Ravens Still Trying to Overcome Slow Starts
OWINGS MILLS, Md. — The Ravens have not scored a first-quarter touchdown since Oct. 17 against the Chargers.
Over 11 games season, Baltimore has just 30 points in the opening quarter and has been held scoreless five times.
However, the Ravens have won the time-of-possession battle in every game except the matchups against the Las Vegas Raiders and Detroit Lions.
"We’re not getting first downs," coach John Harbaugh said. "Sometimes we don’t get started [well], but this game, we got first downs, we moved the ball. The turnovers hurt us at times, but I think we just need to score more points with our yards and our first downs. So, we’ve had high numbers of first downs the last two [or] three weeks, without a high number of points. We kind of correlate yards and first downs to points, time of possession. The time of possession was way up. That was a big part of the game – keeping their offense off the field. It helped our defense tremendously.
"So, our offense contributed in a lot of really good ways, but the points are something that we need to do a better job of. We had opportunities down there that we had to settle for field goals a couple times [on].”
Another challenge is that opposing defenses are giving the Ravens a different look than what they are seeing on film leading up to the game. That means quarterback Lamar Jackson has needed to make adjustments and that has taken some time.
The Ravens do have four victories when they trailed by double-digits in the second half.
"I just say we have to stay dialed in, and like I always say, take it one play at a time, and starting the game off the same way that we finish it," Jackson said. "Not just start slow and finish strong; we have to play the whole game the same way. Start strong and finish strong.
"There have been opportunities. We could have stayed on the field [on our] first drives and stuff like that, and we mess up, or there’s a hiccup on third down, or something like that.”
