BALTIMORE — The Ravens thought they might have a last-gasp chance to win their preseason opener after Philadelphia Eagles kicker Jake Elliott bonked a 50-yard field-goal try off the upright with 16 seconds left in a tie game.
But on the Ravens’ next play, quarterback Emory Jones — on his first snap — was sacked and fumbled, and the Eagles recovered, essentially giving Elliott a do-over. This time, the kicker made a 49-yarder as time expired to give the Eagles a 16-13 win at M&T Bank Stadium on Aug. 9.
As expected, the Ravens sat every skill position starter, including quarterback Lamar Jackson, and the offense scuffled. And as was the case in the first week of training camp practice when Jackson sat out with an illness, the offense struggled to find much rhythm.
The Ravens’ best drive of the first half covered 61 yards in 10 plays, but they were held to a field goal despite having first-and-goal at the Eagles’ 8-yard line. Justin Tucker hit a 21-yarder to cap that drive, and he had earlier connected from 46 yards at the end of the Ravens’ opening drive.
Running back Owen Wright accounted for all 29 yards of offense that drive, with a 12-yard run and a 17-yard catch.
The Eagles, who sat starting quarterback Jalen Hurts and most other starters, took a 6-3 lead late in the first quarter on a 7-yard touchdown pass from backup Kenny Pickett to running back Will Shipley, but Elliott hit the upright and missed that point-after conversion.
Trailing 13-6 in the fourth quarter, the Ravens put together a 61-yard scoring drive that ended when rookie quarterback Devin Leary powered across the goal line on fourth-and-1 with 5:46 left. But it took the Ravens four plays to go four yards in that sequence, with rookie running back Rasheen Ali stopped short of the goal line three times.
The Eagles then took over and essentially held the ball for the remainder of the game, except for one disastrous fumble by Jones.
“The great thing about a first game is you get an opportunity to see where you’re at,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said. “You get to see some good stuff, and you get to see [where] you’re exposed and what you need to work on. Sometimes it’s hard to see that in practice.”
Here are five quick takeaways from the preseason opener for the Ravens, who return to preseason action next Saturday against Atlanta in an unusual noon kickoff at M&T Bank Stadium:
1. This team badly needs Lamar Jackson to stay healthy.
On almost every NFL team, losing the starting quarterback is big trouble, but this game showed just how far the separation is between reigning Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson and the other Ravens signal-callers.
To be fair, Johnson and Leary were playing without every top skill player on offense. No Mark Andrews, no Zay Flowers, no Rashod Bateman, no Derrick Henry, no Isaiah Likely, no Justice Hill. It’s fair to wonder what Jackson’s offense would have looked like without all those players, but it probably would have looked better than this.
Johnson, who played the first half, made a couple of nice throws early but finished 4-for-12 for 62 yards and missed on his last six passes. Leary, the sixth-round rookie, took over and also struggled to get much going through the air. He finished 6-for-10 for 37 yards, though Harbaugh noted that the receivers didn’t always run the correct routes.
Harbaugh praised some of the throws of both Johnson and Leary, and he said that the choppy play in Week 1 of the preseason isn’t isolated to his team.
“I think if you watch all of the preseason games, you’re going to see the same,” Harbaugh said. ” I thought [Johnson] handled it well, made some really good throws. The timing and that sort of thing, yes, that’s tough to evaluate, because the guys aren’t all out there.”
2. The concern about the edge rush hasn’t gone away.
John Harbaugh revealed after the game that David Ojabo still has not been medically cleared to play in games, and with Odafe Oweh and Kyle Van Noy sitting out, the Ravens leaned on second-year linebacker Tavius Robinson and undrafted rookie Joe Evans for extensive work as edge rushers.
Evans finished with six tackles, but neither he nor Robinson registered a quarterback hit. The Ravens finished with two sacks, one from Damarion “Pepe” Williams on a slot corner blitz and one shared by interior linemen C.J. Ravenell and Tramel Walthour.
With Ojabo not yet cleared, with rookie third-round pick Adisa Isaac not yet up to speed — he came off the Non-Football Injury list just a few days ago — with Malik Hamm on injured reserve and his replacement, Quincy Roche also hurt, the Ravens are short on numbers on the edge.
