The Ravens' offense wasn't clicking in Los Angeles as well as it had in recent weeks, despite facing one of the league's lowest-ranked pass defenses.
The easy answer would be that the Ravens were feeling the absence of tight end Mark Andrews, who is likely done for the season with an ankle injury, but Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken isn't buying it.
"[We] left some things out there, but I don't think it was a matter of not having Mark," Monken said this week.
"I mean, Isaiah [Likely] played fine. He did some good things. That's hard to say, when someone is not out there, what it would have looked like had they been out there. I don't know that. I just know that we're lucky to have Isaiah, and he did a good job the other night."
Likely led the Ravens with 40 receiving yards, and his six targets were the second-most on the team behind Zay Flowers' eight. The second-year tight end was especially hot early in the game, including on an 18-yard gain via a tight end screen.
Likely isn't Andrews and never will be. They are two different types of tight ends, and the Ravens are leaning into that.
In the first test case of life without Andrews, the Ravens got the ball to Likely in space and let him do damage with his legs. He wasn't always the first read, but Likely was a strong check-down option for Lamar Jackson.
"[Likely] probably has a little more twitch. He probably has a little bit, as he develops as a player, to break tackles. He can get to an edge a little bit more than Mark," Monken said.
"Mark's more of a powerful [player]. Get the ball in his hands, he's like a bull, run over people and out muscle you. Where 'Zay' [Likely] is a little bit more elusive. As he keeps developing his craft and his depths [on his routes] and setting up defenders, he's going to be hard to handle. It's just a matter of time. It's not a matter of if, it's just a matter of when, when we keep working through that and developing that."
If the Ravens lean more on Likely's run-after-catch ability with shorter passes, that might mean less of that work for Zay Flowers and other wide receivers.
While the Ravens will use Likely in different ways, they'll still need him to come up with some contested catches like Andrews. Part of that requires trust from Jackson to give him those chances.
The other part is chemistry. The connection that Jackson and Andrews had isn't developed overnight, but it's something the Ravens want to work on establishing with Jackson and his other targets.
"What happens when that guy is not there, [and] someone else is doing it, is, 'How much time do I have working with him doing it, to where I can read his body language? Does it look like he's stopping or still continuing on? Is he going up [the] field [or] is he flattening it out?'" Quarterbacks Coach Tee Martin said.
"Lamar and I, we had that conversation, and we just talked about just spending more time with guys that can be in those situations to do the things that he and Mark did. Whether it's Isaiah at tight end, [or] whether it's another wide receiver, he and Zay Flowers and those guys are getting to that point."
