5 things we learned from Ravens’ stunning Week 2 loss to Raiders

Some questions were answered while others came into focus on Sunday.

There were numerous revealing takeaways from the Baltimore Ravens’ 26-23 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday afternoon in their 2024 regular season home opener.

In many ways, this game unfolded in a similarly painful fashion to defeats the Ravens have suffered in recent years. They now have blown a double-digit fourth-quarter lead for the fourth time since 2022 and lost a whopping 10 games in which they have led by a touchdown or more in the final quarter over the past five seasons.

Unlike last week’s loss which felt more encouraging given it came at the hands of the two-time defending Super Bowl champions, this shortcoming is far more discouraging because it came at home to an inferior opponent they should’ve been able to put away late.

Here are five of the main things that can be learned from Sunday’s loss.

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Game planning and in-game adjustments continue to be issues

For the second week in a row, the Ravens not only failed to devise a game plan to keep their opponents’ best players on both sides of the ball from having a profound impact on the outcome of the game but either took too long or didn’t make the proper adjustments during the game.

In the season opener against the Kansas City Chiefs, they let five-time Pro Bowl defensive lineman play Eeny, meeny, miny, moe on which of their new starters on the right side of their rebuilt offensive line to terrorize on any given play. He did just that, coming up with a strip sack and several stops at or behind the line of scrimmage. Public enemy No. 1 in this game was three-time Pro Bowler Maxx Crosby and the results weren’t much different as he was allowed to wreak havoc and almost single-handedly kept his team in the game.

They still opted not to provide either right tackle consistent help on passing downs, tried leaving it up to a tight end to block him at times and at the worst possible time, experimental right guard Daniel Faalele let him cross his face on a stunt for a huge nine-yard sack that derailed the Ravens second-to-last drive. Crosby was allowed to go full ‘Mad Maxx’ in this game as he recorded both the Raiders sacks and quarterback hits, a batted pass and led the team with a game-high four tackles for loss.

On defense, the Ravens allowed both of the Raiders top two pass catchers to go off in this game as six-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Davante Adams and first-round rookie tight end Brock Bowers accounted for all but 68 of their team’s 276 receiving yards as a whole. Even though Adams proved too much for either of the Ravens’ starting cornerbacks to handle alone, defensive coordinator Zach Orr refused to consistently bracket him with some safety help over the top. He absolutely feasted on Las Vegas’ last few drives as the main catalyst to their success through the air. Bowers was allowed to haul in all nine of his targets for a career-high 98 receiving yards and both players were heavily involved in the Raiders’ game-tying drive that was capped off by Adams beating Marlon Humphrey inside for a one-yard touchdown.

If the Ravens can’t adequately game plan to neutralize or at least limit the best players on opposing teams heading into games or at least find a better and more consistent way to adjust in-game sooner rather than later, they will continue to struggle to win games.

Attention to detail in all three phases is a problem

Former Ravens backup quarterback Robert Griffin III perfectly encapsulated the root cause of this loss and the team’s 0-2 start as a whole in his postgame rant when he claimed that they lack discipline and focus on the little things that need to be done in order for them to prevail when they find themselves in late got-to-have-it scenarios.

“The Baltimore Ravens aren’t PLAYING LIKE A RAVEN,” Griffin posted in the video caption. “[Going] 3-for-11 on 3rd down, 11 penalties for 109 yards today and special teams not performing in the clutch. That’s undisciplined. That’s not attention to detail. That’s not high level execution. THAT’S NOT RAVENS FOOTBALL.”

Whether it was false starts that made third and short third and long, the shanked punt by Jordan Stout on his final attempt that only traveled 24 yards to the Baltimore 48-yard line and was made even worse by an avoidable penalty on veteran special teamer going out of bounds voluntarily, the Ravens didn’t come up clutch in any phase of the game when they needed it most.

If they want to avoid this season going down the drain in the same way it did for the other four teams in franchise history to open the year 0-2, they need to focus on the micro and minute details so that they don’t find themselves in such dire straits late in games and even if they do, it doesn’t result in them coughing up a late lead or not being able to complete a comeback.

