The Ravens are looking for answers following their 44-10 loss to the Texans Sunday, which dropped them to 1-4.
"Just a complete disappointment," Head Coach John Harbaugh said. "We're going to have to find a way to turn it around and figure out who we are this next week and then into the bye."
Battered by injuries, the Ravens were without seven Pro Bowl players from last season against the Texans: quarterback Lamar Jackson, left tackle Ronnie Stanley, safety Kyle Hamilton, linebacker Roquan Smith, cornerback Marlon Humphrey, fullback Patrick Ricard, and defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike, who is out for the year. Baltimore was also without starting cornerback Chidobe Awuzie.
With so many key players out, five rookies started on defense, and the Texans took advantage of that inexperience. Houston scored on its first eight possessions and outgained the Ravens, 417-207.
The average snap count percentage among the seven Ravens defensive rookies was 63.5%.
Here's what the Ravens' snap counts and Pro Football Focus grades looked like in Week 5:
- Rookie safeties Malaki Starks and Reuben Lowery III played all 70 defensive snaps. Starks had 10 tackles and earned a 57.3 grade, and Lowery earned a 44.6 grade with five tackles.
- Fourth-round rookie Teddye Buchanan also played all 70 snaps and received a 59.8 grade. He had an 88.9 grade against the run (best on the team), but a 31.4 coverage grade. Buchanan finished with a game-high 15 tackles while wearing the green dot helmet with Smith out.
- Undrafted rookie Keyon Martin started in place of the injured Humphrey and had the lowest defensive grade at 31.2.
- Wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins had the highest grade (92.3) on offense despite playing just 11 snaps. The 33-year-old Hopkins hauled in both of his targets for 46 yards and had a 29-yard catch-and-run that helped set up a field goal on the Ravens' opening drive.
- Wide receiver Zay Flowers earned the second-highest offensive grade (79). He led the team with five receptions for 72 yards.
- In his first start as a Raven, Cooper Rush received a 67.7 grade after completing 14 of 20 passes for 179 yards while throwing three interceptions and no touchdowns.
- The offensive line struggled against a formidable Texans front-seven. Right tackle Roger Rosengarten (55.7), left guard Andrew Vorhees (49.9), right guard Daniel Faalele (42.4), and left tackle Joe Noteboom (42.3) all earned sub-60 grades. Tyler Linderbaum led the unit with a 63.6 grade.
- Zaire Mitchell-Paden had the lowest grade on offense with a 41.8 while filling in for Ricard as a tight end/fullback hybrid for the fifth straight week.
- Veteran defensive lineman Brent Urban was the highest-rated defensive player with a 78 grade. Urban played 21 snaps and finished with five tackles.
- Kyle Van Noy played 19 snaps in his return to action after missing two games due to a hamstring injury. He had one of the Ravens' two sacks.
- Trenton Simpson received the starting nod opposite Buchanan and played his most snaps (66) of the season. The third-year linebacker earned the fourth-highest grade on defense (65.8) after recording 10 tackles and one sack.
- Defensive tackle John Jenkins played 76% of defensive snaps at 36 years old and earned a 60.7 grade.
