Ravens Beat Houston In Week 1; Quick Takes

The 2023 Baltimore Ravens season began today with a Week 1 25-9 victory over the Houston Texans.

Between the injuries and the sloppy overall play; it was a rough watch.

Some quick takes on what we saw:

1) JK Dobbins has been lost for the year with an Achilles injury.  That’s extremely unfortunate for the Ravens, and the not yet 25 year old RB. Dobbins missed all of the ’21 season to injury, missed half of ’22 to injury, and will miss the rest of this ’23 season. Between Gus Edwards, Justice Hill, Keaton Mitchell (currently on the Injured list), and possibly Melvin Gordon III (Practice Squad); the Ravens have some viable answers at RB. These are players that can provide production.  What Dobbins injury does is lower the overall potential for the offense.

2) In 2023, we don’t see veterans play much at all in the preseason. Teams also limit the hitting in camps.  That’s understandable, as you don’t want your star player getting beaten up before a real game ever begins. But maybe there is something to the idea of getting some preseason snaps? This game was ugly. The Ravens had 13 penalties for 106 yards. There were multiple turnovers. CBS Sports called today, and their announcing duo of Spero Dedes and Adam Archuleta were preaching patience. Reminding Ravens fans that this was a new offense, with a new Coordinator. That there wasn’t an abundance of time together for the starting offense in the Summer, and that it would be a work-in-progress. All understandable, viable points. You’d still would have liked to have seen a cleaner performance.

3) The new Offensive Coordinator of course is Todd Monken.  It was not an inspiring debut for his offense. While he’s coming from college (Georgia), he’s been a pro Coordinator previously. There shouldn’t be a learning curve for him. Maybe he made some adjustments in the second half which allowed the Ravens offense to get going? I was frustrated in the first half by the Ravens issues with blitz pickup. I also thought there could have been an earlier commitment to the running game. For the game, the Ravens finished with 32 carries for 110 yards on the ground. That includes Jackson’s 38 yards.  Edwards, Dobbins, and Hill each had 8 carries. Dobbins averaged just 2.8 yards per carry, and Hill averaged an anemic 1.1.  Jackson threw for just 169 yards and did not find the endzone, while being sacked 4 times.  The offense has to be more than, “Jackson, do stuff.”  Utilize the players you have, and put them in the best positions possible to utilize the talents they have. Be able to vary your efforts depending on what defenses show you. I’m not down or out Monken after 1 game, that would be crazy. But even without Dobbins, I think the Ravens should start with running the ball, use that to set-up play-action, and to slow opposing pass rush. I won’t be excited if it becomes clear the focus is to throw open the running attack.

4) One bright note for the offense and Ravens as a whole, was the debut of Zay Flowers. If Monken’s offense did anything effective today, it was the quick hits to Flowers, giving the Rookie opportunities to make plays in space. 9 catches, 78 yards, and he even had 2 carries. Flowers was ready to go, and that’s exciting.

5) Odafe Oweh had some pressures, and David Ojabo got to CJ Stroud for a sack.  That was encouraging.

6) The Ravens actually had 5 sacks on the day, with Roquan Smith, Patrick Queen, Ar’Darius Washington, and Justin Madubuike each getting in the books next to Ojabo.

7) In addition to Dobbins’ injury, we also saw Ronnie Stanley, Tyler Linderbaum, and Marcus Williams get knicked up.

8) Playing next to Smith obviously helps a lot, but Queen has become a quality ILB.

9) With Mark Andrews held out of today’s game, there was some opportunity for Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar to get involved with the offense right away. They combined for just 1 catch, and Kolar dropped an easy one. It also felt like they had some blocking issues.

10) The Ravens are going to go as far as Jackson takes them. If he stays on the field, the Ravens will generally be productive, and win their share of games. There is always heavy – probably overdone – scrutiny on QB’s. They get too much credit when things go right, and too much blame when things go wrong. That’s just the nature of the beat. It’s certainly only amplified when the QB is making $50+M annually.  The Ravens are going to need Jackson to regularly be the best player on the field. That doesn’t mean he has to make every play on his own. He has to serve as the orchestrator and elevate those around him; and also know when to call his own number.

11) I thought Ronald Darby had a couple of good tackles.  OBJ had his first couple of catches as a Raven, and Rashod Bateman had 3 grabs of his own.

On To Next Week

Next week, the Ravens travel to Cincinnati to face the Bengals.

For those Ravens fans really feeling bad about today’s performance; check out the boxscore from the Browns 24-3 win today over the Bengals. 

Joe Burrow was 14 of 31 for 82 yards. Injured camp or not, that wasn’t the debut the Bengals were expecting.

You can expect Cincinnati to look better next Sunday; but it’s a great opportunity for the Ravens to pin an 0-2 start on their division rival.

ESPN’s Analytics give the Ravens a 42.6% chance of winning,

No Marlon Humphrey. No Marcus Williams.  I don’t think the Bengals are going to be held to 3 points again next week.

I think the Ravens will need to see a significant uptick in their offensive performance to have a chance at leaving the Queen City with the W.