Here’s how the Ravens graded out at every position after a 38-30 loss to the Detroit Lions on Monday night at M&T Bank Stadium:
Quarterback
Maybe quarterback Lamar Jackson is trying too hard to be a passer instead of using his bread and butter: his legs. There are times when he drops back and looks normal, which is an insult because he has amazing quickness. He could have taken advantage of some slants and quick square-ins, but he seemed more content trying to hit the long ball. Regardless, if Jackson doesn’t play well, the Ravens aren’t even close in this game. He completed 21 of 27 passes for 288 yards and three touchdowns and finished with a passer rating of 148.1. But his feet don’t appear as quick as they used to be. Grade: B-
Running backs
Derrick Henry had 12 carries for 50 yards but his lost fumble at the Ravens’ 16-yard line with 8:31 left in the game gave Detroit momentum and the Lions responded with a 45-yard field goal to take a 31-24 lead nearly two minutes later. Henry has fumbled three times so far this season, which usually puts a running back in coach John Harbaugh’s dog house. Well, we will see. Also, in short-yardage situations, Henry hasn’t shown that good body lean that usually gets him the 1 or 2 yards needed. This is his second poor grade in the past two games. Grade: D
Offensive line
As I’ve stated several other times, if the Ravens can’t run, they struggle in pass protection. That can be said for a lot of teams, but it becomes glaring with Baltimore. Both guards, Andrew Vorhees and Daniel Faalele, struggle in pass protection and second-year right tackle Roger Rosengarten has been having problems as well. The situation becomes even worse with Jackson holding the ball way too long. Overall, the Ravens need to re-establish the running game to have success. Jackson was sacked seven times, and that’s totally unacceptable. Grade: D
Receivers
After all of this talk about tight end Mark Andrews not being involved much in the offense, he had six catches for 91 yards and touchdowns of 14 and 27 yards. The Lions did a good job of taking slot receiver Zay Flowers out of the game as he had only two catches for 13 yards. But Jackson did a good job of mixing in Rashod Bateman, who had five catches for 63 yards and a touchdown, and No. 2 tight end Charlie Kolar, who had two catches for 22 yards. Overall, the Ravens got most of this group involved, but the problem was that Jackson either had very little time to throw or he held onto the ball too long. Grade: B-
Defensive line
Detroit rushed 38 times for 224 yards. Enough said. But I’m not done. The Ravens were without injured end/tackle Nnamdi Madubuike and he is their best linemen, but the Ravens couldn’t stop Detroit’s two-headed monster of David Montgomery and Jahmyr Gibbs. This wasn’t finesse running, but straight ahead, up-the-gut stuff. The Ravens had no answers with nose guard Travis Jones, end Broderick Washington and rookie Aeneas Peebles. Jones, Peebles and end Brent Urban had one tackle each. Backup nose guard John Jenkins finished with eight tackles. This performance was embarrassing. Grade: D
Linebackers
A week ago against the Cleveland Browns, middle linebacker Roquan Smith, after Jackson, was the best player on the field. On Monday night, Smith got mashed despite finishing with seven tackles. Rookie outside linebacker Mike Green finished with four tackles, but the Ravens didn’t have a suitable replacement for Kyle Van Noy, who led the team in sacks a year ago but was out with a hamstring injury. Fellow outside linebacker Odafe Oweh had two tackles and two quarterback hits, but the Ravens finished with no sacks. Repeat: zero. Rookie weakside linebacker Teddye Buchanan had eight tackles, but a lot of those were off the line of scrimmage. Grade: D
Secondary
The Ravens had a couple of good plays on the backend, especially safeties Kyle Hamilton (nine tackles) and Malakai Starks (eight). But Detroit did a good job of isolating nickel cornerback Marlon Humphrey on the outside one-on-one with receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown, and the Ravens had problems locating tight end Sam LaPorta. Lions quarterback Jared Goff didn’t, however, as LaPorta caught four passes for 33 yards and St. Brown had seven receptions for 77 yards and one touchdown. His 20-yard catch on fourth-and-2 from the Detroit 49 with 1:56 remaining set up what proved to be the game-winning touchdown, a 31-yard run by Montgomery with 1:50 to go. Grade: D
Special teams
Jordan Stout had a strong game, averaging 52.3 yards on three punts. His long was 63 yards and he pinned two inside the Detroit 20. Rasheen Ali averaged 26.2 yards on four kickoff returns and had a long of 43 yards. The Ravens got little use out of rookie punt returner LaJohntay Wester, who averaged 10.3 yards on three returns. Tyler Loop had a 41-yard field goal with 9:40 left in the game. Overall, this was one of the few bright spots for Baltimore. Grade: B+
Coaching
This was supposed to be the Ravens’ coming out party, a big game on Monday night. Instead, the defense looked totally unprepared. Even with Madubuike, they just can’t get enough pressure on opposing quarterbacks and now teams, including Cleveland, have started gouging the run defense. Offensively, the dink-and-dunk stuff works against most teams, but the Ravens struggle when they can’t run the ball. This should have been a win, but the Ravens’ weaknesses were exposed. Grade: C-
Have a news tip? Contact Mike Preston at epreston@baltsun.com, 410-332-6467 and x.com/MikePrestonSun.