Baltimore Beatdown
The Ravens’ rookie class of 2o25 just finished their first regular season action, and it came in a gut-wrenching 41-40 loss to the Buffalo Bills. Now that they’re acclimated to blowing leads in heartbreaking fashion like the Ravens do, let’s take a look at their individual performances.
The first-round safety played essentially every defensive snap, something uncommon for any Ravens rookie to do in Week 1. This shows both what the Ravens think of him and their depth at the safety position. Starks didn’t look like a rookie, trailing only Roquan Smith and Kyle Hamilton in total tackles without making any egregious mistakes from the initial watch. He dropped an interception on the first drive of the game, which hurts, but was everywhere and played strong against the run. I expect a slightly above-average PFF score. The Ravens certainly have things to fix on defense, but Starks wasn’t an issue against the Bills.
Green was clearly behind Odafe Oweh, Kyle Van Noy, and Tavious Robinson on the depth chart. Very similar to his preseason games, he wasn’t impressive on the stat sheet nor was he in the quarterback’s face a ton. However, there were some reps that he won quickly and cleanly in an impressive manner. Most of the Ravens’ pass rush struggled to get in Allen’s face tonight, but if it were nearly any other quarterback out there, it wouldn’t shock me if Green came away with a sack or two. Allen and the Bills’ offensive line are a hard first task to manage (they averaged taking less than a sack a game last year), so we’ll have to see if Green and the rest of the pass rush can build momentum at home next week.
There’s something poetic about the idea of Green’s first highlight play coming against Joe Flacco at home, though.
I spent a lot of the preseason saying I wasn’t sure how many snaps Buchanan would get early on, with Trenton Simpson looking entrenched to start and Jay Higgins looking like a better pure linebacker in the preseason. I was quite wrong. Buchanan and Simpson rotated drives tonight as the running mate next to Roquan Smith, though neither ever played every snap when it was their turn. It’s unclear how it went, with none of the inside backers looking good tonight, including Smith. However, it looks like Buchanan is getting a chance early to steal the role.
It was an up-and-down game for Loop. He went into a hostile playoff environment on the road and nailed the first kick of his career from 52 yards to open up the Ravens’ scoring. He would then make four extra points and another field goal from 49 yards out to add on throughout the game. But on his last opportunity of the night, he missed an extra point, leaving the Ravens at 40 points instead of 41. The Ravens would go on to lose 41-40....
