 I will take an ugly win over a pretty lost any day of the week. And that's exactly what the Baltimore Ravens had to do against those Houston Texans in their 25 to nine defeat over them in their week one matchup. There was a lot of sloppiness from the offense. There was some from the defense as well, not nearly as much from the defense as it was from the offense though. Ooh, it was rough. There was a bunch of penalties. There was the false stars. There was this, that, and the third. And we're gonna talk about all of that. But then there was unfortunately the injuries too. And the injuries sort of, not necessarily took away from the win, but it just, it kind of dampened the win a little bit. Because it made you like, we happy that we won, but it's sad because we're missing some key guys. And J.K. Dobbins, as of this recording, because I'm recording this on September 11th at 9.49 a.m., as of this recording, the only one that's been confirmed is J.K. Dobbins. He's out for the season with the Torna Killies. With Marcus Williams, we haven't gotten that diagnosis yet. With Tyler Lindebong and Ronnie Stanley, we just don't know yet. By the time you see this video, we'll most likely know. But we just don't know yet. So hopefully we get some better news on those three guys. I think we definitely will with Tyler Lindebong and Ronnie Stanley. But with Marcus Williams, that's one that I fear is just, I think he's gonna end up being out for the season. But I would love, I would love, love, love to be wrong on that. So hopefully I am. But we are gonna start with the Baltimore Ravens office. But before we do, let's hear a word from our sponsor. Looking for calorie conscious options this busy football season? I know I am. Try delicious, dietitian-approved, calorie-small meals with around 550 or less calories per serving. Or do you just need an extra boost to support your wellness goals this fall? You can try the Protein Plus meals that feature 30 grams or more protein per serving. This September, get Factor and enjoy eating without the hassle. Simply choose your meals and enjoy fresh, flavor packed meals delivered right to your door. Ready in just two minutes? No prep, no mess. Factor has so many different nutritious options that keep your fridge well stocked. Even have smoothies and juices that are perfect snack option. They just make it so easy for you. And you know what? Let me show you how. That's it. That's all it took. But how can you get started with your factor meals? Well, let me tell you. Just head to factor75.com or click the link below and use code engraven50 to get 50% off your first factor box. Again, just head to factor75.com or click the link below and use code engraven50 to get 50% off your first factor box. Ooh, and let's start off with the Ravens offense and shout out to the Texans defense because they were all over it, man, with the Blitzes with just a consistent pressure. They were not so shout out to the Texans defense but with Ravens offense, just starting off with Todd Munkin. This was his debut game for the Baltimore Ravens. And it went all right. It went all right. It wasn't the greatest but definitely wasn't the worst at all. The running game. The running game, it left a lot to be desired. Obviously, JK Dobbins, he ended up going out but even still with JK Dobbins in, the running game just never really took off like that. They had 32 rushes for 110 yards and they averaged 3.4 yards to carry. Now, the most important thing did happen from the running game, they got touchdowns and it's all about points. It's all about scoring. And Justice Hill got two of them, JK Dobbins, of course, he had the first one. So that's what matters most. But overall, the running game, it left a lot to be desired. And I think these numbers really got inflated from Lamar Jackson. I mean, it's part of the run game but he had six carries for 38 yards. But the rest, Gus Edwards had eight for 32. Average four yards to carry now. So that was good. But JK Dobbins, he had eight for 22. Average 2.8 yards to carry and Justice Hill had eight for nine. He averaged 1.1 yards to carry. Then they mixed some Zay flowers in there too. He had two rushes for nine yards and he saw the average 4.5 yards carry. But I guess with the running game, that really leads us to the offensive line. Because the offensive line in this game, it was rough. It was really, especially in the first half, it was rough. There was a lack of blocking. There was a lack of protection. There was a lack of push up front by them. And it just, it was rough. But again, this was the very beginning. This was their debut together because they hadn't played in the preseason. They saw that the starters were all playing together for the first time. So this was real on a job training right here. So that did really have a big impact on the game. Lamar Jackson got sacked, well, four times. Yeah, four times. He got sacked four times. And that's a lot. That's a lot of sacks to give up. Now Ravens got five sacks themselves on CJ Strat, but we talk about Ravens often. Lamar Jackson, for him to get sacked four times, that says a lot, especially because you know Lamar Jackson's ability. So, and there was a lot of times when he did have to evade defenders in the backfield because they would always be in the backfield. There were some times when some guys would come untouched and it was like, well, what