This was supposed to be the gimme game, the casual Sunday, the water break in the five-week Tough Mudder race to start the 2024 season. The Ravens had the defending Super Bowl champions on the schedule in Week 1 and Super Bowl contenders in Weeks 4 and 5, plus a star-studded NFC challenger in Week 3, but hey, at least they had the Las Vegas Raiders in Week 2. At least they had them at home.
So, yeah. About that: The Ravens are 0-2 after an inexplicable 26-23 loss Sunday to the Fightin’ Gardner Minshews, and things could get worse before they get better. Which is saying something, because things seem awfully bad now.
The Ravens’ reigning NFL Most Valuable Player, quarterback Lamar Jackson, was outdueled for the second straight week, only this time it was a journeyman quarterback who one-upped him, not the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes. The Ravens’ pass defense, which had preseason ambitions of reclaiming best-in-the-league distinction, looks like one of the NFL’s worst. And the Ravens’ special teams, long a paragon of excellence, cost the team in almost every phase.
The Raiders, who fell to the Zombie Ravens in Week 1, their 22-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers casting them as 8.5-point underdogs Sunday, might soar past their meager preseason expectations. But there is almost no disputing that the tests awaiting the Ravens in the next three weeks — the Dallas Cowboys next Sunday, the Buffalo Bills in Week 4, the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 5 — are, on paper, tougher than the test the Ravens failed at M&T Bank Stadium.
In a blink Sunday, they went from in command to in a hole. Now the Ravens are staring down a frightening prospect: an 0-5 start, a season all but lost before Columbus Day.
“We’re going to play a 17-game season, and we will be defined by the next 15 games,” said coach John Harbaugh, who last started a season 0-2 in 2015, when the Ravens missed the playoffs. “So that’s going to be our objective — to play the best 15 games we can, be the best football team we can be, and if we do that, then we’re going to have a really good season, have a shot to win a lot of games and get in the playoffs and make a run. So that’s what we have to do.”
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An 0-2 start is daunting enough. In the three full seasons since the NFL moved to a 17-game regular-season schedule, 21 teams have started the season 0-2. Only two have made the playoffs: the 2022 Cincinnati Bengals, who finished 12-4 (with one game that was not completed because of an injury suffered by the Bills’ Damar Hamlin) and won the AFC North, and the 2023 Houston Texans, who went 10-7 and won the AFC South.
The Ravens did not expect that bad company. Yes, their Week 1 loss was forgivable. New offensive line, best team in the league, best player in the world, an Arrowhead Stadium crowd, et cetera. But there was no phase in which Las Vegas could credibly claim an advantage entering Week 2.
The Ravens had rolled up 452 yards against the Chiefs the week before. They were perhaps the NFL’s best defense last season. They had a top-tier special teams unit last season, according to FTN’s efficiency metrics. They even had a cleaner bill of health, with outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy (eye) returning to action and only cornerback Arthur Maulet (knee) on injured reserve.
And yet the 27 seconds the Ravens spent trailing the Raiders on Sunday, finally kicked aside by Daniel Carlson’s go-ahead 38-yard field goal, were enough to consign them to a week of uncomfortable questions. Will any changes be made along an inconsistent offensive line? What’s wrong with the secondary? How much of an issue is Harbaugh’s game management?
“That’s not our standard; we want to be undefeated,” left tackle Ronnie Stanley said. “I can’t remember the last time we lost a game and I was like, ‘Yeah, they really just beat us.’ It’s been a really long time since that happened. …
He added: “We want to win games. Like I said, it’s not like we have a lack of talent or people to do it. Our standard is very high, and that’s definitely not OK for us to start that way. The type of effort and tenacity these guys are giving is second to none. I’m not doubting the type of people we have and the type of character that we have in this locker room, but we have to buckle down on these details that really make a difference when you’re playing at this level.”
The details never mattered more than in the fourth quarter Sunday. The Ravens took a 23-13 lead with about 12 minutes remaining on a 3-yard score by running back Derrick Henry, and then they played as if their execution ceased to matter, as if technique and communication and all of the sport’s little things were on autopilot.
On offense, Jackson (247 yards passing, 45 yards rushing and one passing touchdown) went 3-for-7 for 29 yards in the final period, though several were difficult endgame attempts. Henry (18 carries for 84 yards and a touchdown) had a false start on third-and-1 — his second such infraction — that led to a Ravens punt. Right guard Daniel Faalele failed to pick up defensive end Maxx Crosby on a stunt that ended in a sack, torpedoing the Ravens’ potential tiebreaking drive.
On defense, the Ravens allowed Minshew to go 9-for-13 for 126 yards despite having turned Las Vegas’ offense into a one-dimensional venture. They were penalized twice for 31 yards, once on a dubious face mask call against defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike and again on an iffy third-and-17 pass-interference penalty on cornerback Brandon Stephens. They couldn’t recapture their first-half magic, when Minshew had just 64 passing yards and an interception, and the rushing attack had 4 yards on seven carries.
On special teams, Jordan Stout grabbed his own share of blame with a 24-yard punt on the Ravens’ penultimate possession that, combined with a procedural penalty, gave the Raiders possession at the Ravens’ 43 for their decisive drive. The shank only added to the scrutiny of kicker Justin Tucker, who made three field goals, including a 48-yarder, but missed from 56 yards, his sixth misfire in his past seven attempts from 50-plus yards.
“You just have to trust the process, just come in and work, each and every day,” Tucker said. “Whether it’s on the field or in the meeting room. Harbs mentioned to the team right after the game here in the locker room that we just need to come together, and it’s true. We’ve had experiences in the past where we’ve had to really grind to get going, or we really had to slug it out to get our first win. 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. Every little thing that we can address, we will.”
“Just got to find a way to win,” said Jackson, who was left with no timeouts on the Ravens’ final drives in both halves in part because of Harbaugh’s failed challenges. “I’m not used to being 0-2.”
The Ravens’ margin for error seemed to shrink by the moment late Sunday afternoon. The Pittsburgh Steelers moved to 2-0, clear atop the division. The Cleveland Browns, led by a partly rejuvenated Deshuan Watson, got their first win. The 0-2 Bengals nearly knocked off the Chiefs on the road, flashing their bona fides while adding to the urgency of their own looming divisional showdowns.
For now, all the Ravens can do is focus on Week 3 and try to figure out the rest from there. Two seasons ago, Henry and the Tennessee Titans started 0-2, then reeled off five straight wins and seven victories in their next eight games. (The rest of the season wasn’t so fun, with injuries and poor play sending them to losses in their final six games.)
“These guys know how to win,” Henry said of the Ravens, but, of course, they haven’t shown that know-how yet. Two losses won’t doom their season. But, with every mounting defeat, the road to a comeback becomes a little steeper. Sunday was supposed to be a nice little stroll. It was a gut punch instead. Now the Ravens, staggered and struggling, have to worry about being lapped.
“Trust me, it sucks more for us than anyone else, and I just know we’re going to put our head down and keep going and correct our mistakes, because there’s no way we should be 0-2,” inside linebacker Roquan Smith said. “But it is what it is.”
