Can the Ravens Defy History and Bounce Back From a 0-2 Start?

Entering Week Three of the 2024 NFL season, the Baltimore Ravens find themselves in an unfamiliar position for the first time in nearly a decade. Following the Ravens' shocking home opener defeat at the hands of the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday afternoon, the Ravens will head into their Week Three matchup against the Dallas Cowboys, with a 0-2 record for the first time in nine years and the first time with two-time MVP Lamar Jackson as the starting quarterback. The last time the Ravens started the season without winning their first two games was in 2015, when former Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco suffered a torn ACL and missed the second half of the season, resulting in a 5-11 record. With several issues that the Ravens coaching staff must address immediately, the question that looms now is if the Ravens can turn their season around and overcome their bad start to the season before things go down rapidly.

First and foremost, after the first two games of the season, the Ravens need to address the offensive line's major struggles if they are to save their season. In remarks about the young, retooled offensive line that went viral before the regular season began, general manager Eric DeCosta said, "We may have a couple of hiccups along the way, but I think we've started to build from the bottom up, and I think a year from now, we'll be in a great place." As DeCosta hinted at before the season began, the offensive line has clearly shown problems in the first two games against the Chiefs and Raiders. Even though the Ravens front office and coaching staff decided to stick with the young players up front, such as right guard Daniel Faalele, right tackle Roger Rosengarten, a 2024 second-round pick, and left guard Andrew Vorhees, the team's decision to go with a younger offensive line has contributed significantly to the team's 0-2 start to the season. 

Entering Week Two against the Raiders, a major key to victory was the offensive line taking a step forward from the season opener loss to Kansas City. However, the Raiders' star pass rusher Maxx Crosby, had other ideas. He completely tormented the right side of the offensive line and took advantage of Faalele in particular. Crosby finished the game with six total tackles, two sacks, four tackles for loss, and plenty of quarterback pressure on Lamar Jackson that didn't appear on the box score. Put more simply, Crosby was the best player on the field at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday without a question. Looking ahead to their upcoming games, the Ravens will have to contend with three more elite pass rushers on opposing defenses, with Micah Parsons of the Cowboys, Von Miller of the Bills, and Trey Hendrickson of the Bengals. Over the next several weeks, the Ravens' offense will have a difficult time playing well if they can't devise a strong strategy to contain these elite and game-changing pass rushers. 

The noteworthy propensity of the Ravens to lose late-game leads in the fourth quarter is another big issue that the Ravens organization, and head coach John Harbaugh in particular, has to address. The Ravens lead the league in a stat line that no team wants to have, the most losses with a lead of seven points or more in the fourth quarter, having blown 10 games over the last four seasons. The Chicago Bears are the team that comes closest to them, having blown six leads. To reach their desired goals at the end of the season, Harbaugh and the Ravens must find a way to avoid giving up leads and close out games, like the one against the Raiders on Sunday, that they should have won. The Ravens' inability to hold onto their lead against the Raiders was largely due to their own self-inflicted penalties and errors, which seemed to be one-upped on both sides of the field. These included running back Derrick Henry's two false starts, the defense's dominant performance in the first half and then gave up points on four of the five Raiders drives in the second half, and punter Jordan Stout's botched punt late in the fourth quarter, which gave the Raiders a short field and enabled them to score the game-winning field goal. 

Ultimately, it will not be simple for the Ravens to escape the hole they have dug for themselves, considering their next opponents. This is especially since, following their 13-4 season in 2023, the Ravens hold a first-place schedule. One of the most noticeable things about the Ravens' 2024 schedule that was released this offseason was how competitive it was to begin the season, with the team playing the Chiefs, Cowboys, Bills, and Bengals in their first five games. Although the Ravens' second half of the schedule seems less difficult, how they perform in their next three games will largely determine whether or not that ease in the schedule will matter. The Ravens have the talent and tools to turn things around and avoid an early-season collapse, even with a difficult schedule and history being against them in making the playoffs after losing their first two games. Since 2020, only two teams out of 32 teams have made the playoffs after starting 0-2, the 2022 Bengals and the 2023 Texans. However, it will all depend on the Ravens' ability to quit shooting themselves in the foot and return to the dominant style of football that they have had since Jackson was selected in the 2018 NFL Draft.