It feels quite empty to talk about the football game.
That’s in part because it was, for the most part, quite the dreadful football game. To be clear, you never apologize for winning any football game in the NFL. It is irrelevant whether a spread was covered or how many style points were collected or which players had disappointing fantasy football performances. A win is a good thing.
We can nitpick aspects of the Ravens’ performance all week. The negatives (Lamar Jackson’s rusty performance and the many, MANY penalties among them) are at least somewhat mitigated by the nature of a season opener, the lack of preseason playing time, Jackon’s long absence, a new offensive system, Mark Andrews’ absence, etc. Some of the more encouraging aspects (Zay Flowers’ sparkling debut, Odafe Oweh’s emergence) are at least somewhat mitigated by the nature of the competition.
I’ll be accused of suggesting this is a zero-sum game and that will be fair. The performances of Flowers and Oweh (among others) mattered and someone is going to lose to the Texans this season. If it had been the Ravens it might have ultimately derailed their postseason hopes. Winning a football game is a good thing, plain and simple.
But as far as what we may have learned from this particular game? This feels like the definition of “get back to me in a few weeks.” If Jackson’s sluggish play turns into a pattern, this matters. If the offense kicks into a higher gear in Cincinnati next week, there will be no reason for anyone to remember any single detail about this football game. Which is good, because no one will.
Well … except for the thing. Which gets us back to feeling empty.
I have struggled to come up with the words to describe how I feel about J.K. Dobbins’ injury. This provides the perfect opportunity for an “empathy vs. sympathy” lesson for someone you know. “Sympathy” isn’t the appropriate feeling here (aside from not wanting another person to feel any physical pain). Dobbins will have made nearly $6 million from playing football at the end of this season and has been able to make more via business opportunities. A torn Achilles won’t take that money away, nor will it alone bring about the end of his opportunities to profit within the sport.
And yet, even if “sympathy” isn’t necessarily the correct feeling, it still feels so cruel. Dobbins’ path has been dramatically derailed by injury throughout the past three seasons. It is spectacularly inequitable. He’s arguably never had a fair shake in the NFL. Remembering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, he has not been able to experience a single “normal” and healthy NFL season. How can that be possible?
Moreover, Dobbins has dealt with these injuries in the shadow of what perhaps should have been a scandalous report card about the team’s strength staff. (By the way, when do we start talking about the “message vs. messenger” thing that should have come along with the team simply promoting Steve Saunders’ replacement from within?) His trust issues with the team have always felt warranted, as disagreements about surgery also blended with league-wide unrest among running backs.
Which, again, is why you feel so empathetic. Dobbins appeared to recognize the losing game his fellow backs were playing of late. The league has decided the players at this position are expendable. Jonathan Taylor’s contention is correct. Dobbins was criticized for “holding in” during training camp because it appeared to be a protest with no end game. The Ravens weren’t going to reward Dobbins with a contract before he had a wildly productive season. It was never going to be “successful.”
And yet, it also felt like Dobbins, whether for himself or his running back brotherhood, had to do something. He recognized that there was a chance that the team might still not pay him even if he had a productive season. He also recognized that he’d be putting himself at risk of injury by playing without a long-term deal.
It just feels so nakedly cruel.
The loss of Dobbins impacts the Ravens significantly. It’s not just that they were counting on him, they were actually hoping for an even more dynamic version of Dobbins than anything we had seen before. We saw during his brief time on the field how his role might change as a pass-catcher. While the league continues to attempt to artificially devalue players at the position, the Ravens have not once proven to be capable of being as good without Dobbins on the field as they are with him.
Justice Hill will have the opportunity to prove he’s capable of taking on a bigger role. Given his dynamism, it feels like he’ll be the primary benefactor of the additional available playing time. Gus Edwards should have a larger role as well. Melvin Gordon will factor into the conversation and perhaps in the coming weeks rookie Keaton Mitchell could play a role as well. I can’t fathom the Ravens dipping their toes in the Jonathan Taylor waters, but it remains to be seen how delusional the Colts will remain in trade talks.
Hopefully, there will be better news with other players who were hurt in the Texans game. Hopefully the Ravens will unveil a quality replacement plan at the position in the coming weeks. In the meantime, that empty feeling seems unlikely to go away.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox