BALTIMORE — With long faces and somber stares, Ravens players and head coach John Harbaugh reckoned with a start to the 2024 season that none of them envisioned 10 days ago.
Expected to contend for the Super Bowl again, the Ravens sit at 0-2 after they blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead and lost to the Las Vegas Raiders, 26-23, in the home opener at M&T Bank Stadium on Sept. 15.
This marks the first time the Ravens have started 0-2 since 2015.
Las Vegas scored the game’s final 13 points during the last 9:21, and Daniel Carlson’s 38-yard field goal with 27 seconds left proved to be the decisive score. The Raiders were able to bleed most of the clock after the Ravens ran out of timeouts, in part because Harbaugh unsuccessfully used a challenge earlier in the second half.
That was one of two failed challenges by Harbaugh, but the Ravens’ missteps cut deeper than that. Poor execution, decision-making and costly penalties — a couple of them questionable — all sapped any momentum the Ravens tried to build against the Raiders (1-1), who came to Baltimore as a touchdown-plus underdog.
The Ravens did not trail until the final minute, and twice they built 10-point, second-half leads. But each time they appeared primed to pull away, they failed to do so.
The Ravens opened a 16-6 lead on the opening drive of the third quarter when Lamar Jackson tossed an 8-yard touchdown pass to Zay Flowers, who led the Ravens with seven catches for 91 yards.
The Ravens got the ball back leading by 10, but then Jackson’s pass to Rashod Bateman glanced off Bateman’s hands in traffic and was picked off by Raiders linebacker Robert Spillane.
That set up a 46-yard scoring drive capped by Alexander Mattison’s 1-yard touchdown, trimming the Ravens’ lead to 16-13.
The Ravens built the lead back to 10 in the fourth quarter when Derrick Henry powered over the goal line on a 3-yard, direct-snap run. Henry, who had been totally bottled up in the first half, appeared to finally hit his stride in the second half, and his score pushed the Ravens’ lead to 23-13 with 12:11 left.
From then on, though, it was pretty much all Raiders. Carlson’s third field goal, this one from 25 yards, cut Baltimore’s lead to 23-16. With the Ravens facing third-and-short from their own 29-yard line, Henry was whistled for a false start as the Ravens lined up for a power sneak to try to gain a yard. After the penalty they faced third-and-5, and Jackson threw incomplete to Flowers, forcing a punt.
Veteran Gardner Minshew, who orchestrated an upset win at M&T Bank Stadium last year as a member of the Indianapolis Colts, then engineered a 70-yard scoring drive.
Minshew leaned on receiver Davante Adams (nine catches, 110 yards) and tight end Brock Bowers (9-98), with the huge play coming on third-and-goal from the Ravens’ 17-yard line. Brandon Stephens was called for pass interference in the end zone on a pass to Adams, giving the Raiders a first down at the Ravens’ 1-yard line. On the next play, Minshew faked a handoff and hit Adams for the game-tying score with 3:54 left.
The Ravens quickly went three-and-out, the drive disrupted when Raiders All-Pro edge rusher Maxx Crosby buried Jackson on a first-down sack. The boos began to rain down when Jackson’s third-and-19 swing pass to running back Justice Hill covered three yards, and things got worse when punter Jordan Stout shanked his worst punt of the season, which floated out of bounds after 24 yards.
Already in Ravens territory, the Raiders moved 23 yards in six plays, using nearly the entire clock to set up Carlson’s winning kick.
The Ravens had a last-gasp possession hoping to reach field-goal range for Justin Tucker, but Jackson’s third-down pass to Isaiah Likely in Raiders territory was broken up on the sideline by cornerback Jack Jones. With one second left, Jackson scrambled into Raiders territory, but after a series of laterals, the ball, and the game, bounced away.
The teams had traded field goals in a slog of a first half in which neither offense could find consistent rhythm. Jackson led the Ravens on a 10-play, 56-yard drive in the final two minutes of the half, and Justin Tucker’s third field goal of the game, this one from 32 yards, gave the Ravens a 9-6 halftime lead.
Here are five quick impressions of the game, just the fourth loss in 17 home openers for Harbaugh:
1. It’s not time to panic, but it is time for leaders to lead.
John Harbaugh vowed to look at “every little thing” coming out of this loss. If that sounds as if could grow into a long list, it probably should. The Ravens will look at flaws that have been exposed on offense, on defense, and on special teams. They will look at schemes, and personnel choices, and decision-making, and yes, that should extend to self-scrutiny of Harbaugh as well.
Ultimately, though, rebounding from the first 0-2 start many of these players have experienced in the NFL is going to come down to them.
It’s time for leaders to lead.
Lamar Jackson has said that he is a more vocal, commanding leader this year. Roquan Smith is a “force multiplier” who makes those around him better, general manager Eric DeCosta said. Smith commands attention and authority in the locker room. Ronnie Stanley and Marlon Humphrey are two of the most veteran players on the team.
Players such as them, and tight end Mark Andrews or safety Kyle Hamilton, who is quickly becoming a face of the franchise, will have the task of patching up the confidence of this wounded group and keeping them on task.
“We all have to be better,” Andrews said.
Losing two in a row at any point doesn’t doom the season. Just two years ago, the Cincinnati Bengals started 0-2 and then reached the AFC title game. It’s hardly time to panic. Of course, if the losing snowballs into a crisis of confidence or finger-pointing that affects future games, then the problem grows exponentially.
