a good drive the last time the offense got the ball to get them into field goal range. This offense though is becoming an issue. They didn’t make mistakes like they did last week but the o-line couldn’t run block to save their lives today. So many times today Gus or Hill would just get stuffed like a turkey and there was no running room. It killed them in the red zone today and it was the reason why the Titans were able to mount a comeback. The crisis was averted thanks to the defense, but how many weeks are we going to see these struggles?

Something has to give with this unit, whether that is adding more talent or just calling plays differently, because there is still a disconnect here.

Brennan Stewart

Baltimore pulled it off while not completely imploding in the fourth quarter. That’s progress.

It’s fair to say that the referees were not letting anything slide in this game, racking up nine penalties against Baltimore for a loss of 88 yards. Geno Stone stepped up big time after Kyle Hamilton was disqualified, earning his third interception of the season in the third quarter to kill Tennessee’s momentum. He now is tied with four other players for most picks in the league.

The defensive line and linebacker corps looked solid, despite giving up their first rushing touchdown of the season to Derrick Henry who was held to just 97 rushing yards. Ryan Tannehill was sacked twice, while Malik Willis was brought down for a total of four times.

All in all the team looked solid, but both sides of the ball need to look sharper when they come out of the locker room after halftime.