With week one officially in the books, the Baltimore Ravens opened up the 2023 season with a victorious 25-9 win over the Houston Texans. Though the win with that wide a margin is impressive, the offense wasn’t at its best for this first game of the season.
Ravens vs Texans Postgame Analysis
Lamar Jackson and company had a slow start to the game due in large part to the Texans’ defense creating stops on the opening drive. The Ravens’ defense would come out to play when Houston obtained the ball on offense.
Patrick Queen had an amazing Terrell Suggs-inspired sack on rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud, showing he wants to be the leader of the young and experienced defense early in the first quarter. Queen also had 11 tackles and a pass deflection on the day.
Ravens LB Patrick Queen (6) – Rich Schultz/AP Photo
Roquan Smith kept the fireworks going on defense with a sack of his own in the third quarter. Smith had 16 tackles throughout the game.
Both team’s defenses performed well on the field. Cornerback Steven Nelson snagged himself an interception from Lamar Jackson in the first quarter and had two tackles on the day. The Texans’ defense is in great hands, with DeMeco Ryans leading their team for the 2023 campaign.
Jackson completed 17 passes for 169 yards, threw one interception, and rushed for 38 yards on six attempts on the day, while Stroud completed 28 passes for 242 yards on the day. Not the best stats of the day, but it could’ve been a lot worse for both quarterbacks.
Jackson (8) – Rob Carr/Getty Images
Jackson threw some good passes to Zay Flowers, who caught nine receptions for 78 yards but didn’t score a touchdown all game. None of the Raven’s wide receivers scored a touchdown. The running backs for the Ravens did all of the scoring, but at a cost, as J.K. Dobbins went down with a season-ending Achilles injury in the third quarter.
Ravens WR Zay Flowers (4) – Rob Carr/Getty Images
Dobbins scored the first touchdown of the game in the first quarter. Dobbins rushed for 22 yards on eight attempts in the game and caught two receptions for 15 yards.
Ravens RB J.K. Dobbins (27) – Brad Mills/ USA TODAY Sports
Justice Hill rushed for nine yards on eight attempts and scored two touchdowns in the game. Gus Edwards scored a two-point conversion and rushed for 32 yards on eight attempts.
Making his long-awaited return to NFL action since Super Bowl 56 was Odell Beckham Jr., who caught two receptions for 37 yards but went on to say after the game about the offense, “It was an undercooked appetizer. It wasn’t necessarily what none of us wanted.”
The Raven’s defense will continue to look strong and powerful, with Patrick Queen and Roquan Smith leading the way against opposing offenses.
Todd Monken’s offense is starting on a slow simmer, and it is a tiny bit surprising to some but not unexpected to other spectators of the game as the team is still trying to find its offensive identity with a new system in place. The offense will continue to improve in the following weeks depending on how the team performs the rest of the season. Despite the slow offense, everyone has to remember what Vin Diesel, as Dominic Toretto in The Fast And The Furious (2001) said, “It don’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile, Winning is winning!”
The Ravens are positioned well for the next contest of the 2023 season by traveling to the Queen City of Cincinnati for a Sunday afternoon date with the Cincinnati Bengals on September 17 at 1:00 p.m. ET. The Bengals are coming off a shocking 24-3 loss on the road to the Cleveland Browns just days after Joe Burrow signed a five-year $275 million extension with the team. The fans will be looking to see if the Raven’s offense can get off of the back burner earlier in the game and heat up the action.
