Well, folks, I think we can throw everything I said last week out the window after Sunday’s gut-wrenching loss to the Raiders. So much for getting hopes up after hanging with Kansas City.
Let’s start today on a positive note, though.
Pro Football Hall of Fame just announced the 167 nominees for this year's class. First-time nominees include Joe Staley, Marshal Yanda, Eli Manning, Luke Kuechly, Terrell Suggs and Adam Vinatieri. The list will be narrowed to 50 players next month.
— Jonathan Jones (@jjones9) September 18, 2024
Terrell Suggs and Marshal Yanda are both nominated for the Pro Football Hall of Fame this year. Both are worthy first-ballot guys in our minds. Let’s see how the voting shakes out over the next few months.
Moving on to the current crop, before my thoughts get muddled down with more specific references to Tuesday’s action across the Ravens Flock, I want to highlight that I am concerned. The Ravens are facing their first 0-2 start in nine years, and have upcoming matchups in Dallas, against the undefeated Bills, and against the rival Bengals. Here’s hoping things don’t get ugly fast.
This is where you find out what your made of. pic.twitter.com/b6aqDTyVgW
— RAMEY (@HoodieRamey) September 17, 2024
Looking ahead to the game against the Cowboys, The Ravens Realm makes a great point here:
So Davante Adams just had 9 catches for 110 yards and a TD.
Who the hell is guarding Ceedee Lamb next week?
— The Ravens Realm (@RealmRavens) September 16, 2024
Dallas was dismantled by New Orleans last week, but they’re an explosive offense and a strong defense coming off an embarrassing loss at home. With a chance to reconcile things against Baltimore, they’ll pose a tough test.
If I can make any recommendation, it’d be to wear anything but white pants:
#RavensFlock 2024 Uniform Tracker
Updated through Week 2️⃣
⚫️⚪️⚪️⚪️: 0-1
⚫️🟣⚪️⚪️: 0-1Season record: 0-2 pic.twitter.com/4CEjv5STNW
— Ravens Uniform Tracker (@RavensUniforms) September 17, 2024
In all seriousness, though, the Ravens need to figure out their offensive line quickly. Multiple offseason losses certainly hurt, but it’s not an excuse I’m willing to make. It’s on the players and the team’s front office to work around those departures:
The Ravens lost their starting LG John Simpson, starting RG Kevin Zeitler, and starting RT Morgan Moses.
Sounds like you should spend less time on IG Live and more time watching film. https://t.co/09NeHhxiD3
— STONE (@stone_2x) September 17, 2024
This Sunday, I – along with our own Cole Jackson – think rookie Tackle Roger Rosengarten should get the start:
He’s obviously unproven, which could be a risk against star pass rusher Micah Parsons, but something needs to change. I’d rather see them try to fix it than stand pat.
Further, improvements in O-Line play should help pave the way for Derrick Henry. We saw glimpses of what a strong run game could look like, but the consistency isn’t there:
This is how the Lamar Jackson-Derrick Henry partnership is supposed to look.
RPO freezes the OLB and slows Maxx Crosby. Double teams inside. Derrick Henry drags linebackers for 9-yard gain. pic.twitter.com/GpWGfOSYvL
— Ryan Mink (@ryanmink) September 17, 2024
Looking at the bright side, Baltimore’s line has been graded fairly well in terms of pass protection, and that has helped QB Lamar Jackson jump into the Top-5 for passing yards early in the year:
The disconnect between independent grading systems and the Ravens Twitter fan base is impressive https://t.co/DRY7YdTwF9
— Daniel Rees (@DPRees8) September 17, 2024
Oh look who it is https://t.co/29MnQJfGff
— RAMEY (@HoodieRamey) September 17, 2024
On the defensive side, there have been growing pains under new DC Zach Orr:
Ravens' defensive stats through Week 2 of 2024
Rushing defense:
– No. 1 in yards per attempt (2.7)
– No. 1 in total yards (99)Passing defense:
– No. 26 in yards per attempt (7.0)
– No. 32 in total yards (514) pic.twitter.com/w5sN5q75sx— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) September 17, 2024
The D-Line unit has looked promising, particularly EDGE Odafe Oweh, but the secondary needs to step it up. With heavy investment in those positions and stars across the back-end, there’s no excuse for the performance we’ve seen so far.
