The Baltimore Ravens squeaked out a closer victory than many were expecting. But with a 23-17 win over the Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore finds themselves at 2-0 to start this season.
With such a close victory, the Ravens learned a great deal about their entire team. These lessons will not only help next week against the Kansas City Chiefs but throughout the entire season as Baltimore looks to get into the playoffs and make a long postseason run.
Here are the five most important things we learned from the Ravens’ win over the Cardinals in Week 2.
Lamar Jackson is the real deal
It was easy to look at last week as a fluke for Jackson. But with more eyes on him this week, Jackson answered the call once again. Overall, he was still very accurate, hitting on nearly 65% of his passes. He was poised in the pocket, keeping his eyes downfield and not running unless he had an opening or it was necessary. And after a week in which he ran just three times, he showed he was still capable of taking over a game with his legs, rushing 14 times for 122 yards.
Even though Arizona’s secondary isn’t great, Jackson read the field well, made the right choice and had good throws. He put the team on his back when nothing else was working to keep drives alive, and put points on the board. And with the game on the line at the very end, Jackson threw an absolute dime to Brown for 41 yards to effectively the win.
Offensive line struggled
Give the Cardinals some credit for this. They applied pressure on the outside and on the interior, and they sold out to stop the power run game. But the Ravens didn’t do themselves any favors either.
Right tackle Orlando Brown Jr. and center Matt Skura had several bad plays and penalties, with most of the pressure coming from those locations. Jackson was sacked twice and flushed out of the pocket on quite a few occasions. The offensive game plan had to change to quicker routes because of it.
The failures of the offensive line showed all game long elsewhere as well, as Baltimore couldn’t get the run game going outside of Jackson’s runs. Minus Jackson, the Ravens rushed 20 times for 62 yards and no touchdowns. Arizona wasn’t very good against the run last year or even last week, making the struggles of the ground game surprising.
Sloppiness all around
The Ravens finished the game with 10 penalties for 62 yards. While double-digit penalties is never a great thing by itself, many of them were just sloppy errors. On one drive, the defense had two penalties for too many men on the field. A delay of game on 4th-and-1 in the third quarter clearly frustrated Jackson, who threw his helmet on the ground on the sideline while the Ravens were forced to kick the field goal.
Penalties stalled drives and allowed Arizona to keep marching down the field for point. Penalties were one major reason why the Cardinals kept it close but against better teams, that’s how teams lose games.
There was also frequent confusion in the secondary as well, leaving receivers absolutely wide open. One the drive in which Arizona brought it to a one-score game, three big plays happened because guys were left uncovered. Larry Fitzgerald was left wide open for 54 yards, Christian Kirk was left uncovered in the flat for 18 yards down to the goal line, and KeeSean Johnson was uncovered in the back of the end zone on the two-point conversion.
Potent blitzing
The Ravens didn’t generate a ton of pressure with a four-man rush, but they were able to send pressure and have it get home. Though they sacked Murray just three times, Baltimore hit him all game long and made him pay for holding on to the ball. The Ravens finished the game with eight quarterback hits, including ones from safety Anthony Levine, cornerback Brandon Carr and inside linebacker Patrick Onwuasor.
Credit defensive coordinator Don Martindale for being able to mix up coverages and looks throughout the game to not only send blitzes from different positions but to thoroughly confuse Murray and the Cardinals’ offensive line.
For a team that still has genuine questions about the consistency of their pass rush, they took it to an offense that already struggled last week. Much like last year, Baltimore seems to be able to generate pressure through scheme, even if individual players don’t stand out.
Ravens show perseverance
Baltimore looked to be in control early, and it seemed like we were in for another blowout. To Arizona’s credit, they stuck in the game and actually got a surge at the very end to make it a three-point game. For a Ravens squad that lost a lot of their veteran presence this offseason in order to get younger, that’s sometimes a recipe for collapse.
Facing some adversity, the defense pulled two three-and-outs at the end of the game and the offense rook nearly seven minutes off the clock in their final two drives, hitting on some plays to stay ahead at the final whistle.
Baltimore showed perseverance this week. That’s something every team in the league will be asked to do at some point this season, and not every one can pull it off. But that perseverance will prove invaluable for a postseason run.
