The Ravens emerged from Week 8 of the 2023 season with nearly a perfect sweep. Of course, they took care of business in Arizona, holding off the Cardinals by the score of 31-24. The Browns and Steelers both lost while the Bengals captured an all-important road win against a tough opponent, beating the 49ers in Santa Clara. All three of the Ravens’ AFC North rivals now sit at (4-3), 1 ½ games behind the (6-2) Ravens.
The Ravens’ win wasn’t a sight for sore eyes. Lamar Jackson & Co. struggled against the NFL’s 28th-ranked defense coming into the game. The Cardinals on average, had given up 368.3 YPG. On Sunday, the Ravens could only muster 268 yards, 27.2% less than Arizona’s 7 other opponents. To put the lackluster performance in perspective, last week against the 7th-ranked Lions defense that had given up 285.8 YPG, the Ravens racked up 355 yards of offense, in the first half!
But let’s not summarily diss this important road win against the now (1-7) Cardinals. The Ravens didn’t play particularly well, yet salvaged the victory, pushing them to a (4-1) mark away from home. Over the course of a long season, that’s the mark of a good team – to emerge with a win despite not playing their best in hostile territory.
So, the Ravens leave the desert atop the AFC North and tied for the best conference record. Not bad for a team that still doesn’t feel like it has gained any measurable traction yet – a team searching for consistency – a team that has played only 3 home games. But it’s that inconsistency, despite yesterday’s win, that has left many Ravens players feeling a bit frustrated – feeling like they have something to prove.
“No, [the record] doesn’t mean much to us at all. I don’t even know who [the other 6-2 teams] played today, but it’s more so about the next game on the schedule. We just have to control it one game at a time, because we know if we do that, everything else will take care of itself.” ~ Roquan Smith on if being tied for the best record in the AFC at 6-2 means anything to him.
This week the Ravens will prepare for the visiting (5-2) Seattle Seahawks who will have newly acquired Leonard Williams in tow. Currently, Baltimore is listed as a 5-point favorite. The Ravens have inched up the leaderboards in power rankings, DVOA and mid-season favorites. But like Roquan suggests, one game at a time. That said, before we turn our heads towards the incoming osprey, let’s consider the Good, Bad & Ugly from yesterday’s serving of cardinal-wings.
THE GOOD
Justice Hill showed a burst and lateral agility during his 8 touches, producing 55 yards from scrimmage. He also held up well in pass protection…Rashod Bateman had a nice interception on a pass intended for Cardinals CB Marco Wilson. Surely I jest (somewhat). Bateman made a terrific adjustment on a poorly thrown pass by Lamar Jackson that was tracking right to Wilson before Bateman snatched it away for a 29-yard pickup. It was a key play during the Ravens opening drive that resulted in a TD to tie the score at seven. Bateman looked like the fastest player on the field, particularly on a jet sweep during which he picked up another 18 yards. On the day Bateman had 52 yards on 3 touches. Maybe Rashod should touch the ball a bit more?…The Ravens interior O-line had a nice afternoon in both pass and run blocking…The Ravens were 4 of 4 in the red zone…Zay Flowers had a nice block on Gus Edwards’ second TD run.
Brandon Stephens continues to stack quality game performances. Yesterday, was no exception. He had his second pick of the season, covered well and even when completions were made at his expense, he was in position to minimize the damage and force receivers OOB before the sticks…Geno Stone continues his positive quest for a 2024 pay day, adding to his NFL-leading 5th INT of the season. His ability to step in as a solid centerfielder given the absence of Marcus Williams allows DC Mike Macdonald to unleash Kyle Hamilton in creative ways (just not today for some reason)…Justin Madubuike started slow but finished strong. He had only 3 tackles but notched another sack and a tackle-for-loss (“TFL”). Justin now has 6 ½ sacks through 8 games…Jadeveon Clowney and Odafe Oweh had 2 and 3 pressures, respectively and while each was disruptive, they need to finish stronger. Josh Dobbs escaping Oweh’s grasp negating a big sack is just inexcusable. It didn’t happen this time but when such events unfold, it oftentimes leads to a big play by the offense…Travis Jones was effective in run defense. He dropped Emari Demercado for a short gain with a shoe-string tackle that could have gone for a big gain had he missed…Jordan Stout had a terrific game, averaging 48.4 YPP while dropping 4 of his 5 punts at or inside the 10. On Stout’s five punts the Cardinals had just 11 return yards.
THE BAD
This was not one of Lamar Jackson’s better games. Bateman saved him from one interception and Lamar flirted with disaster on an out to the right sideline that was nearly picked, and it could have gone for six. Jackson looked confused and indecisive as the Cardinals often rushed just three of four players while dropping others into coverage. He held onto the ball far too long, resulting in at least two of Arizona’s four sacks. As a runner he was hesitant and against a speedy Cardinals defense, Lamar’s lack of commitment as a runner played right into Arizona’s hands. They chased him down rather easily.
Here's a look at Lamar Jackson's four sacks Sunday, all on first and second down.
Cardinals had some good answers situationally, but Lamar's primary reads were well covered at the top of his drop. Check-down options were ignored or not seen vs. pressure. pic.twitter.com/MyHElwtJPT
— Jonas Shaffer (@jonas_shaffer) October 30, 2023
Ronnie Stanley had a rough game. He gave up 4 pressures and a communication breakdown between him, John Simpson and arguably Hill, nearly led to a strip sack and turnover by the blitzing Zaven Collins who came in untouched to nail Lamar…Nelson Agholor had a drop and he failed to come up and catch the Cardinals first onsides kick that Arizona recovered. I have to admit to a mild chuckle seeing Agholor on the “all hands team”…Kyle Van Noy has been a plus addition to the Ravens defense since his arrival – until yesterday. He was overwhelmed at the edge and produced little pressure even during obvious passing downs…the Ravens tackling was suspect at times throughout the game. They played a bit like a road weary team.
Zaven Collins forces the strip sack, Budda Baker recovers!
📺: #BALvsAZ on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/Quwvdzpx7G pic.twitter.com/fbl42JIPzH— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2023
THE UGLY
Have you ever seen your young kids, nieces or nephews play soccer? Every kid, all 18 or 22 or however many there are on the field depending on the league, is chasing the ball. It looks like a swarm of bees. It looks like there’s little in the way of a coordinated effort to advance the ball. That kind of summarizes the Ravens screen game. Maybe Todd Monken should check those screens. I’m sure they have gaping holes in them. The Ravens and screens are like oil and water. The last time the Ravens executed a nice screen pass, they were the Cleveland Browns. These plays look like a morning deuce circling the bottom of the porcelain throne. Just flush them!
The Cardinals opening drive was a bit humiliating. Led by the “great” Josh Dobbs, Arizona and their 19th ranked offense marched down the field in 12 plays, going 75 yards for the touchdown in 6:55. The drive was aided by two penalties committed by the secondary. One was a ticky-tacky illegal contact call against Hamilton; the other, a DPI on Marlon Humphrey who still looks a bit rusty and a step slow…The Ravens allowed the Cardinals offense to win first down most of the game. Too often Arizona enjoyed the coveted 2nd & short down and distance position which kept the entire playbook open and the Ravens defense on its heels.
Here's the play that Kyle Hamilton (bottom of the screen, in the slot) was penalized for.
Seems like half of the touchdowns the Ravens have allowed have come after drive-extending flags. pic.twitter.com/pTRBZ8sGYN
— Jonas Shaffer (@jonas_shaffer) October 29, 2023
During the Ravens last 9 losses, six were during games when they enjoyed a double-digit lead. Let that sink in. Yesterday, thoughts of number 7 crept into my mind. You? There’s something philosophically wrong with their approach to protecting leads. In Arizona the Ravens led 24-7 with 6 ½ minutes left in the game. The Ravens defense gave up 17 points from that point forward.
JADEVEON CLOWNEY! FALL. ON. THE. BALL.
Jadeveon Clowney needs to fall on this football
Ruins a great play from Michael Pierce pic.twitter.com/q3HZCxPBmq
— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) October 29, 2023
COACHING
Lamar Jackson is a former unanimous league MVP. Yet the Cardinals threw wrinkles at Lamar that created confusion and hesitation. It didn’t seem as though Ravens DC Mike Macdonald did much in the way of creating confusion for Dobbs. What happened to Kyle Hamilton as a blitzer? The double A-gap blitz from the Roquan/PQ duo? Maybe he didn’t want to show much with Geno Smith coming into town?
Monken was off his game after the masterful handling of Detroit last week. We saw receivers in the same spot, a nightmarish flashback to Greg Roman’s clusters; with the Cardinals dropping 7 and 8, many near the LOS to take away screens, Monken still opted to use them instead of leaning on a short passing attack, finding holes in the Arizona secondary with Messrs. Andrews, Beckham, Flowers and Bateman; little motion was used to try and break down the integrity of Arizona’s alignment. The Ravens did little to create confusion and that allowed Arizona’s speedy defenders to play fast. And where was the running game in the first half?
"Love y'all boys, let's keep stacking❗"
Go inside the postgame locker room at Arizona: pic.twitter.com/GSUY5ph9ii
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) October 30, 2023
THE MEGAN FOX AWARD
This week’s award is shared. On offense, Gus Edwards gets the MFA. He was the best player on the offensive side of the ball. When it was obvious that the Ravens were going to run and grind out the clock, Edwards found yards that weren’t there, steadily moving forward in his patented north/south approach. He also showed nice vision at times, bouncing outside, particularly on this second TD run. The Bus had 80 yards on 19 carries including 3 scores.
Gus Edwards for the second time today!
📺: #BALvsAZ on CBS
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus https://t.co/Quwvdzpx7G pic.twitter.com/RD9RDyeeHL— NFL (@NFL) October 29, 2023
The other deserving player, this one on defense, is the behemoth DT Michael Pierce. Mike was credited with two fourth-down stops and recorded his first sack of the season, a strip-sack that should have at least resulted in a turnover but could have resulted in a touchdown had Clowney not decided to demonstrate the reach of a T-Rex while trying for the scoop and score. Just a monster game from a player who I admittedly thought was a bad signing a couple of seasons back. Now that I’m in pure flip-flop mode, I’m wondering when the Ravens might extend him.
UNBLOCKABLE!!!
MICHAEL PIERCE WITH THE BIG THIRD-DOWN SACK!!
Tune in now on CBS. pic.twitter.com/ikywIwZJAi
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) October 29, 2023
RANDOM THOUGHTS
• Odell Beckham Jr. finished with zero catches on four targets, although he did draw three flags, two of which set up easy scoring opportunities. But force feeding OBJ so that he registers his first touchdown since February 13, 2022 (Super Bowl LVI) is the wrong way to go. Play the game. Let it happen. And it will. Lamar should keep his statistical aspirations for an OBJ TD in the building, not broadcast them during pressers.
Odell Beckham Jr. wants a touchdown coming back from injury in a Ravens uniform BADLY
This was after drawing a defensive pass interference penalty
It means so much to him pic.twitter.com/XFqan8rcu9
— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) October 29, 2023
• Push, push…in the end zone. That 17-yard TD pass from Dobbs to Trey McBride should never have been allowed. Forward progress was stopped and even reversed until the red sea ran downfield like a thundering herd of buffalo to push McBride across the finish line.
Zebra’s just practically rewrote the #NFL rule book on this play #RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/Qm5kKseXM5
— Nic Mason (@British_Raven19) October 29, 2023
• The broadcast team of Chris Lewis and Ross Tucker sounded like a bad audition. I like Tucker as a talk show personality. As an analyst, he sounds like a cartoon character. And I have to admit, I never heard of Chris Lewis. I guess this is what you get when the team you follow plays against a (1-6) team with a backup QB.
• They call the stadium where the Arizona Cardinals play, State Farm Stadium. Maybe they should rename it Cloverland Farm Stadium because it looked like a cow pasture by the time the game was over. For those who don’t know, the field when not in use, sits outside to soak in the natural elements. On game day, the field mechanically slides indoors (see video below). The turf sits on a tray.
Maybe they should redirect where they slide this field. A landfill sounds like a good idea.
• The NFL trade deadline is tomorrow at 4PM. Word is the Ravens are trying to make a deal but teams are asking for more than the Ravens are willing to pay. Eric DeCosta is in a tough spot. He has limited cap resources ($2.87M) while 2024 looks like the Ravens will be tight to the cap once again. Making matters more challenging for EDC, they have some big free agents that they’d like to retain, such as: Justin Madubuike, Patrick Queen, OBJ, Kevin Zeitler and Geno Stone. They just might need all of their draft picks to help fill their roster with young talent as opposed to more expensive veteran talent.
