When Derrick Henry took a direct snap and bullied his way into the end zone in the fourth quarter to give Baltimore a 10-point lead, it seemed like he had finished off a pesky Raiders team.
What ensued has become too familiar.
Mistakes, penalties, and clutch plays by the Raiders’ two game-wreckers, Maxx Crosby and Davante Adams, reversed the course of the game as Las Vegas scored 13 straight points to hand the Ravens a 26-23 loss in their home opener at M&T Bank Stadium.
After being heavy favorites, the Ravens dropped to 0-2 for the first time since 2015. Baltimore is now in an early hole with a daunting schedule ahead with games against the Cowboys, Bills, and Bengals.
“There’s no way we should be 0-2, but it is what it is,” linebacker Roquan Smith said.
The Ravens were angry after losing in Kansas City in Week 1 but could at least take solace in the fact that they went toe-to-toe with the back-to-back Super Bowl champions and lost by a literal toe. Losing a 10-point fourth-quarter lead at home against the Raiders left a different kind of sting in Baltimore’s locker room.
“This just felt more self-inflicted,” left tackle Ronnie Stanley said. “I felt like there were many, many opportunities for us to put the nail in the coffin and we just didn’t end up doing that.”
Here’s how it happened:
Fourth-quarter penalties hurt.
The Raiders had three penalties for 15 yards. The Ravens, however, were flagged 11 times for 109 yards. Two in the fourth quarter made a huge difference in the outcome of the game.
On the Raiders’ first offensive play after the Ravens took a 10-point lead, defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike screamed into the backfield and ripped Gardner Minshew II to the turf. Referees called a 15-yard facemask penalty, but replays showed Madubuike got Minshew by the shoulder pads.
What would have been second-and-18 from the 22 turned into first-and-10 from the 45. The Raiders ended up kicking a field goal on that drive, cutting the Ravens’ lead to seven.
On their next drive, when facing a third-and-goal from the 17 following a Kyle Van Noy sack, Minshew lobbed a deep pass to the end zone for Adams.
Adams and Ravens cornerback Brandon Stephens were both making contact as they battled for the ball. Stephens broke up the pass but was flagged for defensive pass interference. That set the Raiders up at the 1-yard line and they scored a game-tying touchdown on the next play.
“I’m not a ref or an official, but I feel like a couple of those were B.S. calls,” safety Eddie Jackson said. “In a situation like that, with the game on the line like that, that type of call …”
Former NFL referee turned CBS rules analyst Gene Steratore also did not agree with the call.
Minshew to Adams got hot.
Minshew is a little too comfortable at M&T Bank Stadium. He led the Colts to an improbable win last season in rain-soaked Baltimore and he did it again with the Raiders this season, completing 30 passes for 276 yards and a touchdown.
Minshew made some big throws down the stretch, including a pinpoint 26-yard strike to Adams down the sideline when facing a second-and-20 following a sack. On the next play, Adams made a toe-dragging catch as he went out of bounds for a 30-yard gain.
Minshew started the Raiders’ game-tying fourth-quarter drive with a 29-yard pass to Adams. Minshew then leaned on rookie tight end Brock Bowers, hitting him with three more completions on the drive.
The Ravens sacked Minshew five times. The Raiders had just 43 yards of offense in the first half. But when it came down to it in the fourth quarter, Minshew delivered against a Ravens defense loaded with talent.
“He’s a fighter,” outside linebacker Odafe Oweh said. “He got hit a few times. We muddied the picture for him a little bit, but he kept on going. Kudos to him, hats off to him, but I felt like it was more so what we did wrong.”
Offensive mistakes pop up down the stretch.
Just when the Ravens offense looked to be getting into gear with the Henry-led running game, it stubbed its toe.
Baltimore’s next drive after Henry’s touchdown was short-circuited when Henry was flagged for a false start on third-and-1 from Baltimore’s 29-yard line. The Ravens were trying to run a tight end sneak with Charlie Kolar under center, and looked to have gotten it, but Henry flinched in the backfield and the play was negated.
“I wasn’t moving forward; I just moved my leg to the side,” Henry said. “I was trying to get my balance, and he snapped it right after. But I wasn’t false starting; I was just moving my leg. I guess they called it a false start. It is what it is. I’ve got to be better.”
On the Ravens’ next drive, with the game tied and less than four minutes remaining, Raiders defensive end Maxx Crosby came across the line and beat right guard Daniel Faalele to the inside for a sack and loss of nine yards on first down. That doomed the drive.
Crosby had two sacks and four tackles for loss. Lamar Jackson said the Ravens had the right protections on the play.
“They didn’t get us on any blitzes when they brought their blitzes. [Crosby] was just being an impactful player – the high motor guy [that] he was,” Jackson said. “Sometimes, you’ve got to have those one-on-one fights.”
Special teams misses prove costly.
Justin Tucker missed a 56-yard field goal in the second quarter, which made a big difference in a three-point game.
Tucker is now 1-of-7 on field goals from 50 yards or beyond since the start of last season.
In the fourth quarter, after the Raiders had tied the game and the offense went three-and-out, Jordan Stout shanked a punt 24 yards out of bounds. With a five-yard penalty added on, the Raiders started at Baltimore’s 43-yard line and didn’t have far to go to get in range for the game-winning field goal.
Two unsuccessful challenges affect clock management.
The Ravens had two unsuccessful challenges that affected the clock management at the end of the first half and again at the end of the game.
The first was on a Zay Flowers diving catch attempt that was a close call. It was ruled incomplete on the field and upheld upon replay. That limited the Ravens’ options at the end of the first half, as they didn’t have a timeout to stop the clock and had to settle for a 32-yard field goal on third down with seven seconds left.
Head Coach John Harbaugh also challenged Adams’ toe-tapping catch in the fourth quarter but also lost that one. That enabled the Raiders to take more time off the clock before kicking a game-winning 38-yard field goal with 27 seconds left.
“Well, the one in the first half, that was close. … I thought that one had a real chance. It was also … we had two timeouts. We had plenty of time. [I] almost felt like it was calling a timeout and kind of giving our guys a chance to get a breath of air, which I wanted to do, so it was worth taking a shot there,” Harbaugh said.
“The other one was such a high-leverage play. We had such an opportunity, [and] we went so fast. I just thought it was worth, in the heat of battle, taking a shot at it. I would have hated to [have seen] it later that he was clearly off the ground and not out, so that’s the challenge with the speed of the situation sometimes.”