Ill-advised challenges proved costly

Harbaugh’s poor coaching decisions were further highlighted by the two reception rulings he chose to throw the red challenge flag on in this game, one in each half that resulted in the Ravens losing timeouts they could’ve used to put themselves in position to score more points at the end of each half.

Had he not challenged the ruling of an incompletion on a diving attempt wide receiver Zay Flowers made near the sideline that was made clear by replay, he would’ve been able to stop the clock one more time on the offense’s final drive of the second quarter and they might’ve been able to have another shot or two at the getting the ball in the end zone. Instead, they had to hurry to the line to spike the ball after a completion over the middle to Mark Andrews and only had time for one more play before having to settle for a short field goal.

Had he not wasted his second challenge contesting the ruling of a toe-drag catch Adams made on the boundary as the Raiders were mounting their fourth-quarter comeback, the Ravens would’ve been able to preserve more than just 27 seconds for their offense on the final drive of the game or at least stop the clock once as they attempted to set up for a game-tying field goal to force overtime.

Trenches continue to be strength of defense

While the Ravens struggled to stop the Raiders from moving the ball through the air late when it counted the most, it wasn’t for a lack of consistent pressure from their front. The interior defensive line and edge defenders were excellent in this game in stuffing the run—allowing less than 100 yards for the second week in a row with just 27—and were even better at getting after Minshew, finishing with five sacks and 10 quarterback hits.

Leading the way was fourth-year outside linebacker Odafe Oweh with a breakout performance in which he opened the game with a sack on the very first play from scrimmage. He was a terror off the edge throughout the afternoon, beating Raiders franchise left tackle Kolton Miller for another sack and splitting another with nose tackle Michael Pierce who also recorded a quarterback hit.

Not to be outdone after suffering a fractured orbital bone in the season opener, 11-year veteran Kyle Van Noy recorded a pair of huge sacks and pressures to end drives, tied Oweh for the team lead in quarterback hits with three and led the team in tackles for loss. David Ojabo brought consistent pressure off the edge as well, recording a drive-ending pressure on his lone quarterback hit.

Defensive tackles Nnamdi Madubuike and Travis Jones continue to be a highly disruptive interior tandem. Madubuike was robbed of a sack by a horrendous facemask call but still finished with three solo tackles including two for a loss and a quarterback hit. Jones generated several pressures, recorded three total tackles including two solos and one for a loss, a quarterback hit and set up several of his teammates for their sacks.

Justin Tucker is a liability from 50-plus until proven otherwise

Through the first 11 seasons of his illustrious career, the seven-time Pro Bowler built quite the impressive Hall of Fame-worthy resume that included becoming the most accurate kicker in NFL history who was as automatic from any distance including making 57 of his 80 attempts from beyond 50 yards. However, following his missed 56-yarder against the Raiders on Sunday that had plenty of leg but still pushed wide left, he has now successfully made just one of his last seven attempts over the past two seasons.

“I just misfired on the one from 56 [yards],” Tucker said postgame. “[I] left three points out there that we certainly could have used down the stretch in this game.”

Those three points he narrowly missed on securing loomed large by the end of this game as the Ravens wound up losing by that same margin. Missing from such a long distance can often be a double negative for his team because it puts the opposing offense the ball back in a favorable field position with not too far to travel and set up their own kicker for a long attempt. That was the case on Sunday with Raiders kicker Daniel Carlson making his second 50-plus yarder five plays after Tucker’s miss.

“Trying to overanalyze or dwell on a mistake or a performance that is not up to our collective standard, that’s not going to do us any good,” Tucker said. “What is going to help us is continuing to trust the process, and just come together as a team, and get to work.”

At this point, the Ravens have dug themselves into a hole and shown that they are the kind of team that can’t afford to yield any advantages to any opponent moving forward. Unless a situation at the end of the first half or regulation as time is expiring, they should refrain from trotting out Tucker for 50-plus yard attempts for the time being until their consistency in the other two phases improves to the point where another potential miss from that range won’t come back to haunt them.