Last season, the signings of Clowney in late July and Van Noy in September paid huge dividends. It’s probably unrealistic to think the Ravens could pull off a coup like those two signings, but it seems the Ravens will need to be looking closely at the waiver wire for edge rushers to get some proven players to add to a thin group.
3. Nate Wiggins’ impressive debut ended with a concerning injury.
Fans wanting to get a good look at rookie first-round pick Nate Wiggins didn’t have to wait long. With starters Marlon Humphrey and Brandon Stephens sitting out, Wiggins started at one outside cornerback spot, and Eagles quarterback Kenny Pickett — who started in place of starter Jalen Hurts — tested Wiggins right away.
Wiggins was up to the task.
In a span of four plays on the Eagles’ opening series, Wiggins broke up three passes, including a fourth-down pass intended for Joseph Ngata. On a deep pass, Wiggins stayed with John Ross down the right sideline, and he might have had an interception if he had turned around and spotted the underthrown ball. But Wiggins shut down the Eagles’ opening drive.
Wiggins’ night took an ominous turn, though, when he headed into the blue medical tent after making a tackle early in the third quarter. He then went directly to the locker room with what the Ravens announced as a shoulder injury.
Harbaugh had no update on Wiggins immediately after the game.
The Ravens’ secondary depth was considered a strength of the team, but it is suddenly being tested. Top slot corner Arthur Maulet had an arthroscopic knee procedure that will likely sideline him into the regular season, rookie T.J. Tampa (sports hernia) remains on the Physically-Unable-To-Perform list and Travyon Mullen suffered a shoulder injury a couple of weeks ago and hasn’t returned to practice.
The Ravens still have nearly a month until the regular-season opener, but losing Wiggins for an extended period would take yet another big bite out of that secondary depth.
4. Trenton Simpson looks the part.
From the night he was drafted, Trenton Simpson seemed to be on course to succeed Patrick Queen as a starter in 2024. And in his first true experience in that role, he looked ready.
Simpson finished with a game-high 11 tackles and played about three full quarters. That might have been more than the Ravens had wished for, but inside linebacker Chris Board left the game early with a concussion, leaving Simpson to man the middle of the field for most of the game.
“As a young linebacker, I feel like getting as many reps [as possible] is a blessing,” Simpson said. “The more you see at this position, the more you learn, the faster you can play.”
With Roquan Smith sitting out, Simpson wore the “green dot” headset helmet as the de facto on-field leader of the defense; he got the calls from new defensive coordinator Zach Orr and had to relay them to the rest of the defense, and he looked comfortable and in command.
“I loved that, because I have to send that message to the other 10 guys out there on the field with me, but just getting that green dot for the first time, it gave me a lot of confidence,” Simpson said. “… After the game, I was asking, ‘Could everybody hear me?’ and I got good remarks. So, [I’m] just continuing to grow and learning every practice — every game.”
As has been the case on the practice fields, Simpson’s speed showed up. For the most part, he got downhill and in attack mode quickly. Simpson acknowledged that he missed a few assignments or made a few bad reads that left him out of position, but overall, he looked ready to step in alongside Smith in games that count.
5. The new kickoff format looks goofy, but the NFL will get what it wants out of it.
There’s no denying that the new kickoff alignment takes some getting used to. Justin Tucker or the opposing kicker is essentially on an island back at his own 35-yard line, while every other player is on the other side of the field, with two players deep for a return.
It all looks a little gimmicky, but for the league, it is going to accomplish its mission. Last year, NFL kickoffs were returned at a rate of 22 percent, the lowest in league history. Wanting to inject returns back into the game, the league essentially created a steeper penalty for a touchback than before (ball spotted at the 30), and incentivized teams to land the kick in a so-called “landing area,” between the goal line and 20-yard line to generate returns.
Tucker’s first kick went in the end zone for a touchback, but every other kick was returned. Rasheen Ali had the game’s longest return at 31 yards, and Dayton Wade (26 yards) and Chris Collier (24 yards) also had returns for the Ravens.
On the three returned kickoffs by the Ravens, the Eagles began possession at the 25, the 25 and the 33.
“It is what it is,” Harbaugh said. “You all saw it. So we’re just going to try to get as good as we can at it. We’ll be looking at it really hard and trying to keep improving there.”
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox