Welcome back to another edition of Ravens Reacts, a Cool Sports Newsletter series made by a die hard Ravens fan! The Baltimore Ravens beat the New Orleans Saints 27-13 on Monday Night, and it was possibly their best overall defensive performance of the entire season. Tyus Bowser welcomed himself back with a great game, and Roquan Smith did an incredible job in his Raven debut. What do I think of the Ravens third straight victory? Let’s, get into this!
Were my predictions correct?
Lamar Jackson has over an 100.0 passer rating (Wrong)
Andy Dalton has at least one turnover (Correct)
Kenyan Drake averages over 5 yards per carry (Wrong)
Isaiah Likely has a good game (Correct)
Chris Olave has under 70 receiving yards (Wrong)
Ravens rush for over 170 yards on the ground (Correct)
Roquan Smith has a very good Ravens debut (Correct)
Ravens win 31-20! (Correct, Ravens won by two possessions)
Who got injured?
Thankfully nobody. The Ravens have had to deal with so many injuries, as they were missing Gus Edwards, Rashod Bateman and Mark Andrews for this matchup. It’s amazing for Baltimore that they don’t have to deal with more!
Key position grading
Quarterbacks: B+
Lamar Jackson had another good game for the Ravens. Without several of his key weapons, it was harder for him to get the passing game going. However, his calmness, patience and ability to extend plays gave Baltimore ten different players that a caught a ball for yardage on Monday night, easily a season high. Lamar seemed to control the pace of the game, and he was 6-7 and had a touchdown against the blitz. He also ran for 82 yards on eleven carries, which is over seven yards per carry. Last night he passed Steve Young for 5th all time in rushing yards, and he hasn’t even played five full seasons. Pay that man!
Running backs: A-
Kenyan Drake is the midst of a comeback story. It seemed like his career had dwindled down fast after a very disappointing season in Las Vegas last season. But after a 93 yard, two touchdown performance as the teams RB1, he has shown his career is still very alive. He was making cuts to find open lanes. He was speedy when he needed to be. He had good ball protection. And he was extremely durable, considering the fact that they didn’t have a lot of other running backs to work with. Great game from the football version of KD!
Wide Receivers: B-
The Ravens wide receivers didn’t really do much on Monday Night. James Proche led all wide receivers in receptions (2), and yards (22). DeSean Jackson only had one reception for 16 yards in his Ravens debut, however, he still seems very quick and able to get open on routes, which could be good long term considering Rashod Bateman is out for the season. I would also like to see Devin Duvernay do more, considering the fact that he was one of Baltimore’s primary targets to begin the year, but was targeted just once in New Orleans.
Tight Ends (including fullbacks): B+
You would not expect this grade out of this crew with Mark Andrews out. And you wouldn’t even expect this grade by just looking at the box score. But not everything is shown on the box score. Some things are, like Isaiah Likely’s lone reception for 24 yards and the Ravens only touchdown through the air. And Josh Oliver’s huge long reception of 19 yards down the stretch.
But what gives this them this grade is this crew’s blocking. Likely blocked very well, especially on one of Lamar’s double digit yard runs that resulted in an easy first down. Likely was also a very good pass blocker for Baltimore. Josh Oliver blocked incredibly on all runs, mostly from Lamar on the outside and Drake up the middle, and Nick Boyle also blocked well, mainly for just Kenyan Drake down the stretch. And Patrick Richard also did his thing, getting a huge first down in the 1st quarter, and making key blocks for Baltimore in the run game, and the pass game. The only thing that holds them from an A is their lack of consistency in the passing game. But to see this crew blocking this well without one of the better/underrated blockers in the NFL in Andrews is very promising.
Offensive Line: B+
The Ravens offensive line was not good on “noticeable” plays, but were consistently good throughout the game. I mean, when a team rushes for 188 yards, of course the offensive line is going to have a huge part of that. They did an incredible job blocking throughout the game, giving Lamar and Drake open running lanes. What holds them back from an A is two things. One of them is the amount of times New Orleans got into the backfield on passing plays. Lamar was sacked three times, and including sacks was hit five times. However, New Orleans also blitzed at a frequent rate, and Jackson also thrived against the blitz, so I think their scheme could have done something to do with that.
The other thing, and honestly the main reason why they’re not an A, is a second down and five play in the third quarter where Tyler Linderbaum seemed to just forget to snap the ball. With about three seconds on the play clock, Jackson said hike and clapped his hands as loud as possible, and offensive guard Kevin Zeitler tapped on his shoulder as a signal to snap, and he didn’t. That mistake ended up making the play and a 2nd down and ten, which ended up being a busted run to make it third and long. The Ravens had to potential to run down the clock, and get into the end zone again, instead, not that much time went off the clock, and they ended up having to kick three. It didn’t end up mattering too much, but that is something Baltimore needs to straighten out at the bye week!
Defensive Line: A+
I don’t know if the defensive line could actually play a better game than they did on Monday! Calais Campbell had 0.5 sacks, a pass deflected and two QB hits, and was a great run stopper. In fact everybody on the defensive line was a good run stopper. But Justin Houston, is making himself a legit dark horse candidate for defensive player of the year. In this game, he had one of the best games of his entire career! He had 2.5 sacks, two tackles for loss, 3 QB hits, one pass deflected, what should have been a forced fumble (learn later), and had practically a game closing interception! What a performance!
Linebackers: A-
The Ravens got Roquan Smith for a reason! He did a great job in his Ravens debut, having five tackles. He also played incredible coverage on Alvin Kamara throughout the game, since as the most frequent guy to guard the 5x Pro Bowler, held him to just three receptions for 32 yards through the air. Patrick Queen also had a decent day with five solo tackles. And Kamara and the Saints run game was on lockdown, as they only had 48 yards on the ground, and the linebacker core is a large part of that run defense success!
Secondary: B+
The Ravens secondary did a pretty good job on Monday night. Especially Marlon Humphrey, who had seven tackles, one sack, on tackle for loss, one pass deflected and one QB hit. I also felt he had a much tougher job, as I felt he needed to guard two guys at points of the game, and the fact he had such a good game doing so is impressive. Marcus Peters wasn’t bad, and had his best game in a little while. Kyle Hamilton is also finding a role on this team, as he had six tackles and played well in coverage.
Special Teams: A
The special teams unit did their job. If you make all of your kicks, make smart return decisions, make good punts, and not turn the ball over, they’re going to get a good grade. The only thing holding them back from an A+ is that I felt rookie punter Jordan Stout was a little shaky, but he still did okay.
Coaching: B+
The Ravens coaching was pretty good. They did make some noticeable decisions. One of them was a challenge that Andy Dalton fumbled the ball, and wasn’t down in the middle of the third quarter. The challenge was unsuccessful, however, I personally think Dalton lost the ball, and didn’t have full possession. I thought it was a good call to challenge. He did waist a timeout in the second half other than that challenge which I didn’t like. However, the play calling was great from Greg Roman and Mike McDonald on both sides of the ball, to give them a good grade.
Ravens: B+
I think the Ravens played overall a good game, especially on defense as you can tell. The offense also played really well, even though I would like them to add one more weapon, maybe like Odell Beckham Jr, just to give Lamar so more to work with now that Bateman is out for the season. However, once Andrews comes back, I do like what I see from him, Likely, and even DeSean Jackson just based off of his Ravens debut. Overall, the Ravens are Super Bowl contenders, but to have the bye now to re-access and fix their weaknesses (and get healthy) is very important!
Chase Coburn
chasecpc@gmail.com
chase@chasessportsnews.com
Wiz Talk with Chase
Cool Sports Network
chasessportsnews.com
chasecoburn.substack.com
chases_sports_news (Instagram)