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This week, the Ravens faced off against the Houston Texans and earned a decisive 33-16 victory. The Ravens’ defense shined in the victory, earning two takeaways against Deshaun Watson and the Texans’ offense.
After a great debut in the NFL, there was significant interest to see how well the rookies of Baltimore would perform in their second career game . Rookies tend to be streaky, so unless you are able to snag a top level player, you can expect to see some significant ups and downs from week to week. Time to check in on our newbies.
Patrick Queen
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Queen’s performance in Week 2 was similar to his debut. He sported nine combined tackles, seven of which were solo and both of which led the team. The biggest issue that Queen had was in pass coverage, he allowed four catches on seven targets for 47 total yards. Not exactly ideal out of the rookie, especially when you see this same issue was present in his debut as well.
However, the run game is where he is excelling, and I can certainly think of one linebacker in the league who doesn’t excel in pass coverage but is a nightmare in the run game. Queen was able to get to Watson once for a quarterback hit, but wasn’t able to rack up any sacks this week. A good second game, but also possibly a lesson to Harbaugh not to put too much faith in his pass coverage quite yet.
Tyre Phillips
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Tyre Phillips had an up-and-down debut in Week 1, but showed significant improvement in the area of pass blocking for Week 2. According to Pro Football Focus, logged 13 true pass sets (no play action, screen, quick throw, etc.), and didn’t lose once. This week, he was on the field for every single offensive snap, a small improvement over his 95% in the season opener.
Evidently, we can expect Phillips to be part of the starting five for the foreseeable future, and if he continues to improve at this rate he could be a high-quality lineman by the time the playoffs roll around.
J.K. Dobbins
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J.K. Dobbins had an extremely quiet second game, only getting two rushing attempts and receiving one target in the air. He was only on the field for 30% of the offensive snaps, unable to get much attention from the coaching staff. He did, however, have a massive 44-yard run near the end of the game, which certainly helped pad his stats a little bit. You catch that run near the of this video.
Devin Duvernay
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Duvernay has cemented himself as the primary kick returner for Baltimore, and in Week 2 he was able to return three kicks for an average of 18 yards. He hasn’t received much attention offensively and was targeted only once in Week 2, which he turned into an 18-yard catch.
Looking on the bright side, he has caught both passes thrown to him since entering the NFL.
James Proche, Malik Harrison, Broderick Washington Jr.
I’ve grouped these three together due to their limited impact on their respective sides of the ball.
Proche didn’t show his face at all on the offensive side of the ball, only receiving special teams snaps this week. He was able to return one punt for eight yards. Malik Harrison was able to get a single solo tackle this week, however he also got most of his snaps on special teams.
Broderick Washington Jr. was only on the field for three snaps and did not record a tackle.