7 positives, 10 negatives, and 3780 words about the Ravens 22-19 OT loss to the Colts

Despite being heavily favored, the Baltimore Ravens (2-1) own missteps and costly turnovers marred their performance in a Week 3 overtime loss (22–19) to the visiting Indianapolis Colts (2-1) at M&T Bank Stadium.

Stepping in for the injured Anthony Richardson, Gardner Minshew completed 27 passes for 227 yards and recorded one passing touchdown. Lamar Jackson topped that mark with 303 yards from scrimmage rushing for a couple of touchdowns.

However, the Ravens' offense sputtered in overtime, gaining a mere 11 yards on two possessions after allowing the Colts to carry the game into OT following a bunch of nonsensical decisions.

Colts kicker Matt Gay made the most of his chance to make NFL history, scored a fourth 50+ yards field-goal, and handed Baltimore an L, their first this season. With that being said, here are some positives and negatives coming off Week 3.

Positive: Lamar Jackson can do it all (for the good)

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson surely knows how to deal with the Colts, doesn't he?

The last time before Sunday both franchises met with Jackson in the pocket, Lamar tossed the rock 43 times completing 37 of those passes for a freaking 442 yards and four touchdowns. He rushed for 62 yards on 14 carries.

Yesterday, hosting the Colts in the Week 3 loss, Lamar completed 22-of-31 passes for 202 yards and he added 101 yards on the ground on 14 rushing attempts. Jackson finished with 303 yards from the scrimmage line all snaps combined and with two rushing touchdowns.

Lamar was perfect in the first half, going 7-for-7, and then added three more consecutive completions to that making it 10-for-10 to start the game.

He simply dominated Indianapolis to start the match and ended up with a more than solid outing in his third game under the guidance of new OC Todd Monken.

Negative: Lamar Jackson can do it all (for the bad)

Now, for the bad. For the real bad, might be said.

Lamar might have lit the stat sheet with his couple of touchdowns, 300+ total yards, and 100+ rushing yardage. He might have started the game in an unstoppable fashion...

But Jackson failed to throw a pass for a touchdown, and more damagingly he fumbled twice throughout Week 3 in a matchup that Baltimore, somehow, ended up losing.

Jackson fumbled the rock two times in Baltimore's half of the field, and he only recovered one of those gaffes. Lamar avoided throwing any pick, and thank God he did because things could have looked awful had that not been the case.

At the end of the day, Jackson was good overall but he was far from great, lacking defining and game-sealing punch in critical moments, mostly in overtime. Better times are ahead.

Positive: Zay Flowers keeps the offense afloat

Flowers is just a rookie. Well, he just is a rookie in the literal sense, because judging by his performances three games into the season you'd think he's the most seasoned of veterans in the Ravens offense.

Zay got 10 targets in Week 1 and turned those in 78 yards on nine grabs. He caught 4-of-5 passes for 62 yards in Week 2, and he once more had a solid outing on Sunday grabbing 8-of-10 targets for 48 yards. He also rushed the rock once for a couple of yards.

Of course, Flowers was never going to hit 78+ yards or whatnot weekly as he did in the opener, but so far so good for the rook.

The weather and Lamar Jackson's straight refusal to throw deep passes hurt his upside, but Flowers did all he could with the looks he got and one of the two targets he didn't catch should have been called for DPI in the overtime.

He didn't make the right decision calling for a fair catch with 2:03 left in the fourth quarter, but coach Harbs acknowledged that was an error made by the coaches on the sideline and not by Flowers.

Negative: Are we sure the Ravens wide receiver room is as good as advertised?

The receivers didn't help the Ravens just one bit on Sunday, and it's now three weeks of middling results by the pass-catching unit of Baltimore.

Outside of Flowers, who has 188 receiving yards on 21 receptions (25 targets) through Week 3, no other Ravens wide receiver has reached 100+ yards on 10+ receptions with Nelson Agholor the closest clocking in at 102 yards on nine receptions. Sheesh.

Odell Beckham missed Week 3 with an ankle injury that is casting heavy shadows already. He has 66 yards on five grabs.

Rashod Bateman was expected to be the Ravens WR1 this season, once and for all, but he's barely the WR3/WR4 and has racked up... a measly 59-yard tally through three games on seven receptions and nine targets.

The only player keeping the unit reasonably productive is Zay Flowers. The Ravens can be thankful for having stumbled upon the rookie wideout as late as they did in the late stages of the first round of the draft.

They should also thank TE Mark Andrews, who has 80 yards on nine receptions (including one touchdown) even though he missed Week 1 entirely.

Positive: Lamar Jackson and John Harbaugh not commenting on the referees

That's classy, folks.

John Harbaugh took to the podium after the game and he said that the refs didn't offer him an explanation about why no DPI was called on Zay Flower's overtime play.

Lamar Jackson didn't want to put the loss on that miscalculated toss, either. The quarterback said "We had plenty of opportunities in the game to finish strong, but it is what it is. [We] live to fight another day."

Harbaugh made the whole situation clear regarding the referees not approaching him. "The pass interference? Did I get an explanation? Is that the question?" the coach pondered. (Reporter: Yes) "No. I didn't get an explanation," he revealed.

There was another uncalled penalty earlier in the game when the Colts blatantly grabbed Flowers' facemask and weren't penalized at all, for some unknown reason.

No comment on that either. Let it marinate and hope for the NFL to take some action...

Negative: The NFL and the officials got away with robbery

Let's be honest for a minute here.

Yes, the Ravens could have done more to win this game and they shot themselves on their collective foot. They had the matchup won after an impressive first drive and should have kept on going from that point on. They had multiple chances to do so, but they failed at it.

But, at the end of the day, they didn't get any help from the refs. Hell, it's not even that they didn't get "help," because calling the penalties on the facemask and DPI on Flowers in regulation and overtime would have been the correct calls by the rulebook.

If anything, the referees helped Indianapolis while not properly calling the game from both teams' perspectives, no matter how you look at it.

Both the facemask and the interference on the overtime pass that Lamar missed and Flowers could never grab were so glaring that the referees on the field should have had no problem spotting them, let alone with the benefit of having more than two eyes taking care of that and with this thing called "replay" available to them.

Again, no excuses here because the Ravens shouldn't even have been in a position to let an uncalled penalty decide their fate... but the NFL did Baltimore dirty on Sunday.

Negative: Dreadful offense and horrible game management

Is any Ravens fan out there pleased with John Harbaugh's game management on Sunday's loss to the Colts? Don't think so...

The first drive put together by Baltimore was sublime, to say the least. The defense stopped the Colts on the first drive of the game as the D took the field first. After that, Lamar commanded a 12-play, 80-yard scoring opening drive for the second week in a row.

The offense went dark after that.

With 2:03 second left in the fourth quarter and leading the game, Harbs called for a fair catch that, obviously, led to an automatic two-minute warning that was a gift to the Colts. The Ravens went for three yards on the subsequent drive, spent just 15 seconds doing it, and the Colts went on to tie the game and send it to overtime.

"We were going to fair catch that ball because it was 1:58 [left on the clock], and that was before the two-minute warning," Harbaugh explained after the game. "After the kick return team was out there on the field, [the officials] pumped [the clock] up over two minutes, and we were unable to communicate to him. We were trying, but we couldn't communicate with [Zay Flowers]."

Quoth Harbaugh: "They were winding it. That was unfortunate."

"Unfortunate."

The offense was virtually non-existent in overtime, getting 11 yards on two possessions and going for it on fourth down when they should absolutely avoided doing it, as they handed the game to the Colts in a platter after failing to convert on a play that should have earned a DPI.

Didn't happen, and Colts kicker Matt Gay made history.

Positive: Kyle Hamilton, All-Time Best Sophomore

What about a great (greatest!?) performance by Hamilton getting back to defending the slot in his 2022 nickel back role, huh?

With Ar'Darius Washington injured following Week 2 and placed on IR, the Ravens had to make a decision about who to deploy in the nickel position, and instead of inventing they decided to go with what they knew had already worked for them: using Hamilton as a slot cornerback.

Hamilton spent 2022 handling that position to great results and production. On Sunday, he doubled down on that by racking up seven solo tackles, two tackles for a loss of yardage, three sacks, three quarterback hits, a pass breakup, and a forced fumble. Good Lord!

Hamilton had zero sacks in college while spending three seasons at Notre Dame. Hamilton completed a couple of sacks last year as a rookie. He sacked Gardner Minshew three times on Sunday... in the first half alone.

The second-year man is now the first Ravens defensive back with three sacks in the first two-quarters of a game. He is also the second defensive back in the history of the franchise with three sacks in a game, full stop.

Hamilton appreciated being trusted into manning the position, but oh boy, did he deliver.

"[The] coaches do a good job of sprinkling me in there every now and then – keeping it fresh. [It] doesn't leave my mind," Hamilton said. "Honestly, that's probably about as unblocked as you can get. You have to make your layups."

Negative: The backups played like backups, which eventually had to happen

The Ravens entered Week 3 with seven players ruled out and three more starters already sitting on IR.

Baltimore missed Mark Andrews in Week 1 as well as CB Marlon Humphrey and won that game. They had to navigate Week 2 in the Jungle without many other starters available including RB J.K. Dobbins, OL Tyler Linderbaum and Ronnie Stanley, and S Marcus Williams. Once more, they won.

