The great thing about Week 1 in the NFL, according to Ravens coach John Harbaugh, is that it makes Week 2 a little better. Failure becomes a teaching opportunity, and success becomes a building block.
“You want to always raise the floor,” Harbaugh said after Monday’s practice, the Ravens’ first since their season-opening loss to the Kansas City Chiefs. “That’s what winning football does — it raises the floor as high as it can be. We’ve been that kind of team over the years; that’s why we’ve won so many games. I think the Chiefs’ floor was higher in that game ... and, ultimately, that was probably the difference in the game.”
Self-improvement has been a theme in the Ravens’ locker room this week. Rookie right tackle Roger Rosengarten, who allowed a strip-sack on his first NFL snap, joked Thursday that “you don’t want it to go the way it did for me. But I turned the negatives into a positive.” Tight end Isaiah Likely, who had a game-high 111 receiving yards and a touchdown but landed just out of bounds on a catch that could’ve tied the game as time expired, said: “Everything I did good, it wasn’t enough.”
The Ravens can measure their progress Sunday against the Las Vegas Raiders, who took their own lumps in a season-opening loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. Here’s what to watch in their Week 2 matchup at M&T Bank Stadium.
1. The Ravens’ Week 1-to-Week 2 improvement might be most evident in quarterback Lamar Jackson, who has used recent season openers to find his sea legs.
From 2020 to 2023, Jackson completed 68.2% of his passes, threw seven touchdowns and two interceptions and averaged 223 yards per game in Week 1. On the ground, he averaged 6 yards per carry and 46.5 rushing yards per game and didn’t find the end zone. Overall, he averaged minus-0.02 expected points added per play, 19th among 30 qualifying quarterbacks, according to TruMedia.
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In Week 2, however, Jackson completed 72.3% of his passes, threw seven touchdowns and two interceptions (again) and averaged 249.5 yards per game. He also averaged 6.3 yards per carry and 83.5 rushing yards per game and added three rushing touchdowns. Overall, he averaged 0.31 EPA per play, fourth among 28 qualifying quarterbacks and an All-Pro level of efficiency.
“We saw that last year from us,” offensive coordinator Todd Monken said Thursday, referring to the Ravens’ offensive improvement. In Week 1, his first game as play-caller in Baltimore, they averaged 4.6 yards per play; in Week 2, 5.9 yards per play. “I can’t speak to other teams, but I can speak from the [Houston] Texans game to the [Cincinnati] Bengals game on the road. We were significantly better, significantly cleaner. Our operation was better. Our execution was better. Time will tell, but we had a great practice today, so I’m excited to see where we’ve come in a couple of days.”
2. One of the game’s most interesting subplots should play out along the right side of the Ravens’ line, where perhaps their offense’s biggest weakness will be tested by the Raiders’ greatest strength.
The challenge of blocking perennial Pro Bowl defensive end Maxx Crosby and star defensive tackle Christian Wilkins will fall primarily to rotational right tackles Patrick Mekari and Rosengarten and right guard Daniel Faalele. Crosby lined up over the right side of the Chargers’ line in Week 1 on 32 of his 56 defensive snaps — a relatively low rate for him — while Wilkins lined up on the right side on 51 of his 54 defensive snaps, according to Pro Football Focus.
Crosby’s lone sack in Week 1 came after lining up over the left side of the Chargers’ line, and Wilkins finished the game without a quarterback hit, but both were effective pass rushers. Crosby had the sixth-best win rate among NFL edge rushers in Week 1, according to ESPN, while Wilkins ranked sixth among interior linemen — three spots behind teammate Adam Butler, a reserve tackle. Mekari, Rosengarten and Faalele allowed a combined eight pressures and a sack, according to PFF.
