Take-home points from Ravens’ 31-17 win over Washington

Ravens cruise to win over Washington

The Ravens picked up a solid 14-point win on the road against the Washington Whatchamacallits in a performance that was, let’s say, uneven. Thanks to pretty okay defense, with a pretty ok pass rush, and a handful of big plays, the Ravens were able to take home a comfortable win and finish the first quarter of the season with a 3-1 record.

• Matthew Judon picked up two sacks on the day and appeared fairly active throughout. Tyus Bowser and Jaylen Ferguson also flashed with the rush, at least giving young Washington quarterback Dwayne Haskins something to think about. Calais Campbell once again contributed, knocking down at least two passes on the day.

• Patrick Queen, you rebound well, sir. Following his first rookie-like performance of the season, Queen seemed to be everywhere, particularly in the first half. He was credited with 12 tackles on the day, and three of those were for a loss.

• DeShon Elliott also seemed to play fast and physical on Sunday. That was nice to see.

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• Marlon Humphrey signed a huge contract extension this week, and justified at least a good chunk of that cash with a first-quarter forced fumble that led the Ravens to scoring two plays later, giving them a lead they would never yield on the day.

• Interestingly enough, that first play after the fumble was a beautiful pass to Marquise Brown that took the Ravens to the Washington one-yard line. Brown was very good on the day, producing 86 yards on seven targets and four catches.

• Lamar Jackson had an up-and-down game, throwing some beautiful passes — including both touchdown throws to Mark Andrews — and a couple misfires. His interception was an off-target out to Miles Boykin, who didn’t move to the sideline coming out of his cut with the urgency he needed to in a two-minute drill, and allowed the defender to move in on the ball. Bad throw. Bad route. Washington ball.

• That 50-yard touchdown run by Jackson, however… holy cow.

• Bradley Bozeman is a part of so many significant runs by the Ravens, particularly when he is pulling in front of the runner to seal off a defender. He is having a low-key good season to this admittedly-untrained eye.

• It looked like Mark Ingram had a little more explosion to his runs today, and that was a good front the Whatchamaccalits put out there. Gus Edwards looked like Gus, and JK Dobbins played like an extremely talented, and still learning, rookie. When he plants and goes, he goes. When he dances, NFL defenders catch up to him.

• Antonio Gibson is an exciting young player for Washington, and we already knew Terry McLaurin is a good player. Haskins didn’t look bad today, but there are few signs at this point that he is a game-changer of any sort. The Ravens got a way with a few plays today when they over-pursued and Haskins overthrew a screen or flat. They flow to the ball on defense, which is great. But they often seem to leave their assignments — or their assignments are abandoned by scheme — too often. These problems seemed to be handled last year when Chuck Clark, Josh Bynes and LJ Fort grabbed snaps. Time to work this out.

• I like this rookie class a lot. You get the feeling there will be a ton of contributors to this team for years to come from the 2020 draft.

• Sam Koch has been punting for the Ravens for 15 years. He’s won a Super Bowl ring, has won three AFC Special Team Player of the Week awards, made a Pro Bowl and has played in 18 playoff games. He is also now 7-7 as a passer after converting a fake punt pass to Boykin today. That’s a fun career he will have to look back on when he steps away.