The Baltimore Ravens offensive line was fantastic against the Oakland Raiders and that showed in Pro Football Focus’s grades of the game.
Off a two game losing streak, the Baltimore Ravens finally got back to their winning ways on Sunday. They won a close, but impressive 30-17 game over the Oakland Raiders. We watched a completely different Ravens team than the past two weeks. The defense held their own against a Derek Carr-less offense and Joe Flacco finally got rhythm going in the passing game.
It was an impressive overall team performance from the Ravens who finally got things back on track, but who were the most impressive performers? Pro Football Focus grades the top five players from each team, every week.
According to their grades, here were the highest rated Ravens players of the day.
T Ronnie Stanley, 83.8 overall grade
C Ryan Jensen, 82.8 overall grade
WR Mike Wallace, 82.0 overall grade
QB Joe Flacco, 81.6 overall grade
Edge Matthew Judon, 81.2 overall grade
Sunday was a special game for Ronnie Stanley. Before the game, the Las Vegas native pledged to donate $1,000 for every quarterback, sack, or hurry he gave up to the victims of the egas tragedy in his hometown. Needless to say, Stanley had a fantastic game. He played his best game of the season, giving up just one hurry in 27 pass blocking attempts
Derek Carr might have been out, but the Raiders still had 2016 Defensive Player of the Year Khalil Mack. Stanley won that battle and per PFF’s stats, Mack was held to zero quarterback pressures, the first time this has happened since Week 17 of the 2014 season.
Ryan Jensen spent most of his first three seasons with the Ravens as a backup guard, but has taken over a new role this season. He’s held down the fort as the starting center given all of the injuries this unit has suffered. This is the second game this Jensen has been a top performer for the Ravens. He’s a rock up front and has a nasty play style. It’s exactly what you need in the trenches.
Jensen is set to be an unrestricted free agent after this season, but is playing like someone the Ravens need to keep around next season.
Wait, the Ravens do have wide receivers? Before this game, the offense didn’t have a receiver on pace for over 500 yards this season, but that quickly changed on Sunday. On the first play on the game Joe Flacco found Mike Wallace down the left field sidelines for a huge 52-yard gain. It set the tone for the game and was one of the two times the duo connected for big gains.
"Veteran WR Mike Wallace showed he still has jets as he ran right by Raiders CB Sean Smith on two occasions, catching two deep balls for 106 yards against him. Wallace caught all three of his targets for 133 yards and QB Joe Flacco had a passer rating of 118.8 while targeting him"
Wallace totaled 133 receiving yards in the best performance we’ve seen from a Ravens wide receiver in a while. Now coming off two solid games, hopefully Wallace can keep this production up.
After weeks of scrutiny and criticism, Joe Flacco finally silenced critics with one of his most impressive performances of the season. He finished 19 of 26 with 222 yards and most importantly, didn’t throw an interception. Flacco snapped a 10-game streak of consecutive games with an interception thrown.
"Flacco will have to tip his hat to his offfensive line as they provided him with plenty of protection against one of the top defensive fronts in the league. He was only under pressure on four of his 26 drop backs and was very accurate when given time, completing 72 percent of his throws for 204 yards with a clean pocket."
Plus, how could we forget Flacco’s incredible first down throw at the end of the first quarter? It was a pass that could’ve easily gone the other way, but he had a little bit of luck on his side.
The Ravens don’t need Flacco to be an Aaron Rodgers type of quarterback, that’s pretty apparent, but just good enough to put the Ravens in a position to win. That’s exactly what he did against the Raiders.
Next: Ravens Report Card: Grading the performance in win over Oakland
The Ravens pass rush has been fairly quiet over the past few weeks, but second-year edge rusher Matt Judon stood out on Sunday. He finished with just one tackle for loss but was excellent in coverage.
"Judon played one of the best games of his short career so far against the Raiders.In coverage, he was targeted twice, allowing no receptions and coming up with a pass defense. In run defense, he came up with two stops and a run defense grade of 83.8."
It was impressive to watch Judon against the pass. Usually these are considered mismatches, but Judon was able to hold his own and that’s huge for this defense. He and Tyus Bower are two of the bright futures for this pass rush going forward.