“Those two are for sure game-wreckers,” Rosengarten said Thursday of Crosby and Wilkins, who missed just three defensive snaps total in Week 1. “They’re the best two in that D-line, for sure, but they’re all really good players. They’re high-motor guys, and they have a get-to-the-quarterback mentality at all costs. So the main thing for us: Block to the whistle, strain to finish. That’s the big thing going in for us.”
Said offensive line coach George Warhop: “At the end of the day, when it’s third down and we’re throwing the ball, we can’t worry about where those guys are. We can only worry about us going about our business and us blocking them.”
3. Kicker Justin Tucker ended training camp with a 68-yard field goal. Then he started the season with another in a string of long-range misses.
After misfiring from 53 yards in the second quarter at Arrowhead Stadium, Tucker has made just one of his past six attempts from at least 50 yards. (One of those was blocked.)
Since December 2022, Tucker has made just four of 11 50-plus-yard attempts (36.4%), with three blocked, according to TruMedia. From the start of the 2019 season to December 2022, he made 16 of 21 (76.2%), one of the best long-distance rates in the NFL.
Tucker hasn’t sweated the smaller stuff — he’s 61-for-63 since 2022 on field goals 49 yards or shorter — but the big shots have largely been off target for the most accurate kicker in NFL history.
“I don’t think there’s anything to be concerned about,” Ravens special teams coordinator Chris Horton said Thursday. “The thing with Justin is, it’s always, ‘Let’s just play the next play.’ When you think about those last six kicks, every kick is different, every situation is different, every element is different. Obviously, the object is to get the ball between the goalposts, so when something doesn’t go right, the one thing Justin does is, he comes back, he looks at it, he sees what could he have done better.”
4. At the end of last season, Harbaugh found himself in a strange place. According to FTN’s Aaron Schatz, he ranked among the NFL’s least aggressive coaches on fourth down, finishing 31st among 35 coaches in the analytics site’s “aggressiveness index” after going for just six of 12 “qualifying” fourth-and-1s.
Just four years earlier, in 2019, Harbaugh had been the NFL’s boldest coach, ranking first in fourth-down aggressiveness, according to Schatz’s work for Football Outsiders. Over the next few years, though, his appetite for risk waned as others’ intensified. Harbaugh fell to fourth in Football Outsiders’ rankings in 2020, then 16th in 2021, then 24th in 2022. Even last year, despite a static aggressiveness index (0.76), he fell seven spots.
In the Ravens’ season opener, Harbaugh coached more like his old self. He kept the offense on the field for an unsuccessful fourth-and-3 at midfield in the second quarter and later got a fourth-and-1 conversion at Kansas City’s 22 as the Ravens tried to cut into a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter.
Raiders coach Antonio Pierce’s own risk tolerance could provide a useful contrast Sunday. Pierce’s aggressiveness index ranked last in the NFL in 2023, and he didn’t waver in his approach in Week 1. Trailing 16-10 midway through the fourth quarter and facing a fourth-and-1 at the Chargers’ 43, Las Vegas punted. According to the Surrender Index, an X (formerly Twitter) account that determines “just how cowardly every NFL punt is,” the decision ranked in the 99.9th percentile of all cowardly punts since 1999.
5. The pregame ceremonies for Sunday’s home opener will be emotional.
Over 40 Ravens, including former stars such as running back Ray Rice and wide receiver Torrey Smith, will serve as Legends of the Game in honor of former teammate Jacoby Jones. Jones, 40, a former All-Pro kick returner and receiver and a playoff hero during the Ravens’ Super Bowl XLVII run, died July 14 of natural causes at his home in New Orleans.
Jones’ mother, Emily London-Jones, and son, Jacoby Jr., will also be on the field for a “special honorary moment” before the team is introduced, according to the team.
Family members of former Ravens offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris, who died Aug. 25 at age 70, will also be honored on the field during the coin toss. D’Alessandris had served on Harbaugh’s staff since 2017 until his death.
Fans are encouraged to arrive at their seats no later than 12:40 p.m. to take part in all the pregame ceremonies.