That is not the case anymore.

The backups deployed by the Ravens, which amounted to at least one in nearly all positional groups (except at quarterback, defensive line, and tight end all units featured at least one reserve or a player outside of his position) just couldn't do enough to play to the level of the team's starters.

It's reasonable and expected, but it was also one of the reasons the Ravens dropped the ball in Week 3.

The offensive line was great against Cincy but struggled to keep Lamar from getting pressured by the Colts' frontline. The defensive line was absolutely gashed by the Colts' backup running back Zack Moss of all people.

The Flock has great depth, that's facts, but the team might have reached its breaking point and unless/until some starters return to the lineup there will be mighty struggles.

Positive: Brandon Stephens keeping the secondary together

Yes, he was caught in a bunch of plays in which he allowed receptions. Yes, we know Stephens struggles at man coverage when it comes to ball skills. Also yes: Stephens is a tackling machine and won't allow opposing receivers to do a lot once they got the ball.

Stephens started on the outside corner with Kyle Hamilton deployed in the slot, and finished with the second-most total tackles among players clad in Ravens threads with 11, only behind the two inside linebackers.

The defensive back, who can act as a hybrid corner-safety, completed eight tackles by himself, deflected a couple of passes, and stepped up to the plate once again keeping the Colts at bay and limiting their scoring opportunities for large spells.

The blemish in his outing is the play in which he (along with Jeremiah Moon) failed to capture a fumble before halftime that most probably would have helped Baltimore score at least three more points before the break. Can't have it all.

Negative: Gus Edwards, who is not a leading running back... and got concussed

As much as we all love Edward's efficiency, he just doesn't have it. Let's accept it once and for all and move on, the quicker the better, and if that means trading for a stud rusher, so be it.

First of all, Edwards left Sunday's game earlier than expected and the team announced midway through the matchup that the running back was indeed being evaluated for a concussion.

We will have to wait to know more, but things aren't looking good for Edwards nor the Ravens backfield as a whole.

Did Edwards do his thing? Of course. Only, you know, Edwards thing is only helpful in very particular ways, not to actually win you games. He rushed for 51 yards on 11 carries. He averaged a ridiculously good 4.63 yards per carry. He failed to score a touchdown.

Throughout his career, Edwards has one of the greatest averages in yards per carry you can imagine. In situational plays, he's crazy great to have around. In 60-minute matchups, he's just not going to cut it as the no. 1 rusher.

Justice Hill should return soon, and that should be music to the Ravens' ears unless they can trade for a proper leading running back.

Negative: Fumbles, fumbles, fumbles, fumbles

Lamar Jackson fumbled twice, Kenyan Drake fumbled once, and Sam Mustipher snapped a wild ball accounting for the fourth such error on Sunday.

Coincidentally, Fumble King Melvin Gordon played but didn't lose a single ball through 10 carries for 32 yards, including the second-longest one by a Raven going for 15 yards and only topped by a Lamar 16-yard run.

Edwards topped at 14 yards in his longest rushing play before leaving the game in the fourth quarter.

"You have to protect the football," Harbaugh said after the game. "If we’re going to be a winning football team, then we’ve got to understand that you can’t spot them possessions like that. You’ve got to hold onto the football."

Fumbling once is acceptable. Fumbling twice is passable. Fumbling three times is hurting. Fumbling four freaking times in a single game against the Indianpolis Colts simple turned a "trap game" into a nightmare. Impossible to win that win.

Positive: Patrick Queen and Roquan Smith, defensive linchpins

Queen and Smith, Smith and Queen. It's sad that the Ravens will need to move on from one of these two (it's Queen, just in case) next season as it will probably make little sense to pay hefty sums to two off-ball linebackers, but it's incredible to watch them together on a football field these days, so enjoy it while it lasts.

Queen and Smith finished with 12 tackles each, the former getting seven solo and the latter four. Smith also shared a sack with Jadeveon Clowney, who also excelled on the edge bringing the heat to the pocket of the Colts.

While it is true that Zack Moss burned Queen in a 17-yard touchdown pass-play, the ILB was still insane through the day. That said, he acknowledged his error after the game, which earned him even more kudos.

"I gave up a touchdown. If I don’t give up that touchdown, we win," said Queen. "So, it starts with us. It starts with me and ‘Ro’ [Roquan Smith] in the middle, taking over."

Negative: It took a David Ojabo injury to appreciate Jadeveon Clowney's greatness

Ask any Ravens fan and he will tell you how much potential there is in David Ojabo. So far, he's not shown any of it.

Ojabo left Sunday's game early with an ankle injury and spent most of the matchup watching from the sidelines. He was out by the end of the first quarter and he didn't return.

