The Baltimore Ravens lost a game that they should have and could have won for the third time this season. Now, sitting at 7-3, there are plenty of questions that need to be answered, and the team has a short week to answer them.
What are the biggest questions coming from the game?
10. Was Sunday the best game of Zay Flowers' career with the Baltimore Ravens?
One of the small takeaways from the loss that is not being discussed is that Zay Flowers had the best game of his career. It was not a career-high in yards, but it was a career-high in yards per route run at 2.81. More than that, he did it against a strong Cleveland Browns defense, and he did in ways that he has not done in the past.
A lot of the Flowers touches early in the year are manufactured. He had 30% of his targets come on screen passes. Also, Flowers downfield targets came against zone coverage.
He entered the game averaging 0.86 yards per route run against man coverage. On Sunday, he had three catches against man, and averaged 2.44 yards per route run against man. No targets came on screens or anything manufactured. He was working down the field more and getting open on his own. That is exactly what the Ravens needed to see.
Now, what can he do to raise that ceiling? Flowers has shown that he can beat man and that he does not need to be forcefed screens near the line of scrimmage. It is fine to use him in that area, but can the Ravens start to trust him to run some of these more complex routes?
9. What happened to the Baltimore Ravens run defense?
The Baltimore Ravens run defense came in as one of the top units in the NFL. The Browns have a solid offensive line, but without Nick Chubb, they are not running the ball nearly as well. Still, that did not stop them from having 27 rushes for 139 yards between Jerome Ford and Kareem Hunt.
So, what was the issue? Like most things in life, it was complicated. First, Michael Pierce did not have his best game. Pierce had been playing well above expectations and is on pace for a career-high in snaps, so it could have been expected to come at some point.
Still, with Pierce not getting the adequate push, this unit is in trouble. It was not all on him. Jadeveon Clowney is the best edge setter but struggled in this game. Odafe Oweh is the worst and let a few runs get outside, and Kyle Van Noy missed a tackle.
Speaking of missed tackles, this was not a game that Patrick Queen’s agent will be showing teams on the market this year. Queen had a poor game, and we were reminded why Geno Stone was not only available as a free agent this offseason he was benched earlier this year after his hot start. His tackling and angles were issues.
It all combined for a big issue. Will it continue?
8. How strong of a role did the Baltimore Ravens give Keaton Mitchell?
The Baltimore Ravens saw Keaton Mitchell explode against the Seattle Seahawks in week nine, and then he did again early into week ten. Was this just going to be a thing moving forward? He was held in check the rest of the game, dropping a touchdown and getting corralled in the backfield in the process.
Still, he did see an uptick in his role. Mitchell went from 17% of the snaps to 22%. While he went from 24% of the rushing attempts to just 15%, he also went from 8% of the routes run to 17%. He went from 3% of the targets to 10% and went from 8% of the long down and distance snaps to 25%.
The issue is that Justice Hill was not completely phased out. The big difference is Hill played the entire two-minute drill because he is the better pass protector. It is going to limit how many passing downs and overall downs Mitchell can play. Will we see more moving forward?
7. How many sacks will Odafe Oweh finish with this year?
Odafe Oweh has three sacks this year. That does not sound great until you remember that Oweh had zero sacks after six weeks due to an ankle injury in week two. Also, his career-high in a season is five, and he had just three all last season.
So, Oweh has three sacks, but it has come over four games. That is a strong rate. Oweh looked good in week one despite not recording a sack, and this could be the breakout year fans wanted. It is a small sample, but Oweh has a 17.1% pass rush win rate, which is up from 12.6% last season.
Last season, he should have had a few more sacks for how much he is winning, and he is winning more, so the sacks may just come in bunches now. With seven games left, how many does he get? Sitting two away from his career high, he will hit that mark despite missing more time than any other year. We had a bold prediction of ten sacks, and with seven games to go, it is not as bold to think he could get seven more this year.
6. What did the Baltimore Ravens do in the return of Marcus Williams?
The Baltimore Ravens got Marcus Williams back. This was supposed to make the defense a lot better, but it ended up leading to issues and questions. The first thing was seeing Kyle Hamilton move back into the slot role. That was a huge win and it was shown within two plays. Hamilton is a menace in the slot and he is too good there not play in the slot.
Now, the issue is that the Ravens do not have a real strong safety. Geno Stone played free safety to fill in for Marcus Williams. With Williams back, they have two free safeties back there.
The Ravens put Williams in the box a bit more, and that is not where his impact is felt. It did not seem like he was meshing well with Geno Stone.
