Week 4, Ravens Fast Five: No Miracles Needed

Discuss your thoughts on these topics from the Ravens 23-7 in Denver on our message board.

1. Defense showed off “Play like a Raven” style.

This was a violent football game, to say the least, by both sides. Chuck Clark, Odafe Oweh laid the wood a few times. Hard hits that didn’t draw flags, but one by Clark near halftime on Diontae Spencer, I won’t be surprised to see a fine coming his way. Coming out of the half, the Broncos Kareem Jackson de-cleated 6’3”, 230-pound Latavius Murray on a run up the gut. Broncos quarterback Teddy Bridgewater left at halftime with a concussion.

The game had a throwback feel to it. Especially in the early going with both teams forcing each other to punt a total of six times combined. The Ravens allowed the first points, but then buckled down like the historic Ravens defenses had before and said, “that’s it.” They forced Denver to punt on their next seven straight drives and finished them off with the game in hand with an Anthony Averett interception.

Ravens defenders laid 11 quarterback hits on the combo on Bridgewater and Drew Lock on the day, getting to the quarterback without blitz pressure several times. A few times Broncos O-lineman just didn’t pick up blocks and the Ravens had a free run at them. Both quarterbacks ended the day with QBR’s in the single digits.

Thanks largely to one Javonte Williams 31-yard run, the Broncos running attack looked on paper, to have a decent day. Not a perfect game but holding a team to seven points was a welcomed sight.

2. Lamar Jackson gets the job done without his legs.

Jackson was questionable entering the game with a back issue, but it was never in doubt that he would play of course. But there might be something to the injury as he didn’t take off running as much in the game. He didn’t scramble a whole lot. He wasn’t picking up large chunks of yards on the ground like we’re used to seeing. He totaled 28 yards on the ground with a long of seven yards.

The good news is, he proved, yet again, to be special. He doesn’t need to rely on his legs. Debunking myth after myth. He still threw for 316 yards, and a beautiful touchdown strike to Marquise Brown that traveled over 60 yards in the air, and Brown redeemed himself after a week 3 he’d like to forget. In fact, the Ravens last drive of the game, they ate up 6:35 off the clock in 15 plays. Of the 78 yards gained, 61 came on Lamar Jackson throws. It wasn’t a ground and pound kind of finish.

Justin Tucker capped off the drive with a field goal. His 301st in 148 games.

3. Can Ty’Son Williams please get the playing time he deserves?

Look. I understand the Ravens running back situation isn’t ideal. You are trying to patch a hole with limited viable options. But the Ravens made Ty’Son Williams a healthy inactive for one or more of the following reasons:

a) Ball security, teach him a lesson.

b) Keep him fresh, limit his exposure early.

c) See what you have in Le’Veon Bell as he was promoted for the game for the first time this season.

Option C wouldn’t have been the case since Bell had only four carries and one target. Option A is weak. Guys make mistakes. O-lineman miss assignments that lead to detrimental outcomes. Wideouts drop balls. Quarterbacks throw interceptions, sometimes bad ones that should have been thrown away or taken a sack rather than force something. But running back is the only position where guys get their playing time punished if there is a ball security question.

Option B, I guess we’ll have to see the payoff when the time comes. If in a month or so, Williams is the clear lead back, and the Ravens want to point to option B as their plan all along…okay, we’ll have to buy that. We had this conversation pertaining to a sluggish Mark Ingram not giving way to a playmaking rookie in J.K. Dobbins early on last year.

Regardless, I don’t want to see any more games where you just healthy scratch the best running back of the five in the room when running the ball is your specialty. Latavius Murray had his longest run of the year yesterday, an 11-yard TD scamper. Other long runs were Jackson, 7. Freeman, 4, on his lone carry. Bell, 4. The team averaged 3.2 yards per carry, and none of the backs featured have the speed to gain the edge that a youthful Ty’Son Williams shown at times, or practice squad member Nate McCrary showed in the preseason.

Their lack of ability in the ground game almost cost them the record the have been chasing for 42 games.

4. Controversy on the final play.

I have no problem with the Ravens trying to set a record. The game is 60 minutes long. If you are the opposing team and don’t like someone running a play 59:57 into the game, then stop them.

The Ravens tied an NFL record set by the 1970s Steelers by now collecting 43-games in a row with 100+ yards rushing. To do so, Lamar Jackson picked up five yards on the final play when the world expected Jackson to take a friendly knee. A play that would amount to -1 rushing yard by the way. So, if the Ravens were on 100 yards on the nose at the time, a knee would have cost them the streak.

Coach John Harbaugh made the call and defended it in his post-game comments.

“As a head coach, I think you do that for your players, and you do that for your coaches. It’s something they’ll remember for the rest of your lives.”

They didn’t ask the Broncos to roll over and give it to them. They had to earn the yardage still.

It’ll be debated whether it was the right thing to do. Sportsmanship, yada yada yada. I’m cool with it, especially because to hell with the Steelers. End of the day, games are 60 minutes long. You play it out unless you want to show mercy. Had it been for financial reasons, like Jackson needed to hit a number to trigger a bonus in his contract, no one would think twice about sportsmanship. Fellow players on the defense probably let him get what he needed and Jackson sends them some crab cakes.  

5. Andre Smith. Oof.

Harbaugh addressed after the game that Alejandro Villanueva’s knee injury was “nothing serious”. We’ll wait for official word on that, but in the meantime, Andre Smith, yikes. The Ravens are in serious trouble if AV misses time.  Sounds like hyperbole, I know, given that we assumed all was lost when no one could block in Week 1, then you lose Ronnie Stanley, and we said the same thing when AV, in our one game sample, looked horrendous, then asked him to move to Jackson’s blind side. It looked like a recipe for disaster. The Ravens, AV, and the rest of the line have found a way these last three games.

Smith looked about as mobile as a tree and in desperation grabbed a face mask on a “lookout” block, negating a Mark Andrews touchdown. Hope Harbaugh is right. Hope AV returns quickly and missing the rest of the game was precautionary with the game almost out of reach.

Smith had a terrible camp by even the optimistic observers’ standards. He was bad in the preseason. He was one of the first cuts. Brought back to the practice squad. His career is hanging by a tiny thread at this point. Either he turns it around like Villanueva, or he’s a bigger liability than the five years past their prime backfield employed yesterday.