2024 Week 2: Raiders 26, Ravens 23
The Raiders and Ravens shuffled around without too much happening in this game until the 4th quarter, when the Raiders remembered that Davante Adams and Zamir White were players on the roster. Once that happened Gardner Minshew led LV to a victory.
The Ravens are surprisingly (0-2) and are playing to save their season on the road, in Dallas. Not the best scenario for them.
Vegas is (1-1) and playing tough football. They might make a sneaky wildcard appearance if they get lucky.
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QB Report:
- Gardner Minshew (30/38 for 276 yards, 1 TD/1 INT) has been playing really good football and if the season ended today he would be a front runner MVP candidate. Once he starts to work Adams and Bowers as the #1 and #2 targets this offense could take off… if their OC doesn’t get in the way.
- Lamar Jackson’s (21/34 for 247 yards, 1TD/1 INT, 5 carries for 45-0) favorite target is now Zay Flowers, he is top 5 in targets so far this season even after the TNF game.
RB Report:
- Another game from Baltimore where Derrick Henry (18-84-1,1 catch 12 yards) wasn’t being used enough… at least in the first half. Eventually they came to their senses and Henry started to get carries and run like he used to in Tennessee. Henry is an almost every-down back.. that’s how he wears down defenses. Justice Hill (4-22-0, 2 catches for 10-0/2) does not have that ability.
- It seems like the Ravens finally figured out that rotating Henry in and out isn’t the best gameplan, defenses were just assuming whenever Henry was in he would get the ball… which was true most of the time.
- Baltimore is desperate going into their matchup against Dallas and will need Henry to run all over their defense just like Alvin Kamara did last week in order to pull out a victory. I think we will get a heavy dose of Lamar and Henry rushing the ball.
- Raiders HC Antonio Pierce said this week that his goal is to get Zamir White (9-24-0, 3 catches for 14-0/4) 20+ touches a game. This is what fantasy football players expected out of the gates with White, but OC Luke Getsy wanted to get Alexander Mattison (4-1-1) the ball for some god-forsaken reason. I think Pierce has seen enough inefficiency with Mattison. 0.25 ypc this game.
WR/TE Report:
- As I predicted in the Week 1 Ravens-Chiefs recap, Mark Andrews (4-51-0/5) would get a bigger workload this week:
“This game won’t be the trend for the Ravens this season, Andrews is a respected veteran and will get his share of targets because of that. This will be a 55/45 split between the two for the rest of the season but what is that really worth, in a low-end passing game.”
- Isaiah Likely (2-26-0/3) went from the golden boy week one to just another TE week 2. The reason for Likely’s big performance was the KC defense, as we are starting to see the trend.
- Zay Flowers (7-91-1/11) is racking up targets this year, he’s what the Ravens FO hoped Marquise Brown would be for their offense when he was drafted years ago.
- Davante Adams (9-110-1/12) has had a slow start to the 2024 season but Vegas finally realized they have one of the most technically sound receivers in the NFL. Only took them 2 games!
D/ST Report:
- The Raiders defense looks good but their numbers are closer to average, and bottom 10 against the run. They gave up some broken plays to LAC and handled Derrick Henry as well as any team can. Chuba Hubbard and the Panthers are going to struggle to move the ball on the ground next week.
- Maxx Crosby (6 tackles, 2 sacks, 4 TFL, 1 PD) continues to dominate opponents.
- Ravens Odafe Oweh (5 tackles, 2.5 sacks) has really impressed to start the season, 2.5 sacks in this game and 4 QB hits on the season. He’s really starting to disrupt offenses.
image source: https://www.pff.com/news/nfl-week-2-recap-las-vegas-raiders-26-baltimore-ravens-23 