• Tonight the (3-4) Raiders visit Detroit to take on the (5-2) Lions. The hosts are 7-point favorites. It will be interesting to see how the game’s TV ratings compare to Game 3 of the 2023 World Series. Which game do you think will draw bigger ratings?
10 Responses
We’re almost at the halfway mark. 3-0 in the last 3 weeks, 6-2 now and on a streak. Winning ugly yesterday.
I have to agree about the field. That field looked like crap. Just wondering is it possible that the condition of the field had anything to do with the play.
That touchdown play that had almost everyone of the Cardinals offense pushing the pile was a joke. Just another poorly officiated play. It seems that the NFL is trying to make these games more interesting and entertaining by getting the officials involved.
I have to think we won’t be doing much before the trade deadline. Maybe we pick up a depth piece like a RB, OL or DL.
Justin Madubuike is a core member of the Ravens defense. The Aaron Donalds, Haloti Ngatas, Justin Madubuikes of the world don’t come around very often. When they are home-grown studs, you have to do everything possible to retain them.
6-2 midway is a nice place to be. As far as AZ Game I don’t know if Ravens and Harbaugh and Monken didn’t take them seriously or just thought they were so mediocre a generic Gameplan would work vs them.. it eventually did but the offense was sluggish this week for 1 reason only. They didn’t use the Lamar game & RPO Game full arsenal of the offense like they did vs Lions. That should be a every week thing. Not take a week off bc you face a lesser team
Of course the NFL will draw more ratings football is king in this country! Remember a few years ago when all those virtue signaling magas thought they were going to bankrupt the NFL?
Arizona gave a clinic on neutralizing Jackson which future teams will likely duplicate! And, as good as the defense looks, they haven’t faced a good QB yet, but will be tested in future weeks when they face a healthy Burrow, Herbert, Lawrence and Tua! So, cant argue with a 6-2 record, but it’s a long season……
The game plan was generic. There are some things Arizona did which you must do versus 8. Namely, they played a lot of tight man coverage forcing him to throw into tight windows. They combined that with extra players in coverage. This is the most effective way to play him along with timely blitzes. This will be copied. But thr gameplan was definitely generic and the Ravens ‘ best counters were not called.
I have no doubt a more expansive offensive gameplan will be in play for the Seahawks.
Tony, please tell me why the Ravens have turned Zay into a line-of-scrimmage gadget guy? Will they ever even TRY to run a deep pattern with him again? After he caught that one deep pass, they must have decided OK, that’s enuf of that. Same with Bateman. They seem convinced that Beckham and Agholor are options 1 and 1A. But that squeeze gets no juice. And is it a crime to throw to the same receiver in the same series?
Different note. It’s great hearing you share your journey with RSR, and everything you did prior to this. I’m feeling some well-deserved legacy vibe. Like Oprah says, “wear the crown”.
Thank you for the kind words. The RSR journey was intended to inspire someone, anyone with passion who wants to turn that passion into an occupation. If that awakened just one person, the 36,000 words were worth the effort.
As for Zay, I hate the way he’s being used. I want to see him in motion more and not just to catch a disastrous screen when numbers don’t favor its success. He’s such a challenge to cover in man and in zone, he’s a smart player with great change of direction skills that can help stretch zones. The Ravens HAVE TO see the some things. They MUST BE making the proper corrections. I keep telling myself that despite it all they are (6-2) but they’ll need some clean up in aisle 4 (and others) to realize this offense’s potential.
Very good breakdown and I agree the announcers also we’re making Lamar sound like he was the next coming of Johnny Unitas. Lamar is just an average Quarterback and when people look at it realistically they see that he’s a runner first some good games some mediocre. The Ravens were lucky to get out with that win now tough Seattle Team Comes To Town like to see the Ravens play complete Game both ends. And the Detroit game remember good first half and they only scored three points in the second half keep up the good work Tony
I think the Ravens don’t go deep routinely with Flowers because the head coach loves to play defense and keep it close on offense and that philosophy isn’t going to change. The offense is little changed over the course of Lamars starting tenure with 3 OCs. I’m not asking for a Dan Fouts style offense Lamars not Dan Fouts but they need to make teams respect a WR on any down for deep ball. Kinda of like they respect Andrews over the middle or the seam. That’s football 101.