Again, though, it’s not all doom and gloom. In fact, we’ve seen this story before:
Let’s post the first two games of Mike Macdonald in Baltimore for context
Passing defense (Jets/Dolphins)
– No. 32 in total yards (778)
– No. 32 in passing touchdowns (7) https://t.co/YZXdrjKu1Y— ⚡️Garrett Ferguson⚡️ (@GarrettSprints) September 17, 2024
Lastly, one of the biggest talking points has been about the coaching. Josh gives his thoughts (courtesy of Zach) here:
Perfectly said Josh #RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/TXJal1rpR6
— 𝙕𝙖𝙘𝙝🦦® (@NewEraZach) September 17, 2024
There’s no doubt that clock management has been a recurring issue that’s critical to Baltimore’s trend of blowing late-game leads. Still, I do think rumblings like the one below are out of order:
Bill Belichick is a Maryland Boy.
John Harbaugh is not.Bill Belichick has Eight Super Bowl Rings.
John Harbaugh has one.DO IT.#RavensFlock pic.twitter.com/1QtDnPkOGp
— 🐦⬛ Flockville 🐦⬛ (@Flockville) September 17, 2024
That is, they’re out of order for now. Harbaugh’s trust is growing thin in my books, but I agree with Josh’s point that you don’t know how bad a coach he is until you lose him. A few more losses may change that, but for now, I’d rather stick with someone that’s consistently delivered (overall) success.
After all, it feels like the Ravens are living in the Upside Down nowadays:
The irony of the Ravens:
Derrick Henry was brought in but so far it’s the worst running team of the Lamar era.
Ronnie Stanley is finally back to Pro-Bowl level but the rest of the line sucks.
The pass rush was the biggest worry on defense but it’s the secondary that sucks.
— Z.J. Writes (@ZJBeatdown) September 16, 2024
2 Responses
I agree on the OL but this is still Coach Harbaugh and he has a right to put Faalele in there if he wants to. If I was going to put a tip in to the club, I’d say put Henry on a pitch count of 2 to 3 touches minimum per quarter. Henry is just not being used in the 4th quarter at all and that’s when he has historically done his best work. By putting him on a low pitch counter you ensure he’s used throughout the game. Obviously they could increase that pitch count but when he’s not used in the 4th quarter I think that really hurts us. I would start a rotation with Cleveland and Faalele and rep Cleveland as much as you can. Because according to Harbaugh he didn’t beat out Faalele. But according to Sarah Ellison’s notes Cleveland never got the chance to compete against Faalele so how did he beat out Cleveland? Instead of reps at guard Cleveland got reps at backup center and 2 reps at guard. That’s according to Ellison’s notes. It’s hard to beat someone out at guard with only 2 reps at the position and then everything else at backup center.
I keep saying that the OL is the most important group on offense, more so than QB or WR. Now let me prove it. If you go back and look at the stats for the ravens the first 2 games we statistically beat them in yards etc but as I keep saying; if you don’t win the LOS odds are you don’t win the game. It doesn’t matter how many superstars you have either. As the results have shown. You wanna win, it starts with OL. QBs that are horizontal instead of vertical don’t do you much good either.
I’m excited about this football team still and this coaching staff. I believe that the coaches players and front office will get this ship right.
Cleveland was playing center all camp with Linderbaums soft tissue thing. They don’t hit in camp 100% and he played center all three exhibition games. So how do you know he beat out Faalele? Cleveland had an errant snap in one game. I don’t think he ever plays bad on the rare occasions he gets in a regular season game. He’s supposed to not be a practice player he used to fail his run around the cones test etc. Thats like basing Art Donovans career on push ups and wind sprints. Bubba Smith never met a practice he liked either. Theres lots more guys like this take the Raiders teams of the 70s. Madden knew it all was about gameday and punishing guys. Not everyone is Rudy.