Lamar Jackson giveth and he taketh away. The Ravens quarterback tried to make one thing out of nothing when he picked up an errant snap late within the fourth quarter and heaved the ball towards fullback Patrick Ricard, however the ensuing interception proved to be the most expensive of many errors in an unpleasant 24-20 loss to the New York Giants.
The Ravens have been answerable for each sport they’ve performed this season, however they’re 3-3 and greedy for solutions after they left the door wide-open in opposition to a scrappy opponent. Here are 5 issues we discovered from their newest collapse:
The Ravens have underachieved.
The Ravens have jumped to a lead in each sport they’ve performed this season and have led within the fourth quarter in 5 of six. The finest analytics say they’re one of many league’s prime groups on a per-play foundation. We have but to look at an opponent cleanly outplay them. They are 3-3.
If that math doesn’t compute for you, know that it doesn’t compute for the gamers and coaches both. They look within the mirror and see a contender. Their file says in any other case, which is an issue.
Blame has to fall on the toes of an important folks within the locker room.
Jackson is a marvel, and the Ravens could be an odd workforce with out his bewitching runs and daring throws. But he let his creativity get the higher of him in opposition to the Giants when he tried to pluck a skidding snap from rookie Tyler Linderbaum off the turf and discover Ricard in site visitors with the sport hanging within the steadiness. Safety Julian Love’s interception put the Giants a mere 13 yards from the landing that will ship the Ravens house in distress.
Great as he was over the primary three weeks of the season, Jackson has been much less so over the past three, averaging 176 passing yards per sport with three touchdowns and 4 interceptions in that span. He misses the big-play upside of vast receiver Rashod Bateman, who damage his foot in Week 4 and has not practiced since. For all of the terrific performs we’ve seen from Devin Duvernay and for all of Mark Andrews’ regular excellence, now we have to fault the Ravens’ entrance workplace for not bringing in one other productive cross catcher to spherical out an undermanned corps.
We additionally need to ask John Harbaugh and his workers why the Ravens hamstrung themselves with presnap penalties from the primary quarter to the fourth? How may they line up incorrectly on a easy quarterback keeper that will have given them a primary down the play earlier than Jackson threw his misbegotten interception? The psychological errors appear to return from totally different locations every time; recall the deadly miscommunication within the secondary in opposition to the Miami Dolphins or the missed blocks that left Jackson unprotected on that decisive fourth-down play in opposition to the Buffalo Bills. But the overarching query is identical: the place is that this workforce’s precision when it’s time to place a sport away?
The Ravens did many issues properly in opposition to the Giants, simply as they’ve executed many issues properly all season. Their floor sport is buzzing once more, with a peppy Kenyan Drake immediately within the image and the offensive line discovering its footing with Ronnie Stanley again at left sort out. Their protection will catch hell for surrendering two touchdowns within the fourth quarter however did a superb job limiting Saquon Barkley and didn’t quit a play longer than 18 yards all afternoon.
The elements of a winner are in place, however the Ravens will not be taking part in profitable soccer on third downs and late-game possessions. The workforce that led the league in scoring margin in 2019 and 2020 is nowhere to be discovered. Peril lurks round each nook, even after they’re cruising down the sector with a lead of their pockets.
“It feels like we’re beating ourselves,” Jackson mentioned.
Yes, it does, and for now, the Ravens don’t appear to know why.
The Ravens tossed away too many factors because of sloppy execution on key downs.
We can’t say the offense struggled. In truth, the Ravens put collectively drives extra persistently than that they had in any earlier sport, piling up 406 yards, together with a season-high 211 on the bottom. They averaged seven yards per play in comparison with 3.8 for the Giants.
But they left so many factors on the desk due to poor execution on third down, a pattern that began properly earlier than the disastrous penalty-interception couplet that value them their lead on the finish.
On the Ravens’ opening drive, Jackson fell down for a 6-yard loss on third down after the Giants clogged his escape lanes. The misplaced yardage knocked the Ravens out of field-goal vary.
They backed themselves into bother once more on their subsequent drive, when a false-start penalty (their third of the sport), a 1-yard loss by J.Ok. Dobbins and an errant swing cross from Jackson compelled Justin Tucker to aim a 56-yard discipline purpose, which he clanked off the left upright.
The Ravens outgained the Giants 94-22 and managed the ball for nearly 11 minutes of the primary quarter however had nothing to indicate for it. They led by simply three at halftime after accumulating 256 yards of offense and holding Barkley in verify. They would possibly as properly have waived an indication at their underdog opponent: “We’re giving you life.”
The Ravens rumbled down the sector once more the primary time that they had the ball within the second half, shifting to first-and-goal from the Giants’ 5-yard line. They had killed the Giants on the bottom all afternoon however tried three passes, none of which discovered its mark. Andrews had the perfect shot at a landing however couldn’t regulate to tug in a tipped ball.
The Ravens led by 10 after Andrews caught a landing cross early within the fourth quarter, however that margin may simply have been 17 or 20.
Jackson will spend the week stewing on his turnovers and offline throws whereas his blockers will lament a string of presnap penalties that frequently set the Ravens again. The offense had each likelihood to place this sport away and couldn’t.
The future is shiny for a defensive entrance led by Justin Madubuike and Travis Jones.
It was not troublesome to search out followers carping on social media about coordinator Mike Macdonald’s protection. Macdonald was within the highlight along with his predecessor, Don “Wink” Martindale, on the opposite sideline, and his crew did permit the Giants to drive 12 performs for 75 yards to chop the result in 20-17. But let’s hold this in perspective: the Ravens defended properly sufficient to win the sport.
Their chief mission was to maintain Barkley from operating wild they usually did it, limiting him to three.8 yards per carry with a longest acquire of 8. Their secondary mission was to maintain Daniel Jones from escaping the pocket. He gained simply 6 yards on six carries and didn’t full a cross longer than 18 yards. Yes, the Ravens wish to have again a number of of these third-and-longs on which Jones discovered an open receiver. But their run protection had been an issue via 5 weeks and it held up admirably in opposition to one of many league’s best floor assaults. They maintained a strong wall on the line of scrimmage and didn’t let Barkley and Jones run via tackles.
Their younger inside playmakers, Madubuike and Travis Jones, excelled on the tip of the spear together with elder statesman Calais Campbell. The trio mixed for 13 tackles, three sacks and 5 quarterback hits — stellar manufacturing by any measure.
The Ravens’ cross rush bothered Jones early as he confronted third-and-long on every of the Giants’ first two sequence. Travis Jones bulled up the center for his first skilled sack, a promising signal for a workforce that has struggled to mount inside strain in latest seasons.
On the primary drive of the second half, Madubuike dropped Jones within the open discipline for a sack because the Ravens despatched the Giants off the sector three-and-out. We spent two years questioning when the 2020 third-round choose would flash his eye-popping explosiveness greater than sometimes. In his third season, Madubuike appears to hit the stat sheet with a significant play each week.
In per week positive to be stuffed with soul-searching, the Ravens ought to take some solace from the very fact their protection has not repeated its disastrous efficiency from that Week 2 collapse in opposition to the Dolphins.
Andrews’ capacity to provide when he’s Jackson’s solely scary goal is one thing to see.
The Giants knew Andrews was Jackson’s possible first choice on each third down and red-zone snap, however their linebackers and defensive backs had little hope of holding the All-Pro tight finish from one other stellar stat line — seven catches on 11 targets for 106 yards and a landing.
Andrews didn’t even play his finest sport. He most likely felt he ought to have caught one other landing cross on that deflected ball, which modified trajectory on him on the final second. But he was Jackson’s solely constant downfield goal and his finest guess to make a contested catch, identical to he was the week earlier than in a razor-thin 19-17 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.
Andrews is greater than 30 targets, 20 catches and 200 yards forward of every other cross catcher on the workforce. He’s proper up there with Cooper Kupp of the Los Angeles Rams on the subject of being the singular focus of his workforce’s passing offense. Still, he finds a approach to get via contact on the line of scrimmage, glide into open patches and snatch the ball in entrance of overpowered defenders. He and Kansas City’s Travis Kelce reside in their very own golden neighborhood above the remainder of the league’s tight ends.
The Ravens’ uneven outcomes weigh on Andrews as a lot as anybody. We see it in his flinty expression as he offers curt solutions about how they have to end off opponents. But we should always not let the broader frustrations of the workforce obscure what we’re seeing from No. 89, one of many biggest gamers in franchise historical past in his prime.
For all their missed alternatives, the Ravens are nonetheless in superb place.
They may have put an early stranglehold on the AFC North, they usually’re absolutely aggravated that their divisional margin vanished only a week after they outlasted the defending champion Bengals. But in the event that they’re going to start out 3-3, they may as properly do it in mediocre firm. And that’s what the AFC North is correct now: mediocre.
The Bengals pulled out a victory in New Orleans on a 60-yard cross from Joe Burrow to Ja’Marr Chase, and the Pittsburgh Steelers upset the immediately odd Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But the New England Patriots mauled the Browns in Cleveland, and it appears no AFC North workforce can keep traction from one week to the following.
The Ravens maintain a win over Cincinnati, the opposite 3-3 workforce within the bunch, they usually face by far the simplest schedule going ahead, in keeping with Football Outsiders. They’re anticipating to get a raft of key gamers again over the following month, from Bateman to operating again Gus Edwards to outdoors linebackers Tyus Bowser, Justin Houston and David Ojabo. Stanley has performed properly since getting back from the ankle damage that sidelined him for practically two years, and the Ravens dodged a bullet Sunday when proper sort out Morgan Moses’ heel damage was not severe. They now not really feel just like the most injury-scarred workforce in soccer.
None of that is to say the Ravens ought to shrug off their fourth-quarter woes or, heck, their lack of ability to win two video games in arrow. They are enmeshed in an identification disaster as they grasp for solutions to what ails them. But none of their huge targets are out the window. We’re in for a protracted, anxious season.
Week 7
BROWNS@RAVENS
Sunday, 1 p.m.
TV: Chs. 13, 9
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
Line: Ravens by 6
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Source: www.bostonherald.com