ReFocused, NFL Preseason Week 2: Baltimore Ravens 20, Indianapolis Colts 19

The Baltimore Ravens defeated the Indianapolis Colts on Monday night, 20-19 ending the second full week of preseason action in the NFL.

PFF's ReFocused series this season features immediate takeaways and a key to the victory from two Senior Analysts who graded the performance, watching every player, on every play of the game. For more data and analysis from the game, utilize our Premium Stats 2.0 dashboard to expand your knowledge on the key players, signature stats and much more.

FINAL SCORE

Baltimore Ravens 20, Indianapolis Colts 19

Analyst Takeaways

Joe Flacco looked sharp in his quarter-plus of action, seeing only two of his nine attempts hit the turf. He finished the night strong with a pair of excellent throws on his final drive, first finding Michael Crabtree in the Cover-2 hole down the left sideline and capping the drive with a tight-window throw to John Brown in the back of the end zone the score.

Lamar Jackson‘s night was less clean, as the rookie struggled with accuracy when he looked beyond the short areas of the field. It wasn't all lows, however, as his best throw of the night came on a touchdown pass to open the third quarter, where Jackson put the ball away from tight coverage while on the move.

As a unit, The Ravens were stout against the run for most of the evening. The Colts' running backs struggled to gain momentum as the Ravens' front-seven constantly found ways to clog the rushing lanes. Edge defender Za'Darius Smith also caused a problem for the Colts' pass protection throughout the first half, as he constantly found different ways to attack and forced multiple pressures against multiple offensive linemen.

Colts rookie left guard Quenton Nelson struggled to get much of a push against the Ravens’ interior defensive line and especially struggled against veteran Brandon Williams, who gave Nelson the most trouble on running plays.

Colts backup quarterback Jacoby Brissett had a positive game and made several quality throws throughout the night. A handful of his incompletions were the result of excellent plays by the defensive backs, however, his final drive was a mixed bag. After completing two lengthy passes, including one to Steve Ishmael on a go route against tight coverage, Brissett threw one pass behind his receiver on a hitch route and he then ended his evening by underthrowing a pass across his body while scrambling.

In the secondary, second-year cornerback Quincy Wilson didn't yield a reception into his coverage and made a nice play on the ball late in the third quarter to get a third-down stop and force a punt, but on the night, interior defensive lineman Hassan Ridgeway was the standout for the Colts defense, notching a pair of sacks while also proving difficult to handle in the run game.

KEY TO THE GAME

Baltimore: It was a bit of an ugly game, but Baltimore got enough quality throws from all three quarterbacks to get the job done.

Indianapolis: While the Colts' quarterbacks were able to find some success in the air, the Ravens' secondary refused to make it easy. The unit forced a handful of pass breakups and created several tight windows to throw into throughout the game.