Take-home points from Baltimore Ravens win over Houston Texans

It wasn’t always pretty, but the Baltimore Ravens defense and clean effort fueled the team to a win vs. the Houston Texans.

Its often said that more teams lose games than win them in the National Football League. Though it’s not an entirely accurate representation of what took place in the Baltimore Ravens 33-16 win over the Houston Texans on Sunday, it’s not entirely off, either.

At the end of the day, this is a solid road win for the Ravens heading into their much-anticipated scrum with the Kansas City Chiefs next Monday night, and they were solidly the better team, out-gaining the Texans by more than 100 yards, and winning the turnover battle, 2-0. Let’s take a quick look back:

• The interior offensive line is bordering on “alarming” territory, and tackle Orlando Brown Jr. appears to be struggling a bit, as well. Kansas City brings Chris Jones with them to play football, and it would be a good idea to get some stuff hammered out by then. We knew the team would miss Marshal Yanda, but… Geesh.

• Lamar Jackson was good on the day, connecting on 18 of 24 passes for 204-yards and a touchdown. He also ran for 54-yards. I’d like to see a few less designed runs, but teams are also crashing inside to limit the interior runs, so Jackson is keeping the ball more frequently than I’d prefer.
• Marquise Brown didn’t make any huge plays, but he gets uncovered quickly and has electricity in his feet. He’s exciting.

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• The Ravens are showing teams they can play a lot of different ways on offense, and that might be by design this early in the season — put it on tape for other teams to stress over it.

• The run game is still not consistently winning from down to down, but all three backs showed off their strengths in various runs today. Ingram exploded through the line for his long touchdown run. Gus Edwards squared up his shoulders, planted his foot in the ground, and rumbled downfield. And JK Dobbins showed off explosion, balance, and vision in his long run. Give them some space and they will hurt teams.

• The run defense was much better than in their opener, but Houston does not run the ball as well as Cleveland. This is still to be determined, but I thought Calais Campbell, Derek Wolfe, and Brandon Williams looked strong upfront, and the linebackers ran to the ball.

• Last week I said that I was done underestimating L.J. Fort. He is a good football player and has a tendency to make big plays. I’m a fan.

• The Tavon Young news is heartbreaking and hurts double because he was their only true nickel corner. Marlon Humphrey showed last year he could fill that role, but he and Marcus Peters have done such a nice job outside you hate to break that up. This would not be a bad value trade to consider if the Ravens can focus in on a good target.

• DeShon Elliott, Chuck Clark, and Patrick Queen all looked good on first review of the game. That’s a nice young back middle of the defense for the future.

• The Ravens missed out on some frustrating opportunities by settling for field goals over touchdowns. Getting the running game consistent again from snap to snap can fix this problem. Now would be a good time.

• They weren’t entirely sharp today, but they beat a competitive team on the road, and it wasn’t really in doubt in the second half. This team is built to compete and has a high floor — in the regular season. We know that’s not how they will be judged this season.