is going on? A lot of times the Ravens offensive line, they were just letting guys like run right past them. But in the second half, they brought out Pericard and Pericard helped a lot, he helped so much, man. And Ravens needed all the help that they could possibly get on that offensive line. But that says a lot about him. And that's also says a lot about Munkin because adjustments. That was a big adjustment that the Baltimore Ravens needed. So making adjustments is the name of the game. That's one of the things. And in my opinion, that's one of the reasons I think they moved on from Greg Roman because there was just a lack of adjustments that the Ravens would do, especially coming out of halftime now. I would love to see adjustments from first to second quarter or even drive by drive. But it's like, okay, if that doesn't happen, at least at halftime it has to happen. It is of the essence, it's so important. And we saw that with Lamar Jackson specifically, his numbers, his game yesterday was solid. Looking at the numbers, they were okay. But the game, it was solid. It wasn't the worst, definitely not the worst, but it certainly wasn't the best. It wasn't great, it was solid. He went 17 for 22, 169 yards and threw that one in a section on a ball intended for Zay Flowers. On that pass, he threw to him, but he had a defender wrapped around his legs, wrapped around his feet because the pressure came right in as we were so used to seeing on a lot of drop backs yesterday. But what I liked from Lamar Jackson in the game, just the spread in the ball around, throwing to all the different levels of the defense, throwing to all the different levels of the field and whatnot, I did like that. And I think with Mark Andrews out, it really forced like, hey, you ain't got the security blanket and you got a lot of new guys, a lot of new weapons that you ain't got as much, like, I mean, he ain't gonna have nearly as much rapport with other guys yet that he has with Mark Andrews because that's been years in the making. So their rapport is out of this world and it's great and we love it and we can't wait for Mark Andrews to be back. But now it was time, all right, you really gotta use those other guys now. And we saw him really use those other guys. Todd Monkin must be the biggest fan of Zay Flowers because boy, they were using Zay Flowers a lot, a whole lot. And Zay Flowers look really good. Now, there were some times where I felt like they could have used Zay Flowers to sort of build it up throughout the game and then use them as a decoy. But they really use them as a decoy. And what I mean when I say that they could have been feeding Zay Flowers, giving them opportunities. And he was making most of those opportunities, but they could have kept feeding them, feeding them, and then made it look like they were feeding them, but then ended up going somewhere else on some of the plays. I thought that that was a, that's an opportunity that they can do and use in the future. I'll see how it goes. Because Zay Flowers are nice, man. He looked really good. My favorite play from him was when he hit that spin move and he did it like so effortlessly, man. I know, again, they call him a joystick and then I see exactly why. That means Zay Flowers, I mean, we call them Shifty, but Shifty is like, I feel like that's so basic. Need a better word for that to take Shifty to a whole nother level because Zay Flowers is that, man. The man was crazy, on one pass, I thought Zay Flowers was about to get whacked. Well, Zay Flowers was running up the sideline and Lamar threw it to him. And Zay Flowers caught it and I thought the safety was about to take his head off. But he didn't. And that was a great catch by Zay a nice concentration catch. Cause some of the receivers could have been scared. They could have been like, oh man, I'm about to get whacked, but he didn't flinch like at all. Zay Flowers had a really good game. O'Dell Beckham, Jr. He drew two pass interference calls and then he had two catches. One was on that little comeback route on the thing was on the left side of the field. And then when he made that catch, cause O'Dell Beckham, Jr, he was waiting. That boy was waiting. When he made that catch, he said, finally, finally. Cause yeah, he was waiting a long time. And then at that deep pass that he caught two over shoulders, placing the perfect spot. That's another thing. Back to Lamar Jackson now there. I don't recall cause he missed five passes. One was an interception. And then another incompletion was the Charlie color drop. I don't remember what the other three were, but in this game, I don't recall any like, oh man, wow, who's Lamar throwing to? Oh man, wow, what, who was that intended for? I don't recall any of that. And then, and there was some deep passes that were in this game. So that was nice to see. We talked about chemistry earlier. He has chemistry with Mark Andrews. Like nobody can touch that, but the chemistry in this game, it looked like it was pretty good with the other guys too. There were some passes where he had to scramble. There was a lot of times where he had to scramble, but where there was one to, I think, Rashad Bateman, where Lamar, like, had to scramble to the right and he had to throw it to the left or to the middle of the field. And it's on point, going across his body. Rashad Bateman, I love how Rashad Bateman came back and