BALTIMORE, MD. — The Ravens’ first offensive possession of 2023 netted 1 yard and ended with Lamar Jackson flat on his back after being sacked. The second one ended with Jackson throwing an interception.
For a rebuilt offense under new coordinator Todd Monken that had generated a lot of anticipation, it was a rough unveiling. Perhaps that was to be expected after nearly every starter sat out the three preseason games. But the Ravens’ defense did not yield a touchdown all day and the Ravens pulled away for a 25-9 win against the Houston Texans in the season opener at M&T Bank Stadium on Sept. 10.
The win came at a mighty cost, though, as running back J.K. Dobbins suffered a torn Achilles, and several other key players left with injuries as well.
Dobbins had given the Ravens a 7-0 lead late in the first quarter when he went airborne near the right pylon at the end of a 4-yard touchdown run. But in the third quarter, he caught a pass near that same end zone and suffered the injury, which head coach John Harbaugh confirmed after the game.
Justice Hill scored on a 2-yard run on the next play, the first of two touchdowns for Hill as the Ravens broke open a game they led just 7-6 at halftime. Hill’s second touchdown — which equaled his career total in 43 previous games — opened the lead to 22-6 midway through the third quarter.
That proved to be plenty against Houston and rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, who finished 28-of-44 for 242 yards but was sacked five times. Stroud was buried on a fourth-and-1 sack by Patrick Queen on the Texans’ opening possession, and the Texans ran only one play inside the Ravens’ 15-yard line — a sack by Roquan Smith.
After the ragged start, Jackson and the Ravens’ offense looked more efficient in the second half, including an eight-play, 71-yard touchdown drive that included a 19-yard pass to rookie Zay Flowers followed by an 18-yarder to Rashod Bateman, who was playing his first game in more than 10 months.
“We just operated well” on that opening drive of the second half, Harbaugh said. “We hit our assignments. We lined up. We had a little rhythm. Of course, Lamar made some great throws. … We kind of had our feet set a little to start the second half, and we were in position to take the game over.”
The Ravens played without All-Pro tight end Mark Andrews, who is nursing a quad injury, and Flowers stepped up as Jackson’s favorite target, with a team-high nine catches for 78 yards in his NFL debut. In fact, Flowers had more than half of the Ravens’ receptions, as Jackson finished 17-for-22 for 169 yards. He also ran six times for a team-high 38 yards.
In addition to Dobbins, though, the Ravens lost left tackle Ronnie Stanley (knee) and center Tyler Linderbaum (ankle) to injuries during the game, and safety Marcus Williams left early with a shoulder injury. Harbaugh said all those injuries would be further evaluated via MRI.
Here are five quick impressions of the win, the 12th in 16 season openers for Harbaugh:
1. Dobbins’ injury is a cruel twist in an ongoing drama, but it’s also a huge loss on the field.
After catching a 10-yard swing pass in the first quarter, Dobbins looked toward the Ravens bench and gave the “feed me” sign. A few plays later, he went up and over defenders for a 4-yard touchdown run, and it appeared the running back would get his wish.
But in the third quarter, he was wrestled to the ground after catching a pass near the Houston end zone and was helped from the field by trainers. Head coach John Harbaugh later confirmed Dobbins has a torn Achilles, ending his season.
It’s a stunning twist in a drama that has played out all summer and really, for the past three years, ever since Dobbins suffered a torn ACL in the final preseason game of 2021. That injury, as much as anything, is the reason Dobbins, Jackson and virtually every other offensive starter sat out the three preseason games, as Harbaugh has increasingly viewed the risk as not worth the reward.
Dobbins’ injury this time is compounded by the fact that he is in the final year of his rookie deal, and had been dissatisfied that the team had not worked out a long-term extension with him. He sat out voluntary OTA workouts, he reported to mandatory minicamp but did not take part, and he sat out the early part of training camp, all the while watching the running back market around the league essentially crater.
And now he is dealing with a torn Achilles and his season is over after less than one game.
Harbaugh said he was “crestfallen” about the injury, and Patrick Queen had to compose himself a couple of times when asked about Dobbins.
“It hurts to see that type of stuff happen to somebody so good,” Queen said. “[He’s] just a good person, good athlete. … I just ask that everybody prays for him, pray for his mental [state].”
“It’s just tough,” he added. “It just hurts, honestly. It hurts a lot.”
