BALTIMORE — New Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken said recently that the Ravens’ offense still has a long way to go, and the team played like that in the first half of the preseason opener.
But backup quarterback Tyler Huntley, who entered the game to begin the third quarter, engineered an impressive 75-yard scoring drive in his first action, and the Ravens rallied for a 20-19 win against the Philadelphia Eagles at M&T Bank Stadium on Aug. 12.
Huntley’s 10-yard touchdown pass to Tylan Wallace midway through the third quarter gave the Ravens the lead for good at 17-13, and Justin Tucker’s second field goal early in the fourth quarter boosted the lead to 20-13. Showing that he was already in midseason form, Tucker earlier had drilled a 60-yarder on the final play of the first half.
The Eagles cut the Ravens’ lead to 20-19 with 7:03 left when cornerback Eli Ricks stepped in front of a pass by Anthony Brown Jr. and raced 31 yards down the sideline for a touchdown. The Eagles tried for a two-point conversion for the lead, but safety Ar’Darius Washington picked off the pass in the end zone to preserve the Ravens’ lead.
Brown, the third Ravens quarterback in the game, later scrambled for 16 yards on third-and-11, and the Ravens were able run out the clock for their 24th straight preseason win, extending a streak that dates to the beginning of the 2016 preseason.
Josh Johnson was one of the Ravens’ quarterbacks in that game seven years ago, and he started at quarterback for the Ravens in this game, as Lamar Jackson and nearly every projected starter sat out.
Here are five quick observations of the Ravens win, their first of three preseason games this month:
1. Zay Flowers didn’t make a catch, but his potential was on display.
The Ravens’ first-round draft pick was one of the few projected starters who played for the Ravens, and although he officially finished with no catches in two offensive series, Flowers’ impact was evident. Twice in a span of three plays, Flowers drew a penalty on a defender trying to cover him. Josh Jobe was called for illegal use of hands trying to contain Flowers as he made a cut, and two plays later, Eagles safety Justin Evans was called for defensive holding as Flowers came out of his break and raced toward the end zone.
The second penalty gave the Ravens a first down at the Eagles’ 11-yard line, and three plays later, Josh Johnson threw a seven-yard touchdown pass to Devin Duvernay for a 7-3 Ravens lead early in the second quarter.
Flowers has earned a lot of hype this summer, which is par for the course for a first-round pick every year. But his precise route-running, explosiveness and competitiveness on every rep have stood out, and they did again against the Eagles.
Ravens cornerback Kevon Seymour has seen it up close all summer, as he has been paired against Flowers in several one-on-one drills. He said he expects Flowers to draw a lot of penalties this year, and asked about the difficulty in defending Flowers, he let out a long sigh and smiled.
“You gotta get him before he gets going,” Seymour said. “You try to get him and you miss, it’s curtains. Now you’re chasing him. … It’s great to have him here.”
2. Cornerback depth remains the Ravens’ biggest issue right now.
Earlier this spring, Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta said that the lack of cornerback depth is “a fast way to get beat,” and right now, the Ravens lack cornerback depth.
Starter Marlon Humphrey set out the preseason opener, and the other presumptive starter, Rock Ya-Sin, has been sidelined by an injury sustained earlier in training camp. Three other cornerbacks who would have played in this game — Jalyn Armour-Davis, Damarion “Pepe” Williams and Arthur Maulet — also missed the game with injuries. That left Brandon Stephens and Kevon Seymour on the field for every cornerback snap well into the third quarter.
Stephens finished with six tackles but also got beaten a few times, and Seymour, who has had a strong summer, tallied three tackles. Stephens had been a cornerback at SMU but the Ravens projected him as a safety in the NFL. He has shown the ability to play both for the Ravens, who might need him to stay at cornerback.
Granted, the season is still a month away, and it’s possible that all those injured players will return by then. It’s also possible that they won’t, or that others might also get dinged up throughout the course of two joint practices with Washington and two more preseason games.
Bolstering this group with healthy bodies is the most pressing roster issue right now. DeCosta knows that the alternative is a fast way to get beat.
3. Tyler Huntley is well ahead of Josh Johnson for the backup quarterback job.
Tyler Huntley and Josh Johnson entered spring OTAs seemingly in a competition to serve as Lamar Jackson’s primary backup. But thus far during the course of the summer, Huntley has appeared to gain a significant edge in that competition, and that was reinforced against the Eagles.
Johnson started the game and played the first half, but other than one scoring drive that was aided by a pair of penalties committed by the Eagles trying to cover Zay Flowers, the Johnson-led Ravens offense didn’t muster much of an attack.
Johnson finished 8-for-12 for 45 yards, and three of the Ravens’ first four drives were three-and-outs.
When Huntley entered the game in the third quarter, he immediately had the Ravens in an offensive rhythm they hadn’t showed in the first half. Huntley’s first pass was a pretty floater to tight end Travis Vokolek for 23 yards, and Huntley capped the drive with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Tylan Wallace.
Huntley played two series and finished 8-for-11 for 88 yards and he also ran twice for 13 yards.
“I thought he played well,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “He came in there and was a spark. The timing passing game was good. He was accurate, got the ball out, moved around and made some plays with his legs when had to. Yes, I thought he played very well.”
Throughout the summer, Huntley has looked more comfortable throwing than he did last year, when he was hampered by a shoulder injury.
Huntley, though, left the field with a team doctor after his second series and did not return. Harbaugh said there were no serious injuries in the game, though he didn’t elaborate on anyone specifically. Tight end Isaiah Likely also left the game and went to the locker room after taking a big hit on a short completion, though he later returned to the sideline to watch.
4. John Simpson appears to be the front-runner at left guard.
The only open starting competition on the offensive line this year is at left guard, where John Simpson and rookie Malaesala Aumavae-Laulu have been vying for the spot left after Ben Powers departed via free agency.
‘Sala,’ as he is known, has opened eyes this summer because it’s rare for a Day Three rookie to earn a starting spot right away, but head coach John Harbaugh said the sixth-round pick from Oregon is absolutely in the running. Against the Eagles, though, Simpson got the start, an indication that the four-year veteran who has made 21 career starts with the Raiders might be the favorite for Week 1 as well.
Simpson (No. 76) made a key block on Justice Hill’s 37-yard run, the longest of the night:
Third-year guard Ben Cleveland was considered a strong candidate for the job back when Powers was signed way, but Cleveland has been no factor in the competition. Cleveland played right guard and right tackle in this game, and his roster status looks tenuous at best.
Ronnie Stanley, Tyler Linderbaum, Kevin Zeitler and Morgan Moses will hold down four starting spots, while Simpson and Aumavae-Laulu compete for the other. Patrick Mekari is also a lock to make the team as a plug-anywhere super-sub, as is second-year tackle Daniel Faalele. If the Ravens keep another backup center, such as Owings Mills native Sam Mustipher, Cleveland could find himself on the wrong side of the roster bubble.
5. The joint practices with Washington might be as close to game action as many starters get this preseason.
The Ravens host the Washington Commanders for joint practices Aug. 15 and 16 at the Under Armour Performance Center in Owings Mills, and that is likely to be the closest thing to game action that many Ravens starters see this summer.
Nearly every starter sat out the game against the Eagles, and John Harbaugh’s trend in recent years has been to scale back the workload of starters in preseason games. So while players such as Lamar Jackson, Odell Beckham Jr., Roquan Smith and Marcus Williams might not play much if at all in the three preseason games, they should get a lot of action against Washington on the practice field at a tempo that gets close to full speed.
Situations will be controlled, but after a month of facing off against one another, the starters will enjoy seeing another uniform on the other side of the line of scrimmage. And the Ravens might get a better idea of how far this new Todd Monken offense has — or has not — come with a little less than a month until the regular season begins.
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