Thankfully, the Ravens decided to sign a seasoned, proven veteran in Jadeveon Clowney this offseason through the late stages of training camp out of precaution.

They hit the jackpot, and with Ojabo's injury opening the door in full once and for all for the former no. 1 pick, Baltimore will surely improve their pass rush and defense as a whole.

With Odafe Oweh (ankle) ruled out, Clowney stepped up and although he didn't really filled the stat sheet the veteran was super impactfull on a play-by-play basis applying pressure from the edge and keeping the Colts line busy and QB Gardner Minshew worried and on alert.

Jeremiah Moon, who debuted on Sunday, completed five tackles in his first game as a pro. That's two more than Ojabo through three weeks, with the latter appearing in all games and having experience from last season. Alas.

Negative: The defensive line didn't have a clue about how to stop backup RB Zack Moss

Moss isn't the worst RB2 in the history of the league, far from it. He is, however, a reserve/backup/secondary running back nonetheless and only the leading rusher of the Colts because Jonathan Taylor was placed on the Injured Reserve ahead of the season and missed the first four matchups of the year.

Appearing in his second game after missing Week 1 injured, Moss rushed the rock 30 times for 122 yards averaging 4.1 yards per tote. He failed to score a rushing touchdown, yes, but he grabbed a 17-yard pass for a score leaving ILB Patrick Queen in the dust. He grabbed 2-of-3 targets for a total of 23 yards.

This outing marked career highs in carries (30), rushing yards (122), and yards from scrimmage (145) for Moss... and he did that even getting a bit banged up midway through the third quarter when he got his right leg rolled up.

Moss destroyed the Ravens' tackles as he pleased. Justin Madubuike wasn't horrible (he completed four tackles on the day) but he couldn't handle the brute force Moss was. Michael Pierce was good (five tackles) but not great. Brent Urban took some snaps and completed a couple of tackles, but that was it.

Madubuike spoke about the result at the end of the game. "What is there to talk about? We took a loss," he said. "We have to play better both offensively and defensively. For them to come into our house and beat us, that just shouldn’t happen. There were so many mistakes that we made. We just have to clean that stuff up."

He was also harsh with the defense and the line, saying "Credit to [Moss], but that doesn't happen on our defense, so we need to be better." Madubuike added, "We have to do better, especially at home, every game really, but especially at home."

Positive: We witnessed field-goal kicking history (on the wrong end)

Had you ever heard about this guy named "Matt Gay"? Well, now you have.

Gay is the Indianapolis Colts kicker. He is, also, the richest-ever free-agent player at the position having inked a humongous four-year, $22.5 million contract in March. There must have been folks laughing at that amount of money getting paid to a free-agent K, right?

Well, Gay took to the rainy field inside M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday, locked in, and simply made NFL history in front of the best to ever do it, GOAT K Justin Tacker, of the Baltimore Ravens.

Gay became the first kicker to score four field goals of 50+ yards of distance in a single NFL game. First. Ever. Matt Gay. Not Justin Tucker. Matt Gay, again.

Not only did Gay do that, but he also kicked the game-winning, walk-off field goal to seal the deal for the Colts and win them their second game of the season, matching Baltimore's 2-1 record three weeks into the year.

One of these two teams entered the season considered a Super Bowl candidate. The other had the fourth-overall pick in the last draft, had to pick a rookie quarterback, and couldn't even use him on Sunday. Not that it mattered.

Negative: The AFC North doesn't look so simple to solve anymore

The Ravens had the chance of going 3-0 up with a win on Sunday on their way to remaining at the top of the brutal AFC North. They fumbled the ball.

Now, the Steelers sit atop everybody in the division and three teams (pending Monday Night Football) have a 2-1 record including the Ravens and the Browns. The Bengals can go 1-2 with a victory later today, making things tighter than they already are.

Baltimore won't play another home game in nearly a month as they embark on a road trip in which they will face the Browns (Week 4) and the Steelers (Week 5) in Cleveland and Pittsburgh respectively before flying to London for a Euromatchup against the Tennessee Titans (Week 6).

The Flock will fly back home to play a game inside M&T Bank Stadium on Oct. 22 when they host the Detroit Lions. Things could look very different then, and the padding isn't a three-game one after losing a very winnable game on Sunday, but a one-game distance instead.

Expect the Browns and the Steelers to bring as much of a physical game as you can imagine, bake in the trip to London unsettling everybody and breaking some schedules, and all of a sudden what looked like a clear path toward the postseason under divisional domination is starting to feel a bit like a dream.

Unless bodies heal, players come back from injuries, and the team operates at their 100 percent, the Ravens are going to go through some bumps and the next month can truly be a crucial one.

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