Defensive tackle Justin Madubuike just looked at the ceiling, let out a long sigh and waited a long time to speak after being told of the diagnosis. It’s clear that the injury resonated throughout the locker room.
On the field, though, the Ravens will need to soldier on, and that will mean Hill and Gus Edwards must take on a larger role. Neither has the burst or elusiveness of Dobbins at his peak, but they have their own skill sets. Hill totaled nine yards on eight carries but scored twice, while Edwards ran eight times for 32 yards and scored on a two-point conversion.
Veteran practice squad running back Melvin Gordon could also be called into action as soon as this week. Undrafted rookie Keaton Mitchell is on injured reserve and not available until Week 5 at the earliest.
Hill came through with two touchdowns in this game, and that was fitting for a player who shouldered most of the load at running back in the grinding days of spring and summer. Dobbins was sitting out, and Edwards was still rehabbing from injury, so Hill was effectively the No. 1 running back on practice fields in May and June, hardly ever missing a rep. Now he’s doubled his career touchdown total.
“For me, it’s exciting,” Hill said. “It took a lot of work to get this.”
2. Zay Flowers showed the summer buzz was justified.
Wide receiver and top draft pick Zay Flowers was one of the stars of Ravens training camp, but plenty of rookies have shined in August and then dimmed in September once the games begin. Flowers, though, was a dominant part of the Ravens’ game plan from the outset, Lamar Jackson’s favorite target with tight end Mark Andrews watching from the sideline with a quad injury.
Using the shiftiness he showed all summer, Flowers turned several quick passes into moderate gains, juking Texans defenders for yardage after the catch. (The Texans, thought, got wise to him later, as his last two catches netted minus-9 yards). Flowers finished with nine catches — more than half of the Ravens’ receptions — on 10 targets for 78 yards. He also ran twice on jet sweeps, totaling 9 yards, and it seems that will be a key part of the Ravens’ offense this season.
Maybe most important, Flowers played a big role on the Ravens’ opening series of the second half as they rolled to a 71-yard touchdown drive and began to pull away. Flowers caught a 20-yard pass down the right side, then caught a short pass that he turned into a 19-yard gain. Flowers finished with three catches on that drive, which ended with Justice Hill’s first of two touchdowns for a 15-6 lead after Gus Edwards’ two-point conversion.
Flowers said after the game that he would have been pleased with two catches in his debut. Instead, in an offense that features fellow first-round picks Odell Beckham Jr. and Rashod Bateman, Flowers set a Ravens record for the most catches by any player in his first career game, with nine catches for 78 yards.
“I already knew what Zay was capable of,” quarterback Lamar Jackson said, “and he showed it himself, making guys miss and running great routes, catching the ball [and] getting up the field.”
Beckham, meanwhile, totaled two catches for 37 yards, including a tough, over-the-shoulder catch for 29 yards that had fans chanting “OBJ! OBJ!” Still, it was the rookie who stole the show among the receivers, and it was clear that both Lamar Jackson and new coordinator Todd Monken trust him implicitly.
3. The Ravens stressed that their pass rush can come from all over and they showed it.
Much of the preseason chatter surrounding the Ravens’ defense this year centered on the edge rush, and whether the Ravens had the personnel to get to the quarterback. Sure, the Ravens trust their young edge rushers such as Odafe Oweh and David Ojabo, but players and coaches alike stressed that the pass rush is never restricted to the edge, and the Ravens schemes’ can generate pressure from all over.
Case in point: This game, in which the Ravens recorded five sacks, with four of them from players other than edge rushers. It began immediately. On the Texans’ first possession, they opted to play for a first down on fourth-and-1. C.J. Stroud dropped back to throw but was flattened by inside linebacker Patrick Queen. Later in the game, inside linebacker Roquan Smith also dropped Stroud on the only snap of the game that the Texans took inside the Ravens’ 10-yard line.
Defensive tackle Justin Madubuike also tracked down Stroud for a sack, and slot corner Ar’Darius Washington got in on the act with the first sack of his career. Late in the game, Ojabo, playing in just his third career game, stripped Stroud and forced a fumble that was recovered by Michael Pierce.
Harbaugh singled out Ojabo’s strip-sack, implying that he both heard and took exception to criticism this summer that Ojabo had a quiet training camp. Ojabo, who thrived under Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald at Michigan, now has a strip-sack in two of his three career games. The Ravens will take that production all day.
Madubuike echoed his coach, saying he was “so proud” of Ojabo. “Lots of criticism. Lot of ‘he said, she said,’ and a lot of outside noise coming his way. He stayed hungry, and he’s performing. … He has a very, very bright future in this league.”
The Ravens could have had more sacks, too; Jadaveon Clowney, in his Ravens debut, watched Stroud spin out of his grasp on a potential sack in the first quarter, and Oweh was a shade late another time but finished with a team-high three quarterback hits.
This is what the Ravens envision with Macdonald’s defense, with pressure coming from all over.
“There’s always going to be question marks, but we are not going to worry about outside noise,” Ojabo said. “We know what we have in the room. We know what we have in this defense. All we have to do is execute.”
4. The offensive line returned four starters but it didn’t look like it, and now it could be short-handed.
The novelty of the new Ravens offense begged a lot of questions entering the season opener, but the offensive line didn’t appear to be one of them. The Ravens returned four of five starters, anchored by Pro Bowl left tackle Ronnie Stanley. Right guard Kevin Zeitler and right tackle Morgan Moses are veteran, durable stalwarts, and center Tyler Linderbaum was back at center after playing every snap as a first-round draft pick a year ago. Only John Simpson, who has NFL starting experience, was a new addition, sliding in to the vacant left guard spot.
Yet the Texans’ defensive front gave this group fits. They frequently won one-on-one battles, collapsed the pocket and didn’t let Lamar Jackson get into any rhythm, especially early. Jackson finished the first half 7-for-11 for 60 yards and one interception, and more than once he had to tuck the ball and run or otherwise get on the move to avoid pressure.
Zeitler acknowledged the group was “rusty” and called the game a “great wakeup call.” Of the starters, only Simpson played in the preseason.
Things seemed to solidify for this group in the second half — but only until the Ravens lost two of the five starters with injuries. Stanley left the game with a knee injury, and then Linderbaum hobbled off with an ankle injury. Neither returned. The Ravens had to turn to practice squad call-up Sam Mustipher at center and super-utility lineman Patrick Mekari at left tackle.
Overall, Jackson was sacked four times, and the Ravens averaged 3.4 yards a carry, with 32 rushes for 110 yards. Jackson accounted for 38 of that; the three running backs had 24 carries for 63 yards.
The Texans’ defense figured to be the strength of its team early, with rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud getting up to speed, and it provided a stiff test for the Ravens up front. It won’t get any easier in the upcoming weeks. The Ravens will need to hope they get good medical reports on Stanley and Linderbaum and that this group elevates its play beginning next week.
“You never want to see that,” Zeitler said. “Tyler and Ronnie are extraordinary players with next-level talent that can be big difference-makers. One thing the Ravens do well is we always have great offensive line depth. … So whoever has to step up, if and when, I know they will be able to play and do the things we need to do.”
5. The Ravens are limping into an early, critical stretch of AFC North games.
NFL players often invoke the “24-hour rule” — they can enjoy a win for 24 hours, but then the focus quickly shifts to the next opponent. For the Ravens, that becomes especially important. Beginning with Week 2 the Ravens embark on a grueling stretch that will include three AFC North games, all on the road, in the next four weeks.
The rash of injuries suffered against Houston only makes that stretch more daunting.
The Ravens visit Cincinnati this coming week in a rematch of last year’s AFC playoff game won by the Bengals, 24-17, on a 98-yard fumble return by Sam Hubbard. The Bengals have become the team to beat in the AFC North, though the Cleveland Browns did just that with a 24-3 statement win in Week 1.
The intensity of the Ravens-Bengals rivalry has ramped up significantly in the past few years, and there’s no reason to think the Week 2 matchup will be any different, especially with a wounded, angry, 0-1 Bengals team waiting.
After the Bengals game, the Ravens return home to host Indianapolis in Week 3, then will visit Cleveland and Pittsburgh in back-to-back weeks.
Meanwhile, they will have to do so without J.K. Dobbins, and possibly without three others who left the Houston game with injuries. In addition, cornerback Marlon Humphrey has yet to practice since his mid-August foot surgery, so his status is highly questionable as well, a daunting thought with Ja’Marr Chase and the Bengals’ passing attack awaiting. Tight end Mark Andrews missed this game but was trending toward playing this coming week.
The AFC North has run through Cincinnati the past couple of years, and if the Ravens want to change that, it starts next week.
This story has been updated since its original publication.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox