The Ravens went into Indianapolis and hung 506 yards and 41 points on the Colts, and it was over by halftime. Baltimore led 31-13 at the break and Indy never got within 14 again.
This was Jesse Minter's first game as head coach after John Harbaugh left for the Giants, with Declan Doyle taking over the offense. If there were questions about whether a new staff would disrupt what this group does, the answer came fast. Five hundred and six yards, 7.9 a play, 35:20 of possession, five touchdowns.
It looked like the version of this offense people remember.
Derrick Henry was dominant
Twenty-four carries for 144 yards and three touchdowns. Twenty-five total touches, 163 scrimmage yards.
The 32-yarder in the second quarter was the play that ended it, a run up the left side behind blocks from Rashod Bateman and Chris Moore that made it 28-6. His third score, from three yards out early in the fourth, was career touchdown number 125, which moved him past Marcus Allen into third place all-time.
Baltimore ran it 37 times for 202 yards at 5.5 a carry with four rushing touchdowns, and 116 of those yards came after contact. That's the profile you want from a back this size behind this line.
There's no ambiguity about the role. Twenty-four carries, all the goal line work, three scores. Start him.
Lamar looked fast and decisive
Seventeen of 25 for 324 yards, one touchdown, no interceptions, a 124.2 rating. Eleven point three yards an attempt. He added 40 rushing yards and a five-yard touchdown run.
That yards-per-attempt number is the one to sit with. Baltimore generated 155 air yards on 25 throws and 169 after the catch, which means the offense was creating explosives both ways. Two hundred and twenty-nine of his yards came in the first half. It was his tenth career 300-yard game.
He looked like a quarterback with no physical limitations, which hasn't always been true the last couple of seasons, and he ran the new system without any visible friction.
The one blemish was a strip-sack fumble in Baltimore's own territory that led directly to a Colts touchdown. Beyond that it was about as clean as a game gets.
Mark Andrews is the tight end again
Four catches for 49 yards.
That line doesn't look like much, and the afternoon started badly... his first target was a drop, and he drew a false start in the red zone early. But he settled in and finished as a real part of the offense in a game where Baltimore only threw it 25 times.
The context that matters is what happened around him. Zay Flowers went out at halftime, Ja'Kobi Lane went out with a wrist injury, and Rashod Bateman finished with zero catches on one target. Andrews was the pass catcher still standing, and he produced.
Rookie Matthew Hibner had a 13-yard catch-and-run and threw a big block on Henry's long touchdown, so there's some competition for snaps. But Andrews is the tight end in this offense again, and in a passing game this efficient that's worth having.
The two injuries that matter
Zay Flowers had five catches for 150 yards and the 54-yard touchdown, all of it in the first half, and then didn't play in the second half with a hamstring injury. He was ruled out during the third quarter.
That 150 is a career high, and he got there in two quarters. The touchdown was Lamar throwing around a defender with a sidearm delivery and Flowers weaving through the secondary. He also had a 49-yard gain on Baltimore's opening possession where he was tackled inside the five.
He was uncoverable. Then he was gone. Hamstrings are the injury you least want to guess at, and the only useful thing to do is watch the practice reports rather than project a timeline.
Ja'Kobi Lane injured a wrist and did not return. He had one catch for 11 yards and would have had his first career touchdown, but it came back on a holding penalty.
With both out, Chris Moore, elevated from the practice squad that morning, caught a 53-yarder and returned the opening kickoff 42 yards. That's the kind of thing that happens when an offense is rolling, and it's not something to chase.
The forward read on Baltimore's receiver room is that it's suddenly thin and the two healthiest options are a tight end and a player who was on the practice squad Saturday. Watch how that resolves.
Indianapolis was a mixed bag, and the mix wasn't good
Two hundred and fifty-one yards. Fifty-three plays. Twenty-four minutes and forty seconds of possession. Two turnovers. Shane Steichen heard boos at Lucas Oil Stadium and said afterward that the team wasn't good enough and that it starts with coaching.
Indy has now lost its opener in 11 of the last 13 years.
Jonathan Taylor does what Jonathan Taylor does
Nineteen carries for 98 yards and two touchdowns, plus receptions to bring him to 22 total touches.
Five point two a carry against a good defense, in a game his team trailed by 22 at halftime, and he still got 22 touches. That's the whole argument. Taylor owns this backfield, he gets the goal line work, and the volume holds up even in negative script.
The one mark against him was a lost fumble that led directly to a Baltimore score. That happens.
He's an obvious RB1 and the only thing on this offense you can count on. Everything else around him is the question.
Daniel Jones couldn't get the passing game going
Nineteen of 31 for 166 yards, one touchdown, one interception, a 72.8 rating. Four point five yards an attempt. Ninety air yards on 31 throws.
This was his first game since tearing his right Achilles in December, which is worth weighing. His receivers also dropped three passes, and he took two sacks behind a line that allowed nine quarterback hits.
But 4.5 an attempt is 4.5 an attempt, and the Colts scored 23 points in a game where two of their touchdowns came on one-yard and three-yard Taylor runs. Nothing about the passing game was exciting, and nothing about Jones suggests it's about to be.
He isn't a fantasy quarterback and the pieces around him depend on him becoming one.
Alec Pierce led the team and it still wasn't much
Sixty-one receiving yards, the most on the Colts.
Your instinct on why is probably right. Pierce missed all of training camp and the entire preseason recovering from offseason surgery, logged limited practices all week, and came into Sunday with his level of involvement openly uncertain. He played, he led the team in yardage, and he didn't look like the field-stretcher this offense needs.
Whether that's the old injury, rust from missing a full camp, or a passing game that couldn't protect long enough to throw deep is genuinely hard to separate. Probably some of each.
Keenan Allen caught six passes for 32 yards, which tells you exactly what kind of afternoon it was. Six receptions, 5.3 a catch.
Tyler Warren is good and it doesn't matter yet
Warren caught the nine-yard touchdown in the fourth quarter that briefly made it 38-23.
He's an excellent tight end. As a rookie he turned a team-high 112 targets into 76 catches for 817 yards and made the Pro Bowl, and with Michael Pittman Jr. traded to Pittsburgh he was supposed to inherit even more.
The problem is the one his rookie year already demonstrated. Warren averaged 61.7 receiving yards a game over Indy's first ten games and 28.6 over the last seven, and the dividing line was Daniel Jones getting hurt. His production is a function of the quarterback play, and Sunday was the low version.
He's a hold and a TE1 in the weeks this offense functions. Those weeks have to actually arrive.
Josh Downs was fine. In a game where the leading receiver had 61 yards, fine is about the ceiling.
What carries forward
Baltimore is the story. Henry at 24 carries and three scores, Lamar at 11.3 an attempt, an offense that put up 506 yards in a new coordinator's first game. The receiver room got thinner in a hurry, which makes Andrews more valuable and makes Flowers' hamstring the thing to track.
Indianapolis is one obvious asset and a lot of questions. Taylor is an RB1 without qualification. Jones, Pierce, Warren and Downs are all waiting on something that didn't show up in Week 1, and they're all waiting on the same thing.
Baltimore hosts New Orleans next. Indianapolis goes to Kansas City on Sunday night, which is not where you go to find your offense.