A Shocking 25-9 Scorigami Victory Was Damn Near The Only Positive Today In Baltimore

Yay. Wahoo. Yippee.

Damn near everything in today's game was garbage. It was great to see the boys out there and it was nice to see the team post a 2 touchdown double yew but at what cost man. What cost.

Ya gotta feel for JK Dobbins. Guy put in his time behind Ingram and Gus his rookie year and showed he was ready to be the featured back in year 2. Doesn't even get out of camp that year before tearing his ACL. Year 3 more or less served as a rehab year, as he continued to build up strength in the knee and was hella productive down the stretch despite not having his typical extra gear in the open field. Guy comes out for year 4 determined to prove his worth given a contract dispute and he tears his achilles in Week 1. Just brutal luck for him and obviously a major loss for a Super Bowl contender.

That absolutely sucks but it does happen. It's the National Football League. No team goes to the Promised Land without losing a couple soldiers along the way. It was already bad enough that Dobbins' injury coincided with key safety Marcus Williams going down in the 1st half and being declared out at halftime. As I'm typing this... word is it might be a torn pec.

As if that wasn't enough of a kick in the dick, Ronnie Stanley and Tyler Linderbaum each went down in the 4th quarter with injuries we just don't know enough about yet. Both appear to be knee injuries and both are going to require further evaluation. 

Ronnie has already run the gamut on lower body injuries and rehab, and Linderbaum is a former 1st rounder in his 2nd year who was in a great position to thrive in an offense better suited to his skillset than last year's. The way he got rolled up on was pretty nasty and could be a number of different things.

So suddenly, an offense with a sky high ceiling is littered with question marks as its starting back and 40% of the offensive line might be on the shelf for serious time. Plus the secondary was already hurting enough without Marlon and your best centerfielder might be cooked for the year.

All of that puts a nasty taste in your mouth on what started out as such a hopeful and joyful day.

To make matters worse, the Ravens really didn't play an impressive football game. Like… at all. They played with their food in the first half and only led by 1 at the break. Lamar was pressing and looked uncomfortable most the way. They committed oodles of penalties and even got outgained by a bad Texans team. There's really not many players you'd feel great about giving a game ball to. Zay Flowers was the only real bright spot on the offensive side of the ball (he's confirmed NASTY) and the defense as a unit played a very solid game against a rookie QB, as they should.

But man… I really did not have a good time today.

1-0 is 1-0. And the Bengals looked even worse, and there's a big game looming in Cincinnati next week. It's just impossible to feel as good about the outlook of the 2023 Ravens as I did when I woke up this morning. 

Godspeed to JK on his recovery, and fingers crossed for good results on these MRI's.

PS: How the hell has there never been a 25-9 score before? Wild…