Baltimore vs. Oakland

Lamar Jackson Improves to 2-0, Baltimore Ravens Score in All 3 Phases in 34-17 Win Over Oakland Raiders

The Baltimore Ravens appear to be reinvented, and they played their most complete game since a Week 1 thrashing of Buffalo by topping the struggling Oakland Raiders 34-17 Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium. 

Despite throwing two interceptions, Lamar Jackson threw and rushed for a score, Gus Edwards ran for over 100 yards for the second-straight game, Terrell Suggs had a fumble recovery for a touchdown, and Cyrus Jones returned a punt for a score. For the 70,035 in attendance, there was a lot to like and all of a sudden, a late-season resurgence leading to a playoff berth once again seems attainable. 

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In addition to playoff possibilities, the major question moving forward is who will be leading this team. The Ravens (6-5) were 4-5 under Joe Flacco, who missed his second-straight game with a hip injury. In relief, Jackson has not only led Baltimore to two victories, but he's also transformed the offense into a run-first team that seems to be overwhelming opponents thus far. 

After the game, head coach John Harbaugh sounded a lot like a coach who had a brewing quarterback controversy in his hands.

"I'm not going to get into [who will start next week at Atlanta] for a number of reasons. Whether that decision has been made or not is not important for anyone to know but us," Harbaugh said after the game, answering a question about whether Flacco would start if he were healthy. "If I decide to do one way or another, I don't want our opponent to know. So, I'm probably not going to announce it for obvious reasons—just to make it tough on our next opponent."

Jackson ran for 71 yards and a score and was 14-25 from the air for 178 yards, a touchdown (his first career TD pass) and two picks that both came off tips. Edwards ran for 118 yards, and Ty Montgomery had 51 more, giving the Ravens 242 rushing yards on the day. 

The defense started slow for the second-consecutive week, allowing a touchdown on Oakland's (2-9) opening drive to running back Doug Martin. Justin Tucker responded with a 47-yard field goal, and then after forcing the Raiders to punt, Jones worked his magic for a 70-yard TD return to give Baltimore a lead the wouldn't relinquish. 

The highlight of the next Ravens drive was a 74-yard pass from Jackson to Mark Andrews that led to a chip-shot field goal by Tucker. 

Taking a 13-10 lead into halftime, Harbaugh said he challenged his offense and the line to takeover the game on the ground, exploiting the fact that Oakland came into this game with the second-worst rushing defense in the NFL. 

The Ravens answered the challenge by engineering a 13-play drive that only contained one pass and chewed up seven minutes off the clock. Jackson punctuated the drive with a five-yard touchdown run to make the score 20-10. 

"We definitely feel the defense wearing down when we get going," Edwards said after becoming the first Ravens running back to have back-to-back 100-yard games in three years. "[The offensive line] wants to run the ball. When we do it well, they're the first ones there picking me up, and they motivate me to keep going." 

After the Raiders responded with a David Carr touchdown pass to Jared Cook, the running Ravens went back to work. This time, it was a 17-play, 8 minute, 33 second drive that again ended with a score—this time, a Jackson pass to Michael Crabtree from eight yards out on third and goal. 

Oakland head coach Jon Gruden could only watch his defense get gashed on the ground. 

"Credit the young quarterback, and credit their coaching staff for making some great adjustments and modifying their offense to suit this kid," Gruden said, referring to Jackson and the Baltimore game plan after halftime. 

With a 27-17 lead, Suggs provided the exclamation point. His fumble recovery, which was the first turnover for the Ravens defense in over a month, came after Carr was sacked by Matthew Judon. The ball bounced on the ground seemingly forever before Suggs scooped it up and outraced rookie wide receiver Marcell Ateman to the end zone. 

Suggs, who scored a touchdown for the first time in a decade, couldn't believe his luck as he gained possession of the pigskin.

"I was in disbelief. I was like, 'This is for sure going to get called back.' Once the defense was celebrating with me, I was like, 'Oh, this counts. Okay, cool!'" Suggs recalled after the game. "I'm not a touchdown guy. I would rather switch places with Matt [Judon], but we'll take it." 

This was a game Baltimore had to have, given that Oakland was 2-8 entering the contest and was a west coast team playing an early game on Eastern time. While the final score indicated a solid win and the second half was extremely well played by Baltimore, the touchdown from Jackson to Crabtree turned out to be the biggest moment in the game. If the Ravens failed to convert on third and goal, a field goal would've put Baltimore up by just six instead of 10 points. Not scoring an offensive touchdown in the first half was masked by the punt return for a score. 

Looking forward, the Ravens have a good chance to continue their momentum on the road, as they visit a 4-7 Atlanta team that's lost three-straight games. 

"It's a .500 league, and it's built to be a .500 league. Then you have to find a way to make a run somewhere; to win three, four, five, even six games in a row to separate yourself," Harbaugh said. 

It will likely take such a run to get the Ravens into the postseason, but there appears to be more hope in the Ravens camp now than at any point over the past couple of months. 

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