Top Takeaways from Ravens commanding win over Texans: Resurgent running game
The Baltimore Ravens continued to look like the cream of the NFL crop in Week Two after they followed up their dominating win in their season opener with another landslide victory over the Houston Texans on the road 33-16 this past Sunday.
This was a rematch of a Week 11 game from last season when the two teams met in Baltimore and even though the Texans scored more than doubled their messily seven points from that rough outing, they still didn’t fare much better as the Ravens made more plays than their hosts for most of the day on both sides of the ball.
Here is one of the top takeaways that I observed in the Ravens Week Two win:
Rushing attack got back on track
The story of the Ravens big win over the Browns from the season opener was the vast improvements that quarterback Lamar Jackson made for the second year in a row coming off his MVP campaign but one of the overlooked storylines was the lack of explosiveness and dominance from the Baltimore’s rushing attack that shattered single-season records last season.
Against the Cleveland Browns, the Ravens only gained 111 net yards on the ground which isn’t horrible but compared to their per game average last season when they averaged over 200 yards per contest, it was far cry from what they’re accustomed to accumulating. Jackson finished as the leading rusher with 45 yards and outside of pair of rushing scores from rookie running back J.K. Dobbins, they didn’t get much production from their ground game in their blowout win.
Week Two was setting up for an even worse game on the ground for the Ravens after they only managed 44 yards rushing in the first half as a team. However, in the second half, they rededicated themselves to the run and their running backs and offensive linemen took the game over on offense. They recorded an additional 186 yards on the ground over the final two quarters and finished with a 230 on the day.
A reason for the slow start to the season for the Ravens’ rushing attack that was so potent from start to finish last season could be attributed to the new pieces that they are working in on the offensive line and in the backfield and some players dealing with injuries.
On the offensive line, they lost a future Hall of Famer to retirement when Marshal Yanda retired in the offseason. The new starter at right guard is rookie third-round pick Tyre Phillips and two other starters are recovering from or dealing with injuries. Center Matt Skura isn’t quite fully recovered from his major knee surgery that ended his 2019 campaign and All-Pro left tackle Ronnie Stanley has dealt with an ankle and hip injury in the first two weeks.
The Ravens added another explosive playmaker to their already loaded stable of backs from last year’s record-setting team when they selected Dobbins in the second round of the draft this year. While he was the star their maligned rushing attack in Week One with his first two career touchdowns, veteran Mark Ingram and third-year pro Gus Edwards were the closers for the majority of the second half.
After a relatively quiet performance in the opener, Ingram bounced back in Week two and was the most featured back on the day with 11 touches for 77 yards from scrimmage. He recorded more than half of his rushing yards on a 30-yard trot to the end zone for a touchdown on a crucial fourth-and-1 to start the fourth quarter and he reeled in two passes for 22 yards as well.
However, the bell cow on the ground in the final quarter was Edwards who showed just why he is nicknamed Gus “the Bus”. He received the bulk of his 10 carries, six to be exact, on the Ravens first two drives of the fourth quarter, and the fresh-legged power back bludgeoned the Texans tired defense into submission with chunk run after chunk run. Edwards finished with a team and game-high 73 yards and averaged 7.3 yards per carry, that’s a first down every other time he received a handoff in case you were wondering.
Dobbins finished with 48 yards on just two carries and caught one pass for 13 yards. He doubled his entire Week One rushing total on his last touch in Week Two when he broke off a 44-yard run to pick up the final first down the Ravens need to salt the remaining time off the clock with a trio of victory formation kneel-downs.
The Ravens offense has been very well balanced in the first two weeks of the season with both their run-to-pass ratio and their yardage totals. Expect this trend to continue going forward as Jackson continues to show his incredible strides as a passer for the second year in a row and the team stays committed to establishing and dominating on the ground.