The Baltimore Ravens absolutely obliterated the Miami Dolphins 59-10 in Week 1. With such a dominant win, there are plenty to things to overreact to and plenty of things that could get missed in favor of staring at the scoreboard.
But there are some important lessons Baltimore can take away from this game. Let’s go over some of the biggest ones.
Wins are wins, regardless of competition
The biggest takeaway from this game is that the Ravens are 1-0. You’re undoubtedly going to hear about how the Dolphins are dreadful and might be the worst team in the league. But it’s not very likely they’ll go 0-16, meaning they’re still dangerous. In the NFL, wins are not automatic, they are earned. And Baltimore earned themselves a dominant win in the AFC — something that could matter if postseason tiebreakers come into play.
No matter how good or bad Miami is, the Ravens are 1-0 and half the teams in the league will wish they had that record by Tuesday morning.
Lamar Jackson sure looks like the real deal
Look, it’s only one game, so reading too much into anything is setting yourself up for disappointment later. So I’m not going to talk about Jackson’s stats at all and instead look at how he performed.
Jackson showed poise under duress. When pressured, he continued to look downfield and extended plays with his legs. He adjusted his throwing mechanics to fit the situation but maintained the basics in order to throw an accurate pass. He didn’t take off and run when things weren’t open immediately. Jackson did a great job reading the field, choosing the right option and the right time. He set his feet and followed through with his arm motion.
Because of all those things, Jackson delivered consistently accurate passes. Considering that was the big knock on him last year, that type of overall performance wasn’t just a flash for a play or even a drive. It showed he’s developed as a passer. And when combined with his rushing ability, that’s a scary proposition for teams facing Baltimore.
Nothing crazy on offense, just good
After months of talking about how exotic the offense would be, we didn’t get that at all. The Ravens ran traditional formations and traditional plays from within them. While that doesn’t mean they don’t have a whole sheet of plays designed to freak everyone out, they certainly didn’t put it on display today.
Instead, they just executed. The offensive line blocked exceptionally well for both Jackson and the run game. Holes were open for the running backs quite often, and Jackson was able to sit in the pocket for what seemed like forever on a number of deep shots.
The running backs ran the football hard and strong inside. Mark Ingram was exactly as advertised. Gus Edwards filled a similar role, while Justice Hill found ways on the field to do a little of everything.
The wide receivers got open on a variety of routes against a decent Miami secondary — regardless of how they look after this week. On more than a few occasions, Jackson was throwing to someone wide-open. More importantly, the pass catchers caught the ball when it hit them in the hands.
Offensive coordinator Greg Roman created plays that succeeded consistently and made great in-game adjustments to counter the Dolphins’ adjustments.
Ravens secondary has some holes still but they’re tough
I had seen some holes in the secondary throughout the preseason that reminded me of last season. I was hoping they’d disappear once everyone got on the field together and the games really started to matter. Sadly, they didn’t.
Now, with the loss of cornerback Jimmy Smith to injury, that could simply be a one-off issue that’s resolved once he returns to the lineup. But more realistically, Baltimore still seems to be a little soft in the deep center of the field at times, and veteran quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick picked up on it quickly when he wasn’t being harassed.
What made a bigger impression on me was the way the secondary bounced back from a little adversity. They allowed a touchdown drive right before halftime. Then they came back in the second half and just shut the passing game down completely. They played faster and even harder than they had in the first half. And if you ask a few of the guys out there catching passes for Miami, I’m sure they’d definitely tell you the Ravens hit hard too.
It’s not perfect, but it’s just Week 1. As the defense jells, they’ll get better.
Ravens start the season on the right foot
I didn’t want to label this game a “must-win,” but in reality, it was. The Ravens couldn’t afford to drop an AFC game early in the season. That’s the type of thing that would haunt them down the line in previous seasons.
More importantly, they got to knock off whatever rust was there. Baltimore has always done better when they get a little swagger to them and after beating another team 59-10, you know they have more than a little swagger tonight. That type of early momentum matters a great deal when they have the Kansas City Chiefs, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots in five of their next seven games.
For all the upside, nothing is guaranteed
After a game like that, it’s easy to start predicting a perfect 16-0 season and start buying Super Bowl tickets. But it’s important to not take anything for granted this early on.
That’s going to be tough both for the fans and the Ravens. It’ll be easy to overlook the Arizona Cardinals next week and start eyeing up the Chiefs, the opponent in Week 3.
It’ll be up to the coaching staff to keep the players in a weekly mentality and have their eyes on the prize.