got the ball. He looked good in the couple of passes that he caught. Just the receivers, they look good. Nelson Aguilar, I don't think he had any catches. Isaiah likely had one on a screen pass, I believe. I was hoping he was gonna make the guy miss, but he didn't, and it's all good. But again, it's a work in progress. It's a brand new offense. It's gonna take some time to really get this thing going. Remember when Tom Monkin said, hey, we are far ways off. We a long way off. Tom Monkin was not lying at all. I was thinking, all right, maybe Tom Monkin just saying that to try to humble these guys, but no, he was telling the truth. Special teams, I mean, you know what time it is. Justin Tucker, Jordan Stout did his thing, had some nice punts, but yeah, special teams, they just are the epitome of consistency. Defense, defense. While going against the rookie quarterback, Patrick Queen, he set the tone, man. Patrick Queen really set the tone. He had a nice game. Roe Kwan Smith had like 15, 16 tackles, had the pass deflection early on in the game. They would've been nice if that was an interception, but it's all good. And then he had the sack too. He had the sack too. Ravens had five sacks, yeah. So they were getting after David Ajaubot. I love how they took advantage of that right tackle. The Texans' right tackle got hurt. Very next play on his first play, on the backup right tackle, very first play. David Ajaubot called him slipping, force fumble. So he got the sack, the sack strip, and knocked it out of CJ Strauss hands. So that's what it's about, man. Adafi Awey, he looked good. Again, Adafi Awey was close. He was getting close, so it's coming. It's coming. So he was getting real close. So that was nice to see. Then their defensive line, their defensive line was doing their thing. They gave up some little runs here and there, but nothing crazy, nothing crazy. You know what? Let me actually look at the numbers from the Texans' running game. 23 carries for 72 yards. So yeah, Raven's defense, they were holding it down, man. The longest run of the day was 11 yards, but that was from CJ Strauss, the quarterback. And that boy, he's like sneaky elusive, man. I think he gonna be good, man. He was nice. He made some really good decisions. He did not have any passes where it was like, oh, that was almost an interception. He ain't have nothing like that. Not that I can recall, but he gonna be solid, man, especially as the team grows and they start really giving him weapons and stuff like, yeah, he gonna be, even though he had some like, well, like Niko Collins was doing this thing, man. It feel like he had like 50 catches yesterday. Let me see how many he had. Oh yeah, six catches for 80 yards. Oh yeah, Robin Woods, Tankdale, yeah. So actually they do got some decent receivers over there. They're not the greatest, but they certainly not the worst at all. So he got a nice little call to start off with. But yeah, he was really good at decision-making. But Baltimore Ravens, the pass rush, it was on and off. They did send some blitzes here and there. And Baltimore Ravens in this game, one of my favorite things that I saw from them was some open field tackling. Ronald Darby, he made a really, really nice open field tackle early on. Malik Harrison, he made a really, really nice open field tackle. And that was, that's so important. Stuff like that is so important. Cause when you one-on-one and all that pressure's on you, all eyes on you, especially when it's like third down or something you gotta get to stop. That's big, man. That's really, really, really big. So Ravens defense, again, all this stuff is a work in progress cause this is week one. This is week one. But to see the Ravens offense, the Ravens defense, to see the sloppiness that there was at times on both sides, to see the penalties that there were at times on both sides. But the fact that they still came out of this game scoring 25 points against that defense that was solid, man. But to see all the sloppiness and they still end up scoring 25 points, I liked that. Because that lets me know like, hey, when they clean it up, ooh, ooh, ooh. And again, it's early. It's week one. So they gonna get this thing going. I'm not overly concerned like, oh man, all this offense or, oh man, it's deep. No, no, no. I'm not overly concerned. It's week one. It's literally week one. They ain't playing no pre-season. So I think all of us should sort of temper expectations a bit. Of course we're expecting to improve. We're expecting to do better. We're expecting to be better. And the turnovers, like with Lamar with the interception, can't have that. With the fumble, where the ball just straight up got knocked out. He's trying to make a play. And that was a great play by that Texans cornerback. He said, Lamar, you ain't about to shake me and keep the ball. Walk. Knocked it right out of there. And then with Justice Hill, it's like, hold up, Justice. We love you. You scored two touchdowns. He's like, oh, he got a little jealous of Lamar. He said, Lamar, I'm about to make you look bad. Bop. I'm knocking that ball out. But hey, mistakes happen. It's okay. So they should be fine going forward. So yeah, that's that, man. This was a, it was a fun game. We back as week one. The Ravens are back officially. NFL is back officially. And now let's just look forward to steady improvements for this team moving forward.