The Ravens’ season-opening collapse won’t be soon forgotten, which is a minor annoyance in Owings Mills. The Ravens would rather leave Week 1 behind in Week 1.

“I think we flushed last week,” cornerback Marlon Humphrey said Wednesday, just three days after the team’s epic 41-40 loss to the Buffalo Bills, “and we’re on to things ahead.”

Hope hasn’t escaped the Ravens (0-1). For three-plus quarters Sunday night in Highmark Stadium, they looked like a juggernaut, a Super Bowl contender, a team that could beat anyone — certainly the Cleveland Browns (0-1), who’ll arrive in Baltimore on Sunday as double-digit underdogs.

Then the Ravens collapsed in the fourth quarter, again. And dreams of a fresh start inside M&T Bank Stadium were sullied with memories of what happened in Week 2 last year.

“Honestly, last week was last week,” safety Kyle Hamilton said Thursday. “Not too worried about it. Don’t forget it, but learn from it. We have the Browns this week, so it’s in the past. We’re getting ready to play a different game.”

It might not be as easy as it once looked. As the Ravens prepare for quarterback Joe Flacco’s return to Baltimore on a day teeming with history, here’s what to watch in the teams’ Week 2 matchup.

1. The best unit on the field Sunday should be the Ravens’ offense. The second best, though, could be the Browns’ defense, and it might not be far behind.

After a disappointing 2024, Cleveland restored its 2023 levels of dominance in a 17-16 loss Sunday to the Bengals. The Browns held Cincinnati to 141 yards of total offense (2.9 per play), limiting star quarterback Joe Burrow to one completion beyond 15 yards and running back Chase Brown to a game-high 8-yard run. The Bengals punted six times, a mark they eclipsed only once last season.

“Their mentality is that they don’t want to give you anything,” Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken said Thursday of Cleveland’s defense. “They’re a heavy man [coverage] team. They’re a heavy pressure team. They’ve got really good players and really good coaches. … You have to be able to run the football against these guys. You can’t just let them tee off and get after you. So, when they couldn’t run the football, that put [the Bengals] behind the eight ball."

The Browns’ defense finished Week 1 with the NFL’s stingiest explosive-play rate. The Ravens’ offense, meanwhile, finished with the league’s best explosive-play rate, paced by running back Derrick Henry, who had four runs of at least 15 yards.

He could have Grant Delpit in his crosshairs Sunday, after the Browns safety said Thursday it was “not hard” to bring down Henry. (“We’ll see on Sunday,” Henry said.) But the Ravens’ offensive success could hinge on two key matchups out wide: receivers Zay Flowers and Rashod Bateman against Cleveland cornerbacks Denzel Ward and Greg Newsome II, who helped hold Cincinnati stars Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins to five catches for 59 yards Sunday.

“The ball’s going to go where it’s going to go with [quarterback] Lamar [Jackson],” coach John Harbaugh said Wednesday. “That’s the kind of player he is. He kind of takes it where it needs to go a lot of times, and our guys understand that.”

2. In Week 1, running back Keaton Mitchell was the odd man out in the Ravens’ game plan, a healthy scratch because of special teams considerations. Could cornerback Jaire Alexander be the next surprise inactive?

Harbaugh said Wednesday that the “main thing right now is just to get him right.” Alexander, who missed over three weeks of preseason practice with a knee injury, struggled in his Ravens debut Sunday, allowing three catches on three targets for 83 yards in his 30 coverage snaps, according to Pro Football Focus. Over his career, he’s been an infrequent contributor on special teams.

“He’s healthy enough, but we have to get him right so he can go out there and play like Jaire Alexander, which I fully expect him to do,” Harbaugh said. “We’ll just give him an opportunity to do that.”

Alexander (knee) was limited in practice Wednesday before being upgraded to full participation Thursday. Defensive coordinator Zach Orr said Alexander, a standout in training camp, has been “flying around” and the team has “full confidence in him.”

Last year, however, Orr’s statements of support for struggling safety Marcus Williams went only so far. And, with the Ravens’ depth in the secondary, they can afford to take a patient approach with Alexander, who’s struggled with injuries since 2021. Chidobe Awuzie was solid as the No. 3 corner Sunday, and T.J. Tampa, rookie Keyon Martin or rookie Reuben Lowery III could step up in dime personnel (six defensive backs).

“He’s just going to continue to get better,” Orr said of Alexander. “I’m still excited and fired up about him. The team is, the organization is, and there’s no doubt in our mind that he’s going to be ready to go when it’s time.”

3. The Ravens’ takeaway drought started after their Week 18 win against Cleveland last season. And now they don’t have Michael Pierce to end it, either.

The mammoth nose tackle, who retired this past offseason, was the last Raven to force a turnover, picking off a pass