What is the opposite of a spark? What is the absence of fire or the inverse of momentum?
That unfortunate je ne sais quoi — malaise, stagnancy, whatever you call it — that’s what the Baltimore Ravens had Sunday. And you could feel it coming well before they lost a game that should have been a snoozer.
Well, it was kind of a snoozer. The Ravens appear to be sleepwalking through the season.
A team that spent the entire preseason talking about reaching the Super Bowl is now 0-2. And Super Bowl teams don’t lose like the Ravens lost this one.
“These are the type of games we can’t lose,” tackle Ronnie Stanley said.
He’s right. But it would have been nice to see that attitude from the team while the result hung in the balance.
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You could sense victory drifting quietly away from the Ravens as early as six minutes remaining in the game, when Gardner Minshew — who was walloped for five sacks but kept getting up — found Brock Bowers for a 20-yard gain that put the Raiders just 25 yards out from the end zone.
The antithesis of a charge coursed through M&T Bank Stadium, a sensation that’s difficult to describe as anything other than “losing energy.” There was a lot of football left, the Ravens had a seven-point lead … and yet, somehow, defeat seemed to be looming over them.
Super Bowl teams don’t have two-time MVP quarterbacks who preside over back-to-back three-and-outs that end up costing them the lead. They don’t struggle to incorporate Derrick Henry, a former All-Pro running back who couldn’t get going until the third quarter — in large part due to opportunities and an offensive line that has clearly regressed. They don’t fail so often to block Maxx Crosby, who got a lot of winnable one-on-one matchups especially in the first half that made it seem like someone had goofed the scouting report.
Super Bowl teams don’t lose the two biggest receiving targets in coverage on the critical drives. They don’t rack up nearly 100 more yards in penalties than their opponents (though admittedly, some of those were highly questionable). A Super Bowl team would win after holding an opponent to just 27 yards on the ground.
One silver lining is how much the Ravens will get to share the blame. That includes coach John Harbaugh, who went 0-for-2 on foolish challenges. Both plays — a missed catch by Zay Flowers and a completion to Davante Adams — were playing on the video scoreboard before Harbaugh challenged them, and they cost the Ravens timeouts they could have used at the end of both halves.
The Raiders are just 2-75 in franchise history when trailing by double digits in the fourth quarter. The Ravens had so many failures across the board, they were able to defy those odds.
What’s so weird is that it didn’t feel that way the entire afternoon. The Ravens had a 10-point lead thanks to a crushing 76-yard drive, powered by Henry runs that should have been demoralizing in their own right. But on the three final drives, when the time came to put Las Vegas away, the Ravens gained just 10 total yards, including just one first down.
“Usually, we just finish teams by then,” quarterback Lamar Jackson said. “We have to get the ball rolling and just go to punishing people. But I guess that Vegas had the best of us today.”
The truly disconcerting part is that this isn’t a one-off event. The déjà vu to last year’s collapse to the Indianapolis Colts, including Minshew under center, is impossible to ignore. The lack of discipline on preventable penalties was a throwback to last year’s loss in Pittsburgh (how does Henry manage to draw two false starts, by the way?).
In spite of all their success, especially with Jackson under center, we’ve become accustomed to these oddball defeats that defy easy explanation. The Ravens are usually good for a few of these a year — sometimes in the playoffs, too. The Associated Press reported that John Harbaugh has presided over nine losses when his team had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter, more than any coach since at least 1991.
There’s a cynicism around this team that it can’t get the big postseason win. On the one hand, the only way you change that impression forever is by winning in the postseason. But the Ravens are on trial right now, being judged for how they handle the teams they should beat. The “Can’t Be Trusted” allegations will stick when we see these performances that feel so far below their potential.
You can understand losing to the defending champions in Week 1 by a toe. But this kind of defeat, especially the sense of inevitability that preceded it, is unacceptable for a team with the talent and the goals the Ravens have.
Players were disappointed but not shaken. Harbaugh grimly said the next 15 games will define the season, while Jackson said they need to search for their mojo. There’s a sense in the locker room that, although this opening stumble is surprising, they can overcome it.
“We’ve had experiences in the past where we really have to grind to get going, or we’ve really had to slug it out to get our first win,” said kicker Justin Tucker, who remembers the last time in 2015 the Ravens started 0-2. “But this team is too talented, too hardworking with the leadership that we have in the locker room and all throughout our coaching staff. We have every reason to be confident.”
It’s a feeling you wish the Ravens had inspired during Sunday’s game. Confidence is a lot harder to find after a loss like that.
