Ravens Risers and Fallers After Week 2

The Ravens showed on Sunday that they continue to excel at grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory, as they blew another double-digit lead to a team that many thought could be fighting for the first overall pick in the 2025 draft. In losing to the Raiders, the Ravens are staring at a playoff-less season. Yes, it is only two games in, but teams that start 0-2 are, historically, very unlikely to make the playoffs. It does happen, but it’s rare. The Ravens need to figure a lot of things out and they have to do that with at Dallas, home vs Buffalo and at Cincinnati staring them in the face.

We saw some highs and many lows yesterday. Here are the risers and fallers in our Ravens Stock Report, brought to you by LifeMed Institute. Get ready for the confidence to have an active and healthy sex life with the spark of spontaneity, thanks to our friends at LifeMed.

STOCK UP

Zay Flowers

Zay Flowers had 11 targets and managed seven catches for 91 yards and a TD (and a nice Jacoby Jones tribute as well). He was all over the field. He improvises well with Lamar when he gets out of the pocket and his elusiveness was on display at times. What is head-scratching is why he was not targeted the rest of the game after he caught his TD pass.

Ronnie Stanley

Ronnie Stanley continues to look solid this year. He had a solid Week 1 grade, and I would expect more of the same this week despite the very weak and questionable holding penalty called on him. If the Ravens turn this season around, they need Stanley playing at a high level and it looks like he can do that if he is able to stay healthy.

Travis Jones

Travis Jones was disruptive all day yesterday. The Raiders had 27 rushing yards the whole game and Jones was a big part of that. He had one TFL and did a great job pushing the pocket up the middle.

Odafe Oweh

Odafe Oweh may have been the best player on the field for the Ravens yesterday. He had 2.5 sacks, 3 QB hits and 2 TFL. He was involved in a lot of big plays on a day where the Ravens pass rush did a nice job overall.

Kyle Van Noy

Many thought Kyle Van Noy would miss this week’s game due to an orbital fracture. Instead, he played and got two sacks. Like Oweh, he was disruptive a lot and showed a lot of the same burst he displayed last year.

STOCK DOWN

Daniel Faalele

Is there a worse starting player in the NFL right now?  Daniel Faalele is slow, does not react well and seemingly isn’t a fit. I know it’s early and I won’t say he can’t get better, but there is no reason to find out right now. He must lose his starting job, especially knowing you have Micah Parsons to contend with next week.

Patrick Mekari

Patrick Mekari is usually a guy that is reliable and solid, but he was abysmal yesterday and allowed Maxx Crosby to take over the game at times. Roger Rosengarten seemed to do a better job and I think the Ravens have to roll with the youngster now and see how he does. Mekari is your 6^th Olineman for a reason…time to treat him that way.

Officiating

The refs make the list this week again. Two terrible calls helped to turn this game around, with the biggest being the DPI called on Brandon Stephens in the end zone.  This was not a PI and the ref closest to the play didn’t call it but the ref that was 30 yards away did. I don’t know why they didn’t overrule him but that was really bad. The facemask call on Madubuike was also bad and should have been reviewed by the official upstairs. That needs to occur and be a thing in this league. It is hard for the officials to see that and taking an extra 2-3 seconds to make sure the call is right should be part of the plan.

Coordinators

While I like Zach Orr and think he is off to a solid start, the idea that he kept leaving Stephens on an island against Adams was a head-scratching move. The Raiders had two guys who hurt you yesterday: Adams and Brock Bowers. The game plan to defend them both seemed to be an issue and seemingly no adjustments were made.

Todd Monken continues to make bizarre decisions. The tush push to Charlie Kolar was a nonsensical move. Yes, they likely get the first if Derrick Henry doesn’t false start. Yes, we need to put that on the players for missing assignments and making mistakes. But, why are we complicating things? You are paying Henry a lot of money and you know he excels in short yardage situations.  Also, why was Zay not targeted after he scored the TD? Where were the adjustments to slow down Maxx Crosby?

John Harbaugh

Eleven losses with a 7+ point lead in the fourth quarter over the last five years. Many of those losses with double-digit leads. Self-inflicted wounds, terrible challenges, and disregard for timeouts. The list goes on and on. This is all on him. Mike Tomlin said he knows the Ravens will fold in the fourth. The Chiefs said last year that they knew they could get the Ravens off their game plan.  Patrick Queen, coincidentally after a loss to Gardner Minshew last year, said that these losses can’t keep happening the same way (paraphrasing).

These things point to one man…Harbaugh. All his B.S. cliches after the game don’t help either. I get it that all coaches do it but it’s the same thing over and over again with the same damn results. Mike MacDonald should be at the helm of the Ravens, not the Seahawks right now. I said it in the offseason, and I will continue to say it…the football IQ of this team, both coaches and players, is terrible and it is why they won’t win a Super Bowl again as long as Harbaugh is the head coach.

Special Teams

Another thing to potentially chalk up to coaching, but special teams are struggling. There is no room on kickoff or punt returns, Jordan Stout continues to be mediocre and really came up small yesterday and Justin Tucker is arguably the worst long distance FG kicker in the game right now. His inability to make 50+ yard kicks, when the entire league is hitting them like they are 30-yarders, is really hurting the team. The Raiders had excellent field position quite often yesterday and the ST was a big contributing factor for that.

For an organization that has always prided itself on having strong special teams, this is unacceptable.