[Baltimore Sun] Ravens overreaction corner: Will Baltimore, Lamar Jackson ever catch up to Chiefs?
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No NFL game is disposable. That’s the genius of pro football as an entertainment product. Because each team gets only 17 shots at its season, no week is unimportant, no matchup unworthy of analysis. It’s so much more difficult for one of 162 baseball games or one of 82 NBA dates to feel like an event.
There is another edge to that sword, however, and it’s our instinct to draw grand conclusions from a mere 60 minutes of football. How much can we really know based on a game that could have swung the other way if not for a slightly misplaced toe? That example is germane to the Ravens after they lost to their archnemesis, the Kansas City Chiefs, in a prime-time opener that came down to the last play: Isaiah Likely’s almost-touchdown catch in the back of the end zone.
A rematch of the AFC championship game with a dramatic ending and wild swings involving two of the most famous quarterbacks in the world? The takes were bound to fly hot and heavy. Now that we have a few days’ perspective, it’s time to ask which of these scorching conclusions merit our attention and which will be forgotten as soon as the Ravens suit up for Week 2. So we’ll take them one by one: Overreaction or properly concerned?
Take: The Ravens haven’t caught up to the Chiefs, and maybe they never will
The Ravens were the best team in football going into the last week of January. Every metric said so, as did the thrashings they inflicted on the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins in key late-season matchups. The Chiefs, meanwhile, seemed incapable of finding their stride. They could easily have lost in Buffalo and never played for the AFC championship in Baltimore. But that was all quickly forgotten as Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce wove their magic and the Ravens forgot to run the ball. The Chiefs went on to win another Super Bowl and reclaim big brother status, peering down at the Ravens and the rest of the league.
Eight months later, the stakes were lower, but the Ravens at least had a chance to claim a foothold against the rival they’ll probably have to upend to achieve their championship ambitions. So it was understandably dispiriting for Baltimore fans to watch them fall short again, with Mahomes punishing a blown coverage for a pivotal touchdown and Jackson failing to answer at the end, when he had receivers open in the end zone on three straight plays.
If anything, the Chiefs looked more potent than they had in January, with speedy rookie Xavier Worthy adding a home run element they had lacked since Tyreek Hill left for Miami. Meanwhile, national pundits jabbed at the Ravens’ lack of a clear offensive identity, wondering how they’ll integrate Derrick Henry’s power into an attack that thrives on Jackson’s improvisations.
The Chiefs still seemed inevitable. The Ravens, 1-5 against Kansas City in the Jackson-Mahomes era, still seemed to be searching.
But the past is not inevitably prologue. We learned this the last time the Ravens won the Super Bowl, going through the same New England Patriots who had haunted them a year earlier.
The Ravens aren’t that far behind the Chiefs. As terrifying as Mahomes is, Jackson poses equally daunting problems for the Kansas City defense when he’s playing with the freedom and fury he displayed last Thursday night. The Ravens have the playmakers to keep up, and it’s hard to imagine their best defenders playing as poorly as they did in the opener if these teams meet again in January. Would the Chiefs be favored in a rematch? Yes. Are the Ravens so hopeless against this one opponent that we’ll never see them break through? Their most recent lost suggested otherwise.
VERDICT: Overreaction
Take: As great as Lamar Jackson is, he’s not precise enough on the throws that decide a game
Rarely will you find a more perfect encapsulation of the beautiful frustration posed by Baltimore’s defining athlete of the moment.
Jackson was a marvel in Kansas City, feinting, spinning and gliding away from defenders, unleashing clutch throws on the run, lowering his shoulder for crucial yards because he hungered for victory. If the Ravens had a chance, it was because, for much of the fourth quarter, he and not Mahomes was the most compelling player on the field.
Jackson guided them to the cusp of a touchdown that would tie or beat the Chiefs. He had time for three throws. The first, with Likely open in the corner of the end zone, sailed out of bounds. The second sliced harmlessly between a wide-open Zay Flowers and Jackson’s intended target, Rashod Bateman. Both were easy plays compared with ones Jackson had already made that night. He did not convert. His final throw found Likely’s hands in the back of the end zone, but Likely could not quite keep the tip of his toe inbounds.
And that was that — fodder for another referendum on Jackson’s wonders and limitations. The Ravens can’t win without him, but can they win the biggest games with him?
Some of the greatest quarterbacks in history waited just as long as Jackson to break through. If he keeps giving himself chances, odds are that he will deliver spectacularly in the playoffs one of these years. But it’s also true that as of now, Mahomes is a better bet to connect on a decisive throw. We know it based on the playoff results and the head-to-head. We know it in our guts. He remains the standard Jackson is chasing.
VERDICT: Reasonable concern
From left, Ravens offensive linemen Ronnie Stanley, Andrew Vorhees and Daniel Faalele watch from the sideline during the season opener against the Chiefs. (Reed Hoffmann/AP)
Take: The Ravens will be undone by the risks they took in overhauling their offensive line
This was the story of the offseason as the Ravens waved goodbye to three starters, including veteran stalwarts Kevin Zeitler and Morgan Moses, and steered into a youth movement. Would it be too much change for a team designed to win the Super Bowl now?
The Ravens did not flinch, throwing Daniel Faalele and Andrew Vorhees into the fire as first-time starting guards against the Chiefs and rotating rookie Roger Rosengarten as a junior partner to Patrick Mekari at right tackle.
Their plan produced mixed results.
The Chiefs successfully attacked Mekari and Rosengarten on the right edge, producing a strip-sack and several pressures. Henry averaged just 3.5 yards per carry in his Ravens debut, finding no room to run on several attempts.
At the same time, Vorhees and Faalele exceeded expectations, holding up well as pass blockers, especially in the second half. A healthy Ronnie Stanley showed he’s still more than capable of protecting Jackson’s blind side, and we saw no lingering effects from the neck injury that sidelined center Tyler Linderbaum for much of training camp.
“The baseline is pretty darn good,” Harbaugh said, noting how his young blockers stood up to a talented defense in front of a manic road crowd.
Fair enough. We’re going to see hiccups from this unit, but their debut could have gone worse.
VERDICT: Reasonable concern, but graded on a curve, overreaction
Take: Zach Orr’s defense wasn’t nimble enough in adjusting to the Chiefs’ attack
Mahomes went after the Ravens’ linebackers and safeties to great effect, betting they had no chance to keep up with slanting wide receiver Rashee Rice, who finished with seven catches on nine targets for 103 yards. Even with Kelce held relatively in check, Kansas City feasted in the middle of the field.
The Ravens struggled through some expected malfunctions in Orr’s first game as coordinator, with Harbaugh acknowledging their substitutions were sluggish. On Mahomes’ 35-yard touchdown pass to Worthy in the fourth quarter, cornerback Marlon Humphrey handed off coverage to a safety who wasn’t there.
“We were trying to play a lot of different guys and get them in there, situationally, against a no-huddle team,” Harbaugh said. “We didn’t do a great job … They were subbing guys in at like 18 seconds on the game clock and calling their play really quick.”
He did not perceive a lack of schematic adjustment to Mahomes’ underneath strikes, saying “we changed which side we were rolling the coverage to, and it cleaned up.”
The Ravens’ two best defensive players, All-Pro linebacker Roquan Smith and All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton, weren’t good. Smith allowed five catches on six targets in coverage and missed a pair of tackles. Hamilton, who split time between nickel and strong safety, missed three tackles.
It would be a shock if those guys don’t clean up their play, and there’s no reason to think Orr — a smart, disciplined coach who knows Ravens defense inside and out — won’t smooth out his operation.
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VERDICT: Overreaction
Take: Mark Andrews isn’t even the Ravens’ best tight end anymore
Andrews has endured more than his share of awful luck over the past year, from the ankle injury that derailed his 2023 season to the scary car wreck that interrupted his training camp.
When he caught just two passes for 14 yards in the opener, fantasy owners sent up panic signals.
A review of the game tape, however, showed the Chiefs double-teaming Andrews relentlessly, daring Jackson to beat them by targeting others. He did, finding Likely nine times for 111 yards. This was actually a heartening sign that the Ravens’ top two tight ends can play off one another. In past seasons, Likely’s best games came when Andrews was out. In this case, he took advantage of the attention his senior partner commanded.
Andrews was the best pass catcher on the field plenty of days during camp. He played 59 snaps against the Chiefs, six more than Likely, so it’s not as if the Ravens are phasing him down. He’ll have big games this season. It’s just that there are more guys around him capable of being Jackson’s No. 1 target on a given day.
VERDICT: Overreaction
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