As Bill Parcells famously said, you are what the record says you are. The Ravens are 0-2. They have to own it, and they have to move past it.
It’s up to the leaders on this team to step up and make sure they do that.
2. Odafe Oweh and the edge rushers showed up again.
One bright spot for the Ravens was the disruptive pass rush from the edge group. The Ravens finished with five sacks, with 4.5 coming from their edge rushers. Odafe Oweh finished with 2.5, the first multi-sack game of his career, and that included a strip-sack on the Raiders’ first offensive snap. (The Raiders recovered.)
Kyle Van Noy, who was questionable to play because of a fractured orbital bone he suffered in Week 1, had a pair of sacks. With the Raiders threatening inside the Ravens’ 10-yard line, Van Noy sacked Gardner Minshew at the 17, and it appeared that might limit the Raiders to a field goal. But on the next play, Brandon Stephens was flagged for pass interference in the end zone.
David Ojabo wasn’t credited with any sacks, but he did flush Minshew from the pocket more than once.
The edge rush group was a primary concern entering the season, but Oweh, Van Noy and Ojabo showed how they can affect a game. And after being one of the most impressive players of training camp, Oweh has carried that over to the regular season. That bodes well for him and this team.
3. The running game can’t sleep through one half and beat good teams.
On the opening drive of the second half, Derrick Henry slashed off left tackle for 29 yards, setting up the Ravens’ first touchdown, an 8-yard pass from Jackson to Zay Flowers. Later in the half, he gained 17, again finding room on the left side.
Henry finished with 18 carries for 84 yards and a score, respectable totals, but it also begs the question: Where was any of that in the first half? The Ravens’ ground game in the first half was abysmal.
On one handoff, Raiders edge rusher Maxx Crosby exploded off the right side and hammered Henry for a loss, nearly getting to the mesh point before Henry did. At halftime, Ravens running backs Henry and Justice Hill had netted 8 yards on nine carries.
The offensive line remains a work in progress, and some of the scrutiny from within the facility might focus on whether the Ravens have the right five players starting up front. Rookie right tackle Roger Rosengarten again came off the bench, and he appeared to get stronger as the game went on. Guard Daniel Faalele still struggles to win in the interior, leaving the right side of the Ravens’ line in a state of flux.
Thus far, Harbaugh has staunchly defended the offensive line as constructed. It should be apparent this week whether he thinks any change is needed.
“I’ll look at the tape, and we’ll see,” Harbaugh said. “We’re always going to play the best players.”
The Ravens’ identity is built on being physical and winning up front. Having a running game that is completely shut down for half a game will not be a recipe for beating good teams.
4. Justin Tucker suddenly looks vulnerable.
To Justin Tucker’s credit, a missed kick by him has always been a noteworthy, if not shocking, event. That’s the credibility that comes with being the most accurate kicker in NFL history. But the past two seasons, missed long kicks by Tucker have become a troubling trend.
Tucker missed a 56-yarder in the second quarter against the Raiders that prevented the Ravens from adding to a 6-3 lead. Since the beginning of last season, he is now 1-for-7 on kicks from beyond 50 yards.
Tucker drew a crowd at his locker after the game, which generally comes after he has nailed a game-winner, something he has done 19 times in his career. Is time catching up to Tucker, who turns 35 in November? Is there something mechanical? Is he just in a slump, as baseball players will go through at times?
“As simply as I can put it, it’s not my favorite topic of discussion,” Tucker said, “but I just missed the kick. I don’t want to continue having this conversation.”
Tucker said dwelling on past failures does no good and, “What is going to help us is continuing to trust the process and just come together as a team and get to work. This is a long season.”
Harbaugh said he has the “utmost confidence” in his seven-time Pro Bowl kicker, who has made 89.9 percent of his field-goal attemps in his career. “He’s our guy,” Harbaugh said. “We believe in Justin, for sure.”
It speaks to that trust that they will send him out to try kicks some teams will bypass because they’re so far. But it’s also notable that last week, NFL kickers went 21-for-23 on kicks of 50-plus yards, and Tucker was one of the two who missed.
If the Ravens need a 55-yarder next week, or the week after that, Harbaugh will send the ever confident Tucker out there to do his thing. But when Tucker misses more consistently, as he has from distance the past two seasons, it feels as if the foundation is teetering off its axis just a bit.
5. The stakes grow exponentially now.
John Harbaugh declared at his postgame news conference that, “We’re going to play a 17-game season, and we will be defined by the next 15 games.”
Every team will slip up at times during the course of a 17-game season. But the Ravens quickly find themselves in a hole, two games behind the front-running Pittsburgh Steelers (2-0) in the AFC North.
In fact, the Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals, who lost at the buzzer to the Kansas City Chiefs, sit in the basement of the division at 0-2, and they will meet in three weeks in a game that now will carry enormous early-season implications.
Before that, the Ravens must go to Dallas next week to face a Cowboys team that will be smarting after being shellacked at home by New Orleans, 44-19, and then the Ravens host Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills in a “Sunday Night Football” showdown.
It’s a rugged three-week stretch, and these two early losses — to Kansas City (27-20) and now Las Vegas — both raises the sense of urgency and reduces the margin for error.
“All we can do is respond,” linebacker Roquan Smith said.
“Trust me, it sucks more for us than anyone else,” Smith said, “and I just know we’re going to put our head down and keep going and correct our mistakes. Because there’s no way we should be 0-2, but it is what it is.”
This story has been updated since its original publication.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox