BALTIMORE — The Ravens struggled to find the words to explain what took place over the final 12 minutes of Sunday’s brutal 26-23 loss to Las Vegas.
Blowing a 10-point lead was certainly a collective effort with the defense, offense, special teams, and coaching all letting down at key moments. That enabled the Raiders to score the game’s final 13 points, handing Baltimore its first 0-2 start since 2015.
There was no shame in losing to the defending Super Bowl champions in Kansas City last week, but giving one away on your home turf is unacceptable, especially when Las Vegas — coming off an 8-9 season — was perceived to be the soft spot in a challenging early-season schedule.
The Ravens will now go to Dallas next Sunday before coming home to play Buffalo in Week 4 and traveling to Cincinnati to clash with the rival Bengals on Oct. 6. An 0-2 start is hardly the end of the world, but there’s no time to dwell on what transpired Sunday or the Ravens could find themselves in a much more concerning hole a few weeks from now.
“We’ve got to find our mojo,” quarterback Lamar Jackson said. “We’ve got to find and do what we do because that’s not us at all.”
The problem is the Ravens haven’t found their identity as their biggest offseason concerns have reared their ugly head over these first two games.
The offensive line was again a problem on Sunday as the running game was nonexistent in the first half — a big reason why the Ravens led only 9-6 at intermission despite outgaining the Raiders by a 174-43 margin — and the pass protection struggled to contain Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby, who finished with two sacks and five pressures. His second takedown of Jackson after Las Vegas had tied the game on Gardner Minshew’s 1-yard touchdown pass to Davante Adams with less than four minutes to go was the big defensive play the Raiders needed to force a three-and-out and get the ball back for the eventual game-winning 38-yard field goal by Daniel Carlson with 27 seconds remaining.
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The right side of the line continues to be a concern, particularly at right guard where the Daniel Faalele experiment isn’t working — or showing enough promise to believe it will work eventually. Faalele just doesn’t move well enough or even play with the physicality you’d expect from a 6-foot-8, 380-pound former tackle, leaving one to wonder if the Ravens need to pivot to 2021 third-round pick Ben Cleveland. It’s evident that the coaching staff hasn’t been a big believer in Cleveland over the last few years, but he fared better in three starts filling in at right guard in the previous two seasons than what we’ve seen from Faalele thus far.
It was a tale of two halves for a Baltimore defense that allowed only 260 yards and 4.3 yards per play for the game, numbers indicative of a strong overall performance. The problem was 217 of those yards coming after intermission as Minshew found Adams and rookie tight end Brock Bowers repeatedly with the two combing for 11 catches for 170 yards in the second half.
The Ravens were definitely miffed over a couple penalties that went the Raiders’ way over the final 12 minutes, but completely absolving a defense with high expectations would be too convenient.
After a phantom facemask call on defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike a couple plays earlier, the Raiders were still backed up on a second-and-20 from their 35 before Minshew completed back-to-back passes to Adams for 56 yards, setting up a short Carlson field goal to trim the deficit to 23-16 with 9:21 remaining. On the Raiders’ next drive, cornerback Brandon Stephens was flagged for a pass interference on Adams on a third-and-goal from the 17 to set up the game-tying touchdown. It was a borderline call that included a good sell job by Adams, but how about making a stop before it even got to that point against a one-dimensional offense? Now with his fourth team in five years, Minshew isn’t exactly Patrick Mahomes.
With the Ravens allowing a total of 53 points and ranking last in the NFL in pass defense through the first two weeks of the 2024 season, it’s safe to say the transition from Mike Macdonald to Zach Orr at defensive coordinator has been shaky at best. That isn’t totally shocking given the former’s reputation that earned him Seattle’s head coaching job and doesn’t mean Orr won’t become a good coordinator himself, but we noted throughout the offseason that losing Macdonald, highly-regarded defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, and defensive line coach Anthony Weaver was a ton of defensive coaching attrition to endure in one offseason.
The Raiders didn’t punt once in the second half and could have scored on all five of their second-half possessions if not for a head-scratching play-calling sequence that ended in a failed fourth down from the Baltimore 25 on their first drive of the third quarter.
The defense simply needed to be better in that second half, but the Ravens collectively didn’t do the little things well either.
8Leading 16-6 midway through the third quarter after an impressive touchdown drive to begin the second half and the Raiders’ subsequent turnover on downs, Jackson threw an interception intended for Rashod Bateman that put Las Vegas on a short field to score its first touchdown. That turnover not only torpedoed thoughts of the Ravens running away in the second half, but it foreshadowed the fourth-quarter meltdown to come.
Already with a failed first-half challenge that wiped away a timeout that would have been helpful on their final drive of the second quarter resulting in a short field goal, Harbaugh unsuccessfully challenged the Adams’ 30-yard sideline catch with 10:25 to play. The 17th-year head coach correctly noted that reception being “a high-leverage play,” but replays quickly confirmed Adams had both feet inbounds, resulting in another lost timeout that would have been valuable at the end of the game. Clock management and unsuccessful challenges haven’t been the deciding factor in these two losses by any stretch, but they certainly haven’t helped end-of-half matters.
With the Ravens leading 23-16 and wanting to chew more clock on a third-and-1 with 7:46 to go, running back Derrick Henry committed a false start in a formation where he wasn’t going to get the ball. That can’t happen in that moment.
And after Las Vegas tied the game and the Ravens offense went three-and-out on its penultimate drive, Jordan Stout shanked a 24-yard punt to give the Raiders the ball in Baltimore territory with 2:21 to play.
Yes, the final 12 minutes were a clinic in self-destruction that left the Ravens 0-2 and searching for answers. They need to find them quickly after letting a victory slip through their fingers Sunday.
“This just felt more self-inflicted,” left tackle Ronnie Stanley said. “I felt like there [were] many, many opportunities for us to put the nail in the coffin, and we just didn’t end up doing that. I’m very confident that we have the guys to do it, and I know we have the talent, we have the coaches, we have the people.”
That may be true, but the Ravens are still searching for their 2024 identity as the concerns that lingered all offseason have yet to be quieted.
