Rookie Vega Ioane couldn't have had much tougher circumstances for his first NFL start at center.
It was raining nearly the entire day in Baltimore, making snaps trickier to control. Ioane snapped to two different quarterbacks, as Tyler Huntley replaced Lamar Jackson, who exited Sunday's game after two quarters with an ankle injury. One of the guards who started next to him, Andrew Vorhees, went out with an injury, too. Most of all, Ioane was going against one of the best defensive tackles in the league, three-time All-Pro Jeffery Simmons.
But one of the biggest narratives and paper mismatches entering the game ended up being a nonfactor – the kind of day offensive linemen hope for.
The snaps were on-point, and Simmons didn't dominate the game by any means, finishing with four tackles, zero sacks, and one pass deflection.
According to Next Gen Stats, Simmons had just one pressure on 32 pass rushes (3.1%), his lowest rate since Week 7 of last season. His lone pressure came against Vorhees. Simmons had nine matchups with Ioane.
The only snap that got away from a Ravens quarterback, which was Huntley in this case, was when the Titans were flagged for offsides.
"For that guy to do what he did, [to] be able to play center with the week's worth of work – major credit to him," Head Coach Jesse Minter said. "And I bet you the film will probably look pretty good from his regard."
Ioane was drafted in the first round to be a guard, but he was thrust into center after the Ravens lost two centers (Jovaughn Gwyn and Ethan Pocic) to long-term injuries last week in Brazil. Ioane did well pinch-hitting on the fly then, and with long hours of preparation this week, he did even better in his follow-up.
Veteran guard John Simpson said he was periodically letting Ioane know throughout the game how well he was doing, keeping his confidence high.
"I thought he did great," Simpson said. "He's a guy that I've been seeing since the beginning of the season who soaks it all up and puts his head down and works. He's one of those guys you can lean on when it comes to situations like this. You can count on him."
Simpson said it looked like an "easy" transition from Ioane and it was rare that he saw him make a mistake even in practice this week.
But when it comes to Ioane, he might be his toughest grader.
"It was pretty solid. I would say, [there were] a lot of mistakes on my end. I take full responsibility for that," Ioane said. "There were a lot of plays where I did not snap the ball at the right time, right cadence, things like that. But we have a lot of time to fix that."
It remains to be seen whether Ioane will be the longer-term starting center. The Ravens signed veteran Andre James to the practice squad last week, and he's trying to get up to speed mentally and physically.
For now, Ioane passed his first test with flying colors. The Ravens continue to be banged up on the offensive line (Emery Jones Jr. replaced the injured Vorhees), but the rookie helped bring some stability in his first crack at it.
"Center is one of the hardest positions to play, so a big shoutout to all the guys that went down," Ioane said. "They make it look easy. This game comes with a lot of mental things that people don't really notice.
"As the game went on, a big shoutout to the guys around me, the quarterbacks and O-line. They were helping me out throughout the entire game. They got me comfortable fast."
