Five Things We Learned in NFL Week 2
Gilberto Manzano, Sports Illustrated
As for Lamar Jackson’s squad, the Ravens dropped to 0–2 and have serious issues on the offensive side, including another poor performance from its offensive line. The Ravens have struggled with implementing Derrick Henry into the flow of the offense, which might be because of the lack of weapons in the passing game. Cornerbacks Jack Jones and Jakorian Bennett batted a handful of passes from Jackson and didn’t allow easy completions to the wide receivers. Zay Flowers finished with a team-high 91 receiving yards for the Ravens. Mark Andrews, Isaiah Likely and Rashod Bateman combined only for 117 receiving yards.
Baltimore now has to travel to Dallas next week before facing Buffalo at home and Cincinnati on the road. A brutal stretch for last year’s No. 1 seed in the AFC.
Ravens Grades & Snap Counts vs. Raiders
Ryan Mink, BaltimoreRavens.com
Ronnie Stanley got a PFF grade of 81.6 vs. the Raiders, his highest grade since Week 3 of the 2020 season. Stanley surrendered just one pressure in 35 pass blocking reps. Through two weeks, Stanley has the 3rd best pass blocking grade (88.5) among all NFL offensive tackles. Stanley worked hard this offseason to stay healthy, get stronger, and get back to playing at an elite level. It’s looking good so far.
Outside linebacker Odafe Oweh turned in his first career multi-sack game (2.5 sacks) and received a grade of 87.8. It was the best on the defense for a second straight week (85.4 vs. Chiefs) and third-highest grade of Oweh’s career.
Justice Hill out-snapped fellow running back Derrick Henry, receiving 35 snaps (54%) while Henry had 30 (46%). Part of this is because of Hill’s prowess as a pass protector and catcher.
It took only one game for Trenton Simpson to become a three-down linebacker. Simpson played 100% of the snaps against the Raiders and received the team’s third-best run defense grade (74.3).
Defensive end Travis Jones had the best game of his young career according to PFF, with a grade of 82.0. Jones recorded three tackles, including one for loss.
Harbaugh sees ‘randomly inconsistent’ play as his offensive line experiences growing pains
Giana Han, The Baltimore Banner
Harbaugh said they’ll keep up the rotation at right tackle, but he didn’t rule out the possibility of making Rosengarten the consistent starter once he reaches a level the coaches are comfortable with. If Rosengarten takes over, Mekari could either move back into his sixth-man role or compete for one of the guard jobs.
On the left side, Vorhees has had his position at guard locked down through most of camp, consistently lining up with the first-team. But in the first two games of the season, Vorhees did not grade out well in either run or pass blocking, according to Pro Football Focus. The Ravens have also struggled to push up the middle with their inside runs.
Meanwhile, Faalele started out at right tackle before moving inside. He’s playing a new position, so on top of a lack of reps in the NFL, he has little experience at guard. His PFF scores show it. Like Vorhees, he has graded out below average in both run and pass blocking. Both he and Vorhees are tied with Rosengarten for the most blown blocks on the team (two), but they’ve each played 55 more snaps than Rosengarten, according to Sports Info Solutions.
Faalele won the job over Ben Cleveland, a more veteran lineman who spent time at both guard and backup center this preseason. Cleveland had his share of ups and downs last season, although he graded out better in pass blocking over the course of the season than Vorhees and Faalele have in their first two games.
Ranking winless NFL teams: Teams eliminated from 2024 playoffs
Bill Barnwell, ESPN
Chances of advancing to the postseason, via ESPN’s FPI: 40.2%
I don’t know if alarm bells were going off in Baltimore after the Ravens lost to the Chiefs in Week 1. Losing to the Raiders at home, though, should have everyone’s attention. One year after going 13-4 and wowing advanced metrics with their regular-season performance, the Ravens are 0-2. It’s the first time since 2020 that a Lamar Jackson-led team has lost two straight, let alone two straight to begin the season.
Some of their problems could be expected and are straight out of their entry in the likely-to-decline column from before the season. After posting a league-best plus-12 turnover differential last season, they have been even through two games, with one giveaway and one takeaway in each of contest. Their red zone dominance has faded; an offense that converted nearly 62% of its red zone trips into touchdowns is 3-for-7, while a defense that allowed touchdowns 40.8% of the time last season is 3-for-6.
What has been more surprising is just how bad the Ravens have been in coverage. Last season, they allowed 46 completions of 20 yards or more, or about 2.3 per game. In a season in which they were battling injuries at cornerback from August on, that’s a solid performance. Mike Macdonald’s unit ranked ninth in the league in 20-plus yards played allowed in the passing game.
With Macdonald, Patrick Queen, Jadeveon Clowney, Geno Stone and others leaving this offseason, the Ravens have been porous. They’ve already allowed a league-high 10 completions for gains of 20 yards or more. And while you might chalk that up to playing against the Chiefs in Week 1, Gardner Minshew & Co. racked up five 20-plus yard completions in Week 2, just as many as the Chiefs did in the opener.
Ravens HC John Harbaugh Has To Be Better
Glenn Clark, PressBox
Nearly two decades into his head coaching career, it sadly is almost equally expected that Harbaugh will end up losing a timeout chasing a bad challenge. Against the Raiders, he lost two. Two timeouts wasted on plays that were never going to be overturned. Two inexplicable decisions to light timeouts on fire. Perhaps the first-half challenge can be dismissed with the idea that they were probably going to take a timeout ahead of the third-down play anyway, but there was absolutely no reason they had to. And they didn’t convert.
And that timeout might have been nice late in the first half when the Ravens were 14 yards short of the end zone and had to settle for a field goal before they ran out of time. And the second wasted timeout could have proved beneficial when they got the ball back with only 27 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
These blunders are inexcusable for first-year head coaches. They’re unfathomable for 17-year head coaches. But they’re downright criminal for teams that have to be better in the margins to make up for shortcomings like an offensive line that simply isn’t ready for primetime. And yes, it comes on the heels of a Week 1 loss in which two second-half timeouts were squandered because of personnel issues. Those timeouts would have been helpful when the Ravens ran out of time on a potential game-tying drive.