The Baltimore Ravens’ defense controlled Saturday night’s affair with the Carolina Panthers, forcing five consecutive three-and-outs in the second half and allowing its offense to sit on the ball, eventually coming out with a dominant 20-3 win.
Baltimore’s running game led the way on offense, with running backs Nate McCrary and Ty’Son Williams combining for over 100 yards and two touchdowns, salting the game away late.
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Baltimore Ravens
Quarterbacks
Tyler Huntley saw every meaningful snap at quarterback for Baltimore on Saturday night, finishing with 34 attempts. He threw an interception to Panthers edge defender Haason Reddick on the opening drive of the night. Huntley finished the day with 187 yards and a 71.6 passer rating, and he appears to be Baltimore’s QB2 entering the 2021 season.
HELLO DEFENSE
Haason Reddick with the PICK!
: NFLN & WSOC pic.twitter.com/mOEPeCctC0
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) August 21, 2021
Running Backs
Former Ohio State Buckeye J.K. Dobbins looks to be one of the two leaders in Baltimore’s running back room, although he saw only four carries in his first quarter appearance. Gus Edwards received the same workload, with the two combining for 36 yards. Depth backs Ty’Son Williams and Nate McCrary combined for 25 carries for 111 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
Baltimore played with only six wide receivers against Carolina, and each split the reps about evenly. Rookie Tylan Wallace was the most productive of the unit, with 36 yards on his two receptions. Tight end Josh Oliver had the most volume of the night as Baltimore’s checkdown option, racking up 50 yards on his seven catches.
Offensive Line
After a 2020 full of injuries has passed, the Ravens’ line has been stabilized, allowing rotational players such as Ben Powers to return to the right spot on the depth chart. He was effectively the only lineman in the 2020 rotation who logged meaningful reps Saturday, and he went without allowing any pressures on first review.
Alejandro Villanueva logged 18 reps and continues to work toward a rhythm within a much different scheme than he was accustomed to in Pittsburgh. The offensive line allowed only five pressures on the night and no sacks, pending review.
Defensive Line
The flow of the possessions skewed heavily in favor of Baltimore’s offense. As such, edge defender Odafe Oweh had fewer than 20 snaps, didn’t log any run stops and notched only one pressure before his night was up.
Odafe Oweh, PSU | 2020
| Run-Defense Grade (Rank) | Pass-Rush Grade (Rank) |
| 90.3 | 78.7 |
Justin Madubuike came up empty rushing the passer, as well. Jaylon Ferguson stepped up with three pressures on first review.
Linebackers
The Ravens gave their linebacker reps to five players, but it didn’t come at the cost of productivity for a team with Baltimore's depth. Patrick Queen, Chris Board and Malik Harrison each had a run stop, and Board added a quarterback hurry.
Defensive Backs
Anthony Averett logged around a dozen coverage snaps and was targeted only once, resulting in an incompletion. The Ravens’ corners and safeties gave up two first downs on passes aside from Marshall’s big catch, and the Panthers' quarterbacks mustered a lowly 65.4 passer rating against Baltimore’s defensive backs.
Carolina Panthers
Quarterbacks
Sam Darnold played the first series of the game and completed one of his two passes for 16 yards.
Will Grier played the majority of the snaps at quarterback today, putting up an efficient 11-of-14 night for 144 yards and a 109.5 passer rating. His best throw of the day was a 34-yard connection on a fade to Terrace Marshall Jr. P.J. Walker, Matt Rhule’s old quarterback at Temple, completed only one of his eight attempts.
Check out this sideline catch from TMJ ????
????: NFLN & WSOC pic.twitter.com/zXDOn0dVXT
— Carolina Panthers (@Panthers) August 21, 2021
Running Backs
Carolina didn’t run much and wasn’t too productive when it tried. Chuba Hubbard took most of the work with Christian McCaffrey sitting out, putting up only 2.4 yards per carry on his nine tries.
No other back had more than five carries, and the team totaled 33 yards on 17 carries.
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends
Terrace Marshall Jr. didn’t need many snaps to continue his strong preseason showing, adding another two catches and 16 yards to his 34-yard reception from Will Grier. Robby Anderson came out when Darnold did, notching one catch for the night.
Terrace Marshall Jr., LSU | 2020
| Receiver Grade | Targets | Yards | Average Depth of Target | Explosive Receptions |
| 80.7 | 134 | 1402 | 12.4 | 31 |
The rest of the wide receivers had a quiet day against the Ravens’ defense. Chuba Hubbard had the second-longest catch of the day out of the backfield, which went for 29 yards.
Offensive Line
The Ravens certainly showed much less of the blitzing playbook than we know defensive coordinator Wink Martindale to carry into games during the season, but the Panthers' offensive line didn’t allow any sacks on its 28 dropbacks — and only five total pressures.
Wink Martindale Defense
| Blitz Rate | Top Coverage | Second Coverage | Third Coverage | |
| 2021 Preseason | 46% | Cover 1 (41%) | Cover 3 (26%) | Cover 0 (13%) |
| 2020 Regular Season | 48% | Cover 1 (35%) | Cover 3 (32%) | Cover 0 (15%) |
Defensive Line
The Panthers’ defensive line produced eight pressures on the 38 dropbacks it faced, and Christian Miller did almost all the work himself. In 31 opportunities, he had a hit on Huntley and five total pressures.
Brian Burns came out after the second defensive series and predictably made a tackle for loss on his five snaps. The position group had three tackles for loss and nine stops.
Linebackers
Frankie Luvu was the defensive player of the night for Carolina, with a hit on the quarterback, a few tackles, a forced fumble and a pass breakup on 20 snaps. Josh Bynes got the most snaps at the linebacker position and produced three run stops and six total tackles on first review.
Defensive Backs
Stantley Thomas-Oliver III got the most work of the cornerbacks. Donte Jackson and Jaycee Horn played for just a couple series, and the defensive group as a whole was unproductive against Baltimore’s run-first attack. Tyler Huntley opted to work underneath and inside on most passes, targeting a defensive back on only 12 of his attempts for 55 yards.
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