So, now the Ravens have an interesting question: where Hamilton is best in the slot, but they also would like him to complement one of these safeties. And if he does, where does the other safety go? Into the slot? Replaces Patrick Queen? That would not help things.
5. Will Lamar Jackson cut down the game-changing turnovers?
The Baltimore Ravens are 7-3, but it is hard to look at the three losses without seeing game-changing turnovers by Lamar Jackson. Jackson was strip sacked in a play that led to a field goal against the Indianapolis Colts.
He threw a devastating interception against Pittsburgh that kept the team in the game. We all saw the pick-six this week that changed the fate of the Cleveland Browns.
What hurts is that this has been going on in the wins as well. We saw Boye Mafe strip sack him, and the Ravens still blew out the Seahawks. When Jackson gets it going, the turnovers almost do not matter because they can run teams over.
However, in tight games, when every play matters, Jackson is coming up small. He is fumbling at a career-high rate, and even with lower interception numbers, they just seem to come at the worst possible times. What can Jackson do, and will he be the reason this team does not go as far as they should?
4. Are the Baltimore Ravens just feeding on bad and injured quarterbacks?
This was a question we asked before the Baltimore Ravens lost to the Cleveland Browns. Still, we noted that you can argue that, circumstantially, DeShaun Watson would be the best quarterback the Ravens played all year.
They got to play CJ Stroud in week one with a bad offensive line. Stroud was on the road, and it is hard to think he would have done well in that spot. Joe Burrow is dealing with a calf injury. From there, it was Gardner Minshew, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Kenny Pickett, Malik Willis for most of the game, Joshua Dobbs, and the duo of Jared Goff and Geno Smith as the best two they have faced.
Now, they face DeShaun Watson, and he is making plays down the field and with his legs. Were the Baltimore Ravens just lucky, or is this defense for real? Joe Burrow is healthy now, and there is a good chance that Tee Higgins is back. Justin Herbert, Trevor Lawrence, Miami, and San Francisco are still on the schedule. Does the schedule break this group?
3. Did Odell Beckham ascend for the Baltimore Ravens?
Despite the loss, the Baltimore Ravens saw the best game from Odell Beckham in a Ravens uniform. Beckham had a 40-yard touchdown catch, although that was the only catch of his game.
Still, his yards per route run was 3.33, and he jumped it up to 1.45 on the season. Was this the rise he needed? The reason his yards per route run was so high despite only one catch was that he actually was playing fewer snaps.
Beckham went from 66% of the routes in week nine to 40% in week 10. He went from 27% of the air yards and 16% on the season to just 3% this week. The difference is that Rashod Bateman increased his work. Bateman went from 61% of the routes to 77%.
Bateman did not fully take advantage, but the thought that less is more may be working for Beckham. At his age and injury status, the Ravens may be able to get the most out of him by using him in a limited role.
2. What is the status of the Baltimore Ravens tackles?
The Baltimore Ravens tackles have been up and down when it comes to their health status all season. This week, they both will have huge question marks beside their names.
First, Morgan Moses has missed the past two weeks with a shoulder injury. He was a full participant in practice all week, so you have to wonder if the Ravens thought about the short turnaround and decided to give Moses a few extra days to rest to ensure he was healthy for Thursday Night Football.
That is good, but another issue arose when Ronnie Stanley went down with a lower-body injury. John Harbaugh did not comment, but it does sound like Stanley will miss some time.
So, the return of Moses is even more paramount. Daniel Faalele does not appear comfortable starting, so the Ravens would like to start Moses at right tackle and then shift Patrick Mekari back to left tackle. It is asking a lot of Mekari to move back and forth, but injuries are calling for it, and he has excelled in that role so far.
1. What will the Baltimore Ravens do with the status of Marlon Humphrey?
The Baltimore Ravens lost Marlon Humphrey in this game due to a calf injury. The injury does not appear to be serious, but at the same time, he is probably going to miss this week due to the short turnaround.
When Humphrey went down, the team went to Rock Ya-Sin. This is interesting because last week, Ya-Sin was a healthy scratch. The Ravens also have Ronald Darby, who had a shot to get in there but did not play in week 10.
The Ravens used to platoon Darby and Ya-Sin before Humphrey got healthy in the first month of the season. Do they go back to this look? Do they ride with Ya-Sin now that he is fully healthy? How much, if any, do we see Ronald Darby on Thursday? Losing Humphrey against the Bengals is the worst possible timing.