Looking Back, Looking Ahead – Chapter 2

The Ravens had one job in Week 2 and that was to emerge victorious. Style points were not on the bingo card for the 30th season celebration at M and T Bank Stadium because it was the Browns on the opposing sideline.

Outside of an absolutely flawless 60 minutes of football, there wasn’t much that the Ravens could do this past Sunday to quiet any whispers about their mental makeup and how the ghosts of Januarys past seemingly visited them at Highmark Stadium in Buffalo on Opening Night.

Although the final score was a comfortable 41-17, there were stretches throughout the Week 2 matchup that felt anything but comfortable.

All of that said, the bottom line was getting to 1-1, so mission accomplished. With that in mind, here’s this week’s “looking back” bullet points:

• Was there anyone amongst us that did not mutter the phrase, “Here we go again” when Joe Flacco’s 4th down pass deflected off of Marlon Humphrey and into the arms of Cedric Tillman for a touchdown? Then, on the ensuing drive, things got even more tense when the Ravens faced a 3rd and 13 from the 50. Luckily for the Ravens, Lamar Jackson put on his cape, eluded defenders and fired a ball to a diving Zay Flowers for drive extending 1st down. Five plays later, Jackson found Devontez Walker for his 2nd receiving touchdown of the game. And exhale.
• There has already been a ton of ink (or in the modern era, keystrokes) dedicated to Roquan Smith’s performance on Sunday. 15 tackles, 3 tackles for loss, 2 QB hits and the 63 yard scoop and score. What’s most intriguing to me about Roquan’s performance is who he had playing next to him. Rookie Teddye Buchanan played 60 defensive snaps on Sunday; second to Chidobe Awuzie’s 64 snaps. So, for the 2nd time in less than a calendar year, ILB Trenton Simpson has seen a huge reduction in his role. Not coincidentally, for the 2nd season in a row, Simpson’s de facto demotion led to an uptick in Roquan Smith’s play. Perhaps it’s an oversimplification but Buchanan’s expanded role and its impact on Agent Zero looks an awful lot like when Malik Harrison and Chris Board took over weakside LB duties last year.
• For as much criticism that was levied against the defense and special teams in Week 1 (well deserved, mind you), those maligned units deserve praise for excelling in Week 2. Granted, the Browns brought a rather pedestrian offense to The Bank but credit the defense for harassing Joe Flacco for much of the day, taking the ball away twice and scoring a touchdown of their own. The special teams deserve a big nod for the blocked punt that set up the offense at Cleveland’s 24 yard line. These units helped prop up a Ravens offense that had an overall scattershot performance on Sunday.
• NFL officiating is always an adventure. At least the league has implemented booth assistance this year in an attempt to correct egregious errors outside of challenges and take a closer look at “major” penalties like facemask, horse collar tackles and hits on defenseless players. This will be something that will definitely impact games throughout the league this season.

Looking Ahead

Up next on the slate for Baltimore is a Monday matchup with the 1-1 Detroit Lions. While they didn’t collapse in historic fashion like the Ravens did in Week 1, the Lions did suffer their own embarrassment as they were pushed around by the Green Bay Packers in a 27-13 loss.

In the aftermath of their Week 1 defeat, the off season concerns about the Lions losing OC Ben Johnson and DC Aaron Glenn to head coaching gigs grew louder.

Lions’ fans and media opined whether their replacements were up to the task.

As is generally the case, Overreaction Monday was just that and the Lions bounced back with a convincing 52-21 victory over the Chicago Bears and their old friend Ben Johnson. Jared Goff racked up a near perfect passer rating, Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery powered the running game and there were even “running up the score” accusations tossed around after a 4th down TD throw to Amon-Ra St. Brown midway through the 4th quarter with the game well in hand.

As the Baltimore Ravens learned the hard way, the game isn’t over until the clock hits zeroes, so there’s no such thing as running up the score in the NFL.

Baltimore and Detroit locked up in Week 7 of 2023, with Ravens dominating the Lions to secure a 38-7 victory.

Fast forward to 2025 and we have 2 teams on similar paths. Both organizations have aspirations to represent their respective conferences in the Super Bowl, both suffered challenging losses to rivals in Week 1, both rebounded with Week 2 wins over division opponents.

Specifically for Baltimore, injuries will be a factor both positively and negatively. Rumors abound that Kyle Van Noy could miss multiple weeks with a hamstring injury and we’ll await the initial injury report to see what Marlon Humphrey’s status may be. On the positive side, signs are pointing to TE Isaiah Likely making his season debut this coming Monday.

The Ravens sitting at 1-1 after the first 2 games of 2025 was not unexpected, understanding that they could easily be 2-0 but alas, it wasn’t in the cards. Moving on from the Week 1 disappointment was the best that the Ravens could do and they took care of business.

In Week 3, they take a step up in proverbial weight class and Baltimore’s 4 week gauntlet begins.

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