The Colts came out swinging Sunday, marching 65 yards on their opening drive and taking a quick 7-0 lead. Then the Ravens turned the game into a track meet.

Baltimore scored 31 straight points before halftime and rolled to a 41-23 win. They piled up 506 yards with Lamar Jackson throwing for 324, Derrick Henry running for 144, and Zay Flowers somehow racking up 150 receiving yards in just one half.

Sure, it was Week 1 against the Colts. One blowout doesn’t make a team a Super Bowl favorite.

But this felt like more than a nice opening-day win. After changing head coaches, installing a new offense, and coming off an 8-9 season, the Ravens looked like a team that hadn’t missed a beat.

Whenever Indianapolis found a way to slow down one part of Baltimore’s offense, the Ravens had another answer ready.

There Was Always Another Answer

Doyle said before the season that he wanted the Ravens’ offense to be “physical, detailed, and explosive,” even if you watched the tape with the sound off. Through two quarters, it was pretty clear what he meant.

His first regular-season play call sent Flowers downfield for 49 yards, all the way to the Indianapolis 2-yard line. Two plays later, Jackson kept the ball and scored. The Colts had just opened the game with a long touchdown drive, and Baltimore needed three offensive snaps to answer.

The next Ravens possession gave Indianapolis a different problem.

A penalty wiped out a third-down conversion and left Baltimore facing third-and-16. Jackson escaped pressure, fought through contact and scrambled for exactly 16 yards. Henry finished the drive with his first touchdown of the afternoon.

That’s the Ravens’ problem in a nutshell. A defense can get Baltimore behind schedule and cover everybody the right way. Jackson can still turn the whole thing upside down.

The Colts tried to adjust by putting more attention on the backfield. That left room for Flowers, who’d spent the offseason talking about how Doyle’s spacing could turn short completions into big plays.

He wasn’t kidding.

Flowers’ 54-yard touchdown started with him coming out of the backfield on a simple angle route. Jackson changed his arm angle to get the ball around a defender, Flowers caught it in stride, and the rest of the Colts’ secondary was basically done. He’d already beaten Indianapolis for the 49-yard gain on Baltimore’s opening snap and converted a third-and-12 with an 18-yard catch.

By halftime, Flowers had five catches for 150 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t need a bunch of manufactured touches or a steady diet of deep balls. Baltimore gave him room, and one of the fastest players in football did the rest.

Then the Ravens went right back to Henry.

Marlon Humphrey ripped the ball away from Jonathan Taylor, giving Baltimore the ball in Colts territory. Three plays later, Henry ran through the left side for a 32-yard touchdown behind key blocks from Rashod Bateman and Chris Moore. Indianapolis had just been pulled all over the field by Flowers. Now they had to deal with a 250-pound running back coming downhill with room to get moving.

That’s a pretty miserable way to spend an afternoon.

A Receiver Room On Life Support

There were more answers after halftime. Flowers was out. Rookie Ja’Kobi Lane, who’d already had a touchdown erased by a holding penalty, was also gone. Tez Walker and Elijah Sarratt were inactive, leaving Baltimore with Bateman, LaJohntay Wester and Moore at receiver.

Moore had been elevated from the practice squad a day earlier. On third-and-5 late in the third quarter, Jackson found him for 53 yards. Henry scored his third touchdown five plays later.

Lamar And Henry Still Break Defenses

The best part of Jackson’s game wasn’t one particular throw. It was how comfortable he looked doing a little bit of everything.

He completed 17 of 25 passes for 324 yards without throwing an interception, and he connected with nine different receivers. He hit Flowers and Moore for gains of more than 45 yards, found Mark Andrews when Baltimore needed to keep a drive moving, and took the easy completions to Justice Hill when Indianapolis backed off.

Jackson also ran seven times for 40 yards and a touchdown. Which is something we didn't see much of last season

On Sunday, he looked healthy again. That changes everything for Baltimore’s offense.

It’s a lot harder to load the box against Henry when Jackson can pull the ball and take off. Put an extra defender on Jackson and Henry gets a lighter front. Try to squeeze both of them near the line and there’s suddenly room behind the defense, which Flowers had no trouble finding.

The Ravens don’t need Jackson to run 15 times every week. They just need defenses to believe he might. If that threat is real, teams can’t focus on Henry and the passing game without giving Jackson another way to hurt them.

The Colts figured that out pretty quickly.

Henry's still the other part of this offense that doesn’t seem fair. He carried 24 times for 144 yards and three touchdowns, averaging six yards per attempt. His third score was the 125th rushing touchdown of his career, moving him past Marcus Allen for third in NFL history.

And somehow, at 32, he still looked like Derrick Henry. Baltimore can use him to punish a defense after a big pass and lean on him when it’s time to bleed the clock.

That’s exactly what happened on the final Ravens possession. Baltimore took over with 8:38 left and kept the ball for more than six minutes. Henry did most of the heavy lifting, and Tyler Loop finished the drive with a 45-yard field goal.

The big plays showed how Baltimore can build a lead. That last drive showed how hard it might be to get the ball back once the Ravens have one.

As Good As It Was, It Was Far From Perfect

This wasn’t perfect, either. Baltimore had 10 penalties for 86 yards, converted just three of nine third downs, and came up empty on their only fourth-down try. There was that holding call that wiped out Lane’s touchdown, and then the Ravens couldn't score after getting all the way to the Indianapolis 3-yard line. There was also a lost fumble that gave the Colts a short field.

Indianapolis scored touchdowns on all three of their trips inside the red zone, too. A better team is going to make Baltimore pay for that kind of sloppiness.

The Ravens had enough cushion to survive it. They won by 18, outgained the Colts by 255 yards, and never really let the game get back within reach.

The defense deserves plenty of credit for that. After Indianapolis picked up 65 yards on their opening drive, the Colts managed just 23 yards over their next four possessions. Roquan Smith picked off Daniel Jones, Marlon Humphrey forced the fumble from Taylor, and Baltimore held Indianapolis to 251 total yards even without Nnamdi Madubuike.

There were a few other useful contributions, too. Tyler Loop drilled a career-long 57-yard field goal before halftime, and Chris Moore opened the second half with a 42-yard kickoff return. So no, this wasn’t just the offense putting on a show. The offense brought most of the fireworks, but the rest of the team did enough to keep the Colts from hanging around.

Flowers’ Health Is The One Concern

Flowers’ hamstring is the one thing Baltimore can’t just shrug off and fix during the week.

He’d been limited Wednesday because of the hamstring, then practiced fully the next two days and went into Sunday off the injury report. But he was ruled out in the third quarter and never came back. Lane’s wrist injury only made a thin receiver room look thinner.

Moore’s 53-yard catch was a terrific answer for one afternoon. But the Ravens can’t count on a practice-squad call-up replacing a guy who just put up 150 yards in one half.

Flowers changes the way defenses have to play Baltimore. His speed creates room for Henry, Jackson, and the tight ends before the ball even gets snapped. And because he can turn a short catch into a huge gain, Doyle doesn’t need to draw up a perfect deep shot every time Baltimore wants an explosive play. Give Flowers five yards and he might turn it into 50.

If the injury isn’t serious, Baltimore can leave Indianapolis feeling pretty good about almost everything they saw. If Flowers misses real time, though, the Ravens will have to show that their depth can hold up for more than one quarter.

That’s the one big question hanging over what was otherwise a ridiculous opener.

One win doesn’t tell us whether this team is ready to survive a loaded AFC. The Ravens have played plenty of great regular-season games during the Jackson era. Everybody knows the bar is higher now.

Still, this was about as strong an opening statement as Baltimore could’ve made.

A new head coach took over. A new coordinator installed his offense. Then the Ravens walked into a road stadium and fell behind right away. This team answered by scoring 41 points with big plays from all three units.

This looked like a Super Bowl team.

All stats courtesy of Fantasy Points Data.

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