Risers and fallers after 24-19 loss to Eagles
The Ravens lost in disappointing fashion to the Philadelphia Eagles to fall to 8-5 heading into their long-awaited bye week. Sunday afternoon’s game felt like a glimpse of the past and future for a team that was pegged as a Super Bowl contender throughout the year. The Ravens started off hot out of the gates going up 9-0 in the first quarter. However, a slew of Justin Tucker missed kicks and poor offense left the Ravens in the dust. It was as disappointing of an offensive performance as we’ve seen from Baltimore’s historic unit all year and now leaves them 1.5 games behind the Pittsburgh Steelers for first place in the AFC North. While Sunday’s loss will certainly leave a bad taste in the team’s mouth into the bye, there should still be confidence that the Ravens can turn things around and get hot considering the level of talent and experience on the roster.
Stock up:
Defense
The Ravens defense looks to have officially turned a corner. After weeks and weeks of terrible performances, the Ravens have now held three straight playoff teams to mediocre offensive outputs. The red-hot Eagles mustered just 283 yards of total offense and failed to get any rhythm or momentum for most of the game. Unlike the offense, Zach Orr and the coaching staff made personnel changes that have positively helped a defense that was last in the league against the pass. While the full story isn’t written on the Ravens defense, they’ve certainly held up their end of the bargain over the last three weeks.
Mark Andrews, TE
After early struggles, Mark Andrews has seemingly returned to being Lamar Jackson’s go-to-guy. Andrews made a few highlight reel catches on Sunday, including an incredible 14-yard touchdown in the first quarter where he mossed multiple Eagles defenders.
Stock down:
Justin Tucker, K
The downfall of Justin Tucker will be studied for generations to come. While it’s not out of the realm of comprehension that the former All-Pro can turn things around, his performance on Sunday was easily one of, if not the worst of his career. Tucker missed two field goals and an extra point to bring his miss total to 8 on the season, a career high. Tucker is a complete liability for Baltimore and the offense will need to take his struggles into account when calling plays on the opponent’s side of the field. There has been a lot of talk about benching Tucker, but with the season nearing an end, it might be difficult for the team to find better options at the position.
Offensive line
The play calling and overall talent of the Ravens offense has masked major offensive line issues all year. On Sunday, those issues were very apparent against a ferocious Eagles defensive line. The Eagles pressured Lamar Jackson on 46% of his drop backs, mostly with four rushers, forcing him to take deeper drops and extend plays with his legs. The Ravens’ guard play has been bad all season but John Harbaugh has refused to entertain other options. Patrick Mekari allowed 9 pressures and seemingly can’t play the guard spot effectively without committing penalties. Daniel Faalele has been solid in pass protection but is simply too slow to consistently execute Baltimore’s blocking schemes. The Ravens made key personnel changes on defense that turned the tide on that side of the ball. Will they do the same on offense?
Play calling
Offensive coordinator Todd Monken received plenty of praise this season, but his game plan and adjustments on Sunday were questionable. There was very little creativity on offense, and they didn’t seem to have any answers when it came to slowing down the Philadelphia pass rush. The Ravens slowly morphed into a strictly drop back passing team which also did them zero favors in moving the ball on a Philadelphia D-line that generated 25 pressures on just 45 passing attempts. Baltimore’s offense has been historically great this year but the same issues that seem to arise in every playoff loss reared their ugly head again on Sunday.
WR Diontae Johnson
After WR Rashod Bateman left Sunday’s contest with a sore knee, it looked like Diontae Johnson would finally get his chance to make his first impact since Baltimore acquired him at the trade deadline. However, Johnson never saw the field and his future in Baltimore now seems in question after some curious comments from John Harbaugh who said that the team will “just work it out and see where we’re at over the next few days.” Multiple internal player issues have plagued the Ravens this year, but the lack of involvement from Johnson has to be the strangest.
QB Lamar Jackson
It’s difficult to blame Jackson for yesterday’s loss. He was constantly under pressure and on the run due to a porous offensive line. However, Jackson did miss two key throws to Isaiah Likely and Zay Flowers and seemed somewhat hesitant to use his legs to pick up yards as the Eagles’ linebackers took deep drops in coverage. Jackson is still playing at an elite level, just not quite as historic as we saw earlier in the season.