:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/4SE5TBZVRRDONLR6LMOJXMQHKU.jpg)
It did not take long for the boos of Ravens fans to turn toward their own Sunday as they watched their team forget the No. 1 rule of football: Hold on to the ball.
The Ravens offense took the field at M&T Bank Stadium against the Indianapolis Colts fresh off a road victory over the Cincinnati Bengals and started with a picture-perfect drive. But that was not indicative of what was to come. Through a combination of carelessness, miscommunications and a bad case of butter fingers, the Ravens gifted the Indianapolis Colts the ball too many times, which was ultimately the difference in the 22-19 overtime loss.
“That’s football,” coach John Harbaugh said after the game. “You have to protect the football. That’s it. … If we’re going to be a winning football team, we have to understand that you can’t spot them possessions like that. We have to hold on to the football. Our guys know that.”
Running back Kenyan Drake started the epidemic. He carried the ball 24 yards on his first rush but lost control of the ball as he neared the sideline, giving the Colts the ball at their own 20. It was his first game of the season after being elevated from the practice squad Wednesday. Any touches were a privilege, Drake said, but he wasn’t paying proper attention to his surroundings.
“If we’re going to be a winning football team, we have to understand that you can’t spot them possessions like that. We have to hold on to the football. Our guys know that.”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh
The one mistake wasn’t the end of the world, despite being a momentum killer.
“Just got to move on through that,” Drake said. “It was an early part of the game. Try to make plays as the game went on, but got to learn from that.”
The coaches sent a similar message, telling Drake not to let one mistake kill his confidence. He returned to make two catches for 31 yards. The problem was, the rest of the team took the wrong lesson from it, copying his mistake rather than his adjustments.
On the next drive, the ball security woes spread to the quarterback. Facing a manageable third-and-4, Lamar Jackson lost control of the ball when Samson Ebukan sliced through the Ravens offensive line and sacked him. Although Jackson recovered it, the Ravens had to punt and the Colts scored on the following drive.
With the game tied, the Ravens had the chance to answer. Instead, Jackson fumbled again, but this time he wasn’t fast enough. The Colts recovered it and shortly after were up 10-7.
That’s when the boos started.
The game wasn’t out of the Ravens’ hands when they were down 10-7, but the ball was. There was no one, from the offense or the defense, the ball was safe with. Center Sam Mustipher and Jackson miscommunicated, resulting in a low snap and a fumble by Mustipher. The wide receivers struggled to come down with the ball, and tight end Isaiah Likely dropped a perfect pass from Jackson.
Even the defense struggled to keep hold of the ball. When Kyle Hamilton recorded his third sack of the game, he stripped Colts quarterback Gardner Minshew. But the ball slipped through outside linebacker Jeremiah Moon’s fingers and then defensive back Brandon Stephen’s hands. It bounced out of bounds, and the Colts kept possession.
More Ravens from The Banner
Despite the rain, the weather had nothing to do with it, Mustipher said, a sentiment echoed by his teammates.
“Just got to have more attention to detail, that’s all,” Mustipher said. “It comes down to execution, really. That’s really all it is.”
There were many more moments that led to the loss, and the Ravens might not have scored even if they’d held on to the ball on any of those occasions. But, at the end of the day, the whole game of football comes down to ball security — so you can bet that will be the main focus at practice this week.
“They’ll be working very hard to get that done,” Harbaugh said. “It’s challenging, [and] it’s a tough game. There’s a lot of guys flying around out there, and there’s a lot of hard hitting going on, but that’s the No. 1 job of anybody that has the ball in their hands — that’s to protect it.”
giana.han@thebaltimorebanner.com
:quality(70)/s3.amazonaws.com/arc-authors/baltimorebanner/05ff61b7-c261-46de-81c6-1f9804af7c26.png)
Giana Han is a Ravens beat reporter from Howard County.
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/TBZL5637TBERBJ7OFK4HA554UI.png)
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/GTCCVJZJVNETVJQAABDIYOSCW4.JPG)
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/C5RNK4UYEZHJ5KRAE5TAXBVZEM.jpg)
:format(jpg)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/baltimorebanner/SAIF3W6YERGZFPARMH64PQNMEM.jpg)