Looking Back To Detroit, Looking Ahead To Kansas City

There is an understandably somber tone around the 1-2 Baltimore Ravens. There’s been a late game collapse of historic proportions, a take care of business win and a primetime loss that saw the home team get physically dominated on both sides of the ball for large stretches of the game.

The Ravens suffered a rather humbling 38-30 loss at the hands of the Detroit Lions. In the same vein as the loss to Buffalo, there’s no shame in dropping a game to Detroit. The Lions are amongst the NFC’s best and certainly have aspirations of representing the NFC in the Super Bowl.

Once again though, the manner in which the Ravens fell to the Lions is what has many pressing the panic button.

Here’s this week’s “looking back” bullet points:

• Derrick Henry had another fumble, his 3rd on the year and his 2nd fumble lost. Both lost fumbles came in critical situations in the 4th quarter. What exactly does this mean, if anything? Do we simply give kudos to Ed Oliver and Aidan Hutchinson for spectacular individual efforts? Or could this be a harbinger of the dreaded post 30, running back decline? Through 3 games, Henry has 41 carries for 242 yards (5.9 yds/carry) and 3 TDs. This time last year, he had 56 carries for 281 yards (5.0 yds/carry) and 4 TDs. By comparison, the production looks fairly similar. Perhaps it’s the lack of Patrick Ricard or that Baltimore has gotten away from the run earlier than usual in the last 2 games but something about Henry just feels different this year.
• With the understanding that these metrics are a bit subjective; Next Gen Stats credited the Ravens defense with 20 missed tackles. Pro Football Focus had that number at 9. Let’s split the difference and say they were at 14. Needless to say, that’s a big number. Is this a technique issue? Or perhaps fatigue set in after allowing TD drives of 11 and 18 plays? Being without Madubuike is certainly a factor but to Kyle Hamilton’s point, “Shame on us if we need a Pro Bowl guy to play good defense.”
• While the defense is the primary concern, the Ravens are not without concerns on offense. Pro Football Focus recorded 30 pressures on Lamar Jackson on Monday night. I would imagine a large chunk of that falls on the offensive line. With that said, Jackson looked indecisive at times, particularly in the 2nd half (6 of the Lions 7 sacks came in the 2nd half). Also, credit to the Lions’ for their disciplined and relentless play on defense, which was a big factor in quelling any late game heroics from Jackson.
• There was a time when John Harbaugh was considered very aggressive in his decision making. Those days are seemingly long gone. The decision to punt on 4th and 9 with 4:31 to go and trailing by 7 was a bit surprising to me. While it was not a slam dunk, no doubt, go for it situation (like the 4th and 3 in Week 1, where Harbaugh also elected to punt); I would rather have my best player on the field, as opposed to a sieve-like defense. Even if the offense fails on that 4th and 9, the Lions probably score more quickly and leave the Ravens additional time to attempt a comeback.

While it would be easy to continue to pile on, let’s take a glass half full look at where things are heading into the Week 4 showdown with the Kansas City Chiefs.

This is not your father’s Kansas City Chiefs.

Much like the Ravens, the Chiefs are at 1-2 after their first 3 games. Kansas City registered their first win of the season on Sunday, in a bit of a slog vs the New York Giants, 22-9.

Everyone knows the history; since 2018, including the postseason, Baltimore is a mere 1-5 against Kansas City.

Week 4 presents an opportunity for the Ravens to write a new chapter in this story as the Chiefs have never been as vulnerable as they are now.

Through 3 games, Patrick Mahomes is completing just 59% of his passes for 6.4 yards/attempt, both of which are career lows. Granted, it’s still early but Mahomes’ yards/attempt fell to 6.8 last year, which was a low for him at that time, so this could be the sign of a trend.

Poor offensive line play, the loss of playmakers and the decline of Travis Kelce have all conspired against Mahomes and the Chiefs offense. A struggling offense is just what a profoundly wounded Ravens defense needs.

While Baltimore’s offense has sputtered at critical moments, they’re still leading the league in points scored. And even though Lamar Jackson hasn’t been at the apex of game to start the season, he is atop the NFL in TD passes, yds/att, air yds/att and QB rating. There is also room for the offense to grow as the Ravens await the returns of Isaiah Likely and, hopefully at some point, Patrick Ricard.

While a short week followed by a road game is not generally considered favorable, perhaps it’s the perfect cure for a disappointing, soul searching type of loss. There really is no time to lament or wallow.

If the Baltimore Ravens are going to get the 2025 season back on track, they’ll have to exorcise the biggest demon of the Lamar Jackson era in their Week 4 matchup.

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