How Ravens went from 0-2 and a season seemingly on the brink to one of NFL’s best

The calendar hadn’t even officially flipped to fall and Ravens fans were already sharpening their proverbial pitchforks.

A 27-20 loss by a big toe to the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs in Kansas City on opening night was one thing. Blowing a 10-point fourth-quarter lead to the lowly Las Vegas Raiders in the home opener at M&T Bank Stadium was simply too much.

It was John Harbaugh’s ninth blown double-digit lead in the fourth quarter (all happening since 2022), the most of any coach in the past 35 years.

Suddenly, a season with Super Bowl aspirations seemed to be on the brink.

An offensive line with three new starters was struggling. A historically great defense from just a season ago now under a first-year coordinator looked discombobulated. The offense seemed to have an identity crisis. There were issues with penalties, clock management and special teams.

Yet, the day after the Raiders loss, Harbaugh emerged resolute for his weekly news conference.

“The race is a marathon, and we have to try to continue to improve as much as we can every single day,” he said then. “I think sometimes your improvements show up, and sometimes it doesn’t. We had a disappointing game yesterday; we’re not happy about it. We want to play better; we want to play winning football. We didn’t. We didn’t do the things that we needed to do to win. We need to keep pounding the rock, and the rock is going to crack. But that’s our job to keep pounding [and to] not get discouraged, not think all is for nothing and continue to work, and our reward will be out there in the future if we continue to do that.

“We’re [going] in the right direction. We have the right plan. We just have to learn to execute it better and more consistently, and I think we’ll do that as we go.”

The second-longest tenured coach in the league, Harbaugh knows seasons aren’t won or lost after two games. Four straight wins later, that discomfiting defeat at the hands of quarterback Gardner Minshew II feels as much a long time ago as it does anomalous.

One-third of the way into the season, the Ravens are tied atop the AFC North, rank third overall in defense-adjusted value over average (DVOA), have the NFL’s No. 1 rushing attack, top-ranked passing attack and fourth-best run defense. So how did they go from there to here?

Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry

Talent helps, and Baltimore has plenty of it, especially on offense, starting with quarterback, two-time and reigning NFL Most Valuable Player Lamar Jackson, and four-time Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry.

It’s worth remembering that neither played a snap in the preseason and that Jackson got off to a similarly slow start last season, too, and Baltimore reached the AFC title game. Add in a new running back behind a new offensive line, and it was always going to take at least some time for all of it to jell.

Now in the second year of coordinator Todd Monken’s offense, it was likewise going to take some work before Jackson could take full command of the scheme, which he seems to have done.

“We’re just taking a step in the direction right now,” Jackson said last week. “We started the season off slow, but we’re taking strides in the right direction.”

That direction has also relied on Henry, who, at age 30, leads the NFL in rushing and has been named AFC Offensive Player of the Week twice in the past three weeks. The one week in between that he wasn’t, Jackson was.

The Ravens have almost always had a great ground game, but Henry is a different kind of back, equally adept at gassing a defense for an 87-yard touchdown run as he did against the Buffalo Bills as he is wearing one down and sealing victory late as he did against the Commanders last week.

“The difference Derrick Henry has made is pretty clear; you see it,” Harbaugh said. “It’s a different kind of rushing attack with him because of the way he runs the ball. He’s just one of a kind. He’s one of one. Somebody asked me in the production meeting this week, ‘Who do you compare him to?’ I’m like, ‘Man, who do you compare him to?’ I saw the Eric Dickerson article. OK, I think there is some similarity. I remember Eric Dickerson coming up, but after that, and even that, I don’t know, man. He’s one of one.”

With running like that and defenses sometimes stacking the box as a result, things become infinitely easier for Jackson, who has been terrific on play-action and thus near the top of the league in efficiency.

“It’s a pick-your-poison type of offense,” he said, “and it’s showing.”

Offensive line turnaround

Entering Week 3 against the Dallas Cowboys, Harbaugh hinted that changes could be coming up front. But with the Ravens racing to a 28-6 lead through three quarters before holding on for a 28-25 victory, they never did.

A week later and with left guard Andrew Vorhees sidelined with an ankle injury, however, the plan went into action.

Patrick Mekari, who’d started the season at right tackle with rookie Roger Rosengarten rotating in to spell the veteran, moved inside to fill in for Vorhees while Rosengarten started outside. Voila.

Against the Bills, Baltimore leaned on the legs of Henry, who racked up 199 yards, and the offensive line across the board played well in a 35-10 blowout.

That included much-maligned right guard Daniel Faalele, who, playing the position for the first time after being moved from tackle, seems to be settling in, especially as a pass blocker, which was the more concerning part of his game. The much-improved play of left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who is in the final year of his contract after having it restructured in the offseason and looks much closer to his 2019 All-Pro and Pro Bowl form, can’t be overstated in terms of importance, either. And center Tyler Linderbaum, a Pro Bowl selection last season, has been consistently reliable.

“They’re doing a really good job,” Harbaugh said. “But not just those five guys, the other … the six, seven, eight, nine guys — those guys are all playing well when they play, so we’re kind of building some real depth in there.

“But just like we said four weeks ago, they can continue to get better. There’s a lot of room for improvement across the whole board with our whole team, and definitely the O-line thinks that way, too.”

Other improvements and issues still holding the Ravens back

One of the biggest problems for the Ravens in the early going was penalties, many of which were of the undisciplined variety.

In Week 1 against Kansas City, Baltimore was flagged seven times for 64 yards, not including the penalties that were declined. The next two games against the Raiders and Cowboys, the Ravens were hit with 11 and 13 penalties for 109 and 105 yards, respectively. Against the Bills, they were flagged eight times for 79 yards.

But over the past two weeks, they have cleaned up those mistakes significantly.

Last week against the Commanders, the Ravens were flagged just three times for 33 yards. The week before against the Bengals in Cincinnati, just two flags for 22 yards.

Then there’s the dynamic nature of the offense.

While Henry has ground down opposing defenses and racked up big yards, he’s hardly been a one-man show. Jackson has thrown for over 300 yards each of the past two weeks. Receiver Zay Flowers has gone over 100 yards the past two games. And tight ends Mark Andrews and Isaiah Likely along with receiver Rashod Bateman and third-down back Justice Hill have all had moments of significant contribution both catching and blocking.

“I think we are extremely versatile in what we are doing,” Andrews said. “I think we are quick and there are a lot of guys impacting the game. It’s kind of a pick your poison for the defense.”

There’s that phrase again, and the Ravens are proving lethal because of it.

Still, there are areas of concern, most notably on defense.

The Ravens’ secondary continues to give up chunks of yards. It’s been particularly vulnerable in the middle of the field and on the back end with safety Marcus Williams. As a result, the Ravens rank 24th in points allowed per game, 31st in passing yards per game and 21st in completion percentage allowed.

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At least some of that can also be attributed to the schedule they’ve faced with games against the Chiefs, Cowboys, Bills, Bengals and Commanders over the first six weeks. Now comes another high-flying offense in the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

There is relief on the way, though.

The remainder of the schedule includes games against the Cleveland Browns (twice), Denver Broncos, Pittsburgh Steelers (twice) and New York Giants. Most, if not all of those, should be a reprieve.

“We know that we’re very talented back there,” Harbaugh said of the secondary. “I told the guys last week — we were the 29th-ranked pass defense by statistics in the league — ‘Are we going to play 29th the rest of the year?’ That’s an opportunity because we know we’re far better than that — we’re much more talented than that and we can play so much better.”

If they can, the organization’s first Super Bowl appearance in over a decade might not be lost after all.

Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com , 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1 .