2024-09-10 02:10:02
Baltimore was unable to block Kansas City. The Ravens lost an AFC-high 15 free agents this offseason, and it showed, especially on the offensive line. Right tackle Morgan Moses and both starting guards, Kevin Zeitler and John Simpson, are gone. And in the first half alone on Thursday, three Ravens drives ended because of poor blocking. Jackson was constantly under pressure during his dropbacks. And the Ravens were penalized for multiple illegal formations.
Baltimore tried to fill its holes on the O-line via a few off-the-wall options: rookie Roger Rosengarten at right tackle, who blindside-blocked for a lefty QB in college, making him a potential draft steal; right guard Daniel Faalele who, at 6-foot-8 and 380 pounds, is quite literally the largest person to ever play guard in the NFL; and left guard Andrew Vorhees, a highly touted 2023 prospect whose draft stock cratered when he tore his ACL at the combine. The Ravens snagged Vorhees in the seventh round last year, and he made his NFL debut Thursday. Together they form something of a patchwork experiment that Baltimore hoped could protect Jackson this season. That experiment largely failed on Thursday.
The Ravens clearly know they cannot block. Jackson’s average depth of target in the first half was basically a yard and change—meaning Lamar’s average throw in the first half traveled within 2 yards of the line of scrimmage. (For context on how sad that is, no qualified passer on record has dropped below 5 air yards per throw across a season).
Scrutiny for this offensive line only grows, but the pass protection did calm down as the night progressed. The run blocking is another story and a significant problem until this group shows otherwise. The Daniel Faalele experiment was interesting, but I’m not seeing it as a run blocker at all.
The illegal formation madness aside, Ronnie Stanley played about as well as you could hope after a healthy spring and summer. The 30-year-old staying this healthy is the real challenge, but he definitely showed he can still play — even if Shawn Hochuli’s crew didn’t like how he lined up.
You won’t see a worse combined showing from Roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton, which is why I’m not overly concerned about the defense. PFF credited them with five missed tackles total, and Kansas City picked on Smith in coverage. Zach Orr needs better answers for middle-of-the-field coverage off bunch formations.
Mark Andrews catching two passes for 14 yards on 59 snaps left fans surprised and fantasy football owners exasperated, but we shouldn’t overreact, especially with Andrews missing much of August following a car accident. He’s also exceeded 22 receiving yards against Kansas City just once in six career meetings.
Justice Hill played 43 snaps to Derrick Henry’s 37 and performed very well as a receiver and in pass protection. Given the game situation, I had no problem with that distribution, but mixing in a few more carries to Hill — who had only one — could combat potential predictability concerns.
Lamar Jackson talked all offseason about how badly he wants to win. In case anybody needed another demonstration, Thursday night was it. Jackson spun, lowered his shoulder, dove for extra yards. His sheer will put the Ravens in position to snatch a win but will wasn’t enough.
The Ravens posted 99 more offensive yards than the Chiefs. They had more first downs, were better on third down, rushed for 113 more yards, and had equal turnovers. It’s not enough to be the better team. You have to make the critical plays, and there’s no magic solution.
The “12” personnel is here to stay with the Ravens rolling out two tight ends at a higher rate (52.7%) than any game last season. Likely must stay heavily involved. It won’t stay that lopsided in terms of tight end targets, however. Mark Andrews was double-teamed a lot.
The Ravens defense got pressure without bringing a lot of pressure. Orr only called for 5+ blitzers on four of Mahomes’ 29 dropbacks, yet Nnamdi Madubuike, Travis Jones, Odafe Oweh, and David Ojabo all got after the QB. This is particularly good news considering Kyle Van Noy’s eye injury.
It shouldn’t need to be said that Jackson wasn’t the reason the Ravens lost Thursday, but given what a lightning rod the quarterback is, that narrative is probably out there somewhere. Jackson was the biggest reason the Ravens even had a chance to win down the stretch despite facing 10-point deficits in the third and fourth quarters.
The Ravens are obviously going to need their star quarterback to make those clutch throws late in games if they’re going to get where they want to go. They also are going to need to give Jackson more help. Some of their better offensive plays Thursday were the result of Jackson’s super improvisational skills. Trying to avenge a loss to Mahomes and the Chiefs in the AFC championship game roughly seven months early, Jackson clearly took things upon himself at different points of Thursday’s game.
Offensive coordinator Todd Monken will need to find ways to get Jackson some easy completions and get him playing on schedule more. Derrick Henry, who had 13 touches against the Chiefs, has to be more involved. Likely’s emergence certainly is a big-time positive, but the Ravens will have to make sure that Zay Flowers has more opportunities for big plays and Bateman and fellow tight end Mark Andrews remain threats, too.
Roquan Smith
Roquan led the Ravens with 7 tackles, including contributions to 4 defensive wins. While he was also blocked effectively on several run plays, his tackles represented a substantial improvement over the Ravens failures to generate defensive wins versus the run in the preseason. In pass defense, he was picked on by Mahomes for 83 yards on 5/6 passing (see detail on YAC plays above).
Travis Jones
Travis had contributions to 2 drive-ending plays and continued his role with Madubuike as the primary interior pairing on obvious passing downs. As is often the case with Jones, he set up plays made by others.
Nnamdi Madubuike
Nnamdi was the Ravens most impactful pass rusher and drew a holding call on rookie LT Suamataia with his night marred only by the roughing flag that converted 2nd/20. Both of his tackles were defensive wins.
Trenton Simpson
Trenton was the least picked on ILB in pass coverage (3 catches on 4 targets for 37 yards) and contributed a PD on a slant to Rice, but he appeared to be far out of position on the 25-yard reception by Watson. Mahomes can make some ILBs look bad, but should such play continue, all options for ILB combinations on early downs or 3rd down would be on the table.
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