The Ravens got the result they wanted on Sunday, but the performance came with plenty of rough edges. Baltimore handled the Titans for most of the afternoon, yet the win still carried the kind of mess that seems to follow this team around. There was enough good to control the game, enough bad to raise questions, and enough ugly to make the whole thing feel like a Ravens special.
The biggest bright spot was the Lamar Jackson-Zay Flowers connection. Right now, there may not be a better quarterback-wide receiver pairing anywhere.
Both players have missed time over the first four weeks, but when they’ve been on the field together, the production has been on another level. Jackson threw for 222 yards in the first half, and more than 100 of those went to Flowers.
That early burst helped the Ravens build a cushion they could ride the rest of the way. The bad news for Baltimore is that the two South Florida natives are still dealing with mirrored availability.
Jackson had to play without Flowers in the second half of Week 1 and all of Week 2, while Flowers ended up without Jackson in the second half of Week 4 and likely all of the next game as well.
Baltimore also deserves credit for the way its defense handled Tennessee for much of the game. The Titans offense may be the worst in football, and Jesse Minter’s group still has work to do, but this was a step in the right direction.
Outside of Tennessee’s first and last drives, the defense did what it had to do. Even after Jackson left and the offense went quiet in the second half, the Titans never really found a rhythm.
The late touchdown drive took some shine off the effort, but the unit is showing improvement. And for all the talk about Jesse Minter and Mike Macdonald comparisons, it’s worth remembering that no defense flips overnight just because the scheme is new.
Up front, the Ravens held up better in pass protection than many expected. The interior line was supposed to have a tough time with Jeffery Simmons, one of the league’s best defensive linemen, but that challenge never fully materialized.
According to Pro Football Focus, Baltimore allowed just six pressures on Jackson’s 23 dropbacks and one on Tyler Huntley’s 11. That adds up to seven pressures on 34 dropbacks, a season low at 20.5 percent, and it came with backups on the field and a rookie guard playing out of position.
Jackson had a lot of clean looks, and that made a real difference.
The pass rush did its part too, even if the box score doesn’t jump off the page. Baltimore finished with 18 pressures and made Cam Ward uncomfortable throughout the game, forcing him to move and throw away the ball several times.
Mike Green and Nnamdi Madubuike stood out with Trey Hendrickson out. The Ravens only had one sack, but the pressure was there.
That said, the second-half offense was hard to ignore. Jackson was out after halftime, and there’s context there.
Jesse Minter said Tyler Huntley operated in a way that allowed the Ravens, already ahead and dealing with rain, to close it out. Still, a second half with no points against the Titans is not something Baltimore can shrug off.
The defense kept Tennessee from gaining momentum, but the offense will need a much better plan Sunday night against Atlanta without Jackson. Huntley is capable, and with a week to prepare, Declan Doyle should be able to put together a package that gives the Ravens a chance.
The run game was another problem. While pass protection held up, the line did not create much movement for Derrick Henry.
He finished with 73 yards on 23 carries, a 3.2-yard average, and only 25 of those yards came before contact. That’s not the kind of number the Ravens want to see from their offensive line, especially if they expect to lean on Henry against Atlanta with Jackson sidelined.
The sack total was underwhelming as well. Baltimore’s front got to Ward repeatedly, but it only turned one of those pressures into a sack, and that came late from undrafted free agent Ethan Burke.
When Green and Madubuike are combining for five and six pressures, the Ravens need more finished plays. Green did help force an interception when one of his pressures pushed Ward into a throw that was rifled hard to his running back and bounced into Trenton Simpson’s hands, but one sack against this Titans team still isn’t enough.
Then there were the penalties, which were as ugly as anything from the game. The NFL’s flag problem has become impossible to miss this season, and the Ravens have their own discipline issues to clean up, especially with pre-snap mistakes.
But Sunday featured plenty of calls that felt absurd, including the unsportmanlike conduct flag on Kyle Hamilton and a string of soft holding and pass interference penalties. It’s not just Baltimore.
Twelve teams had double-digit penalties in Week 4, and the league-wide issue is getting harder to ignore.
The injury situation only made matters worse. Baltimore entered Sunday already without all three of its centers on injured reserve, plus four other expected contributors.
Trey Hendrickson was also out. During the game, the Ravens lost Jackson, Marlon Humphrey, Andrew Vorhees, and Durham Smythe.
Smythe is already confirmed to be out for the season with a torn Achilles and a subsequent placement on IR. The other three did not practice Wednesday but are not being treated as IR candidates.
That leaves Baltimore heading into Sunday Night Football with its backup quarterback, its fourth option at center, its second backup guard, and a suddenly thin outside cornerback group. The Ravens have since traded for center Cam Jurgens, which would move Vega Ioane back to guard, but he won’t be ready for Sunday because he still has to clear concussion protocol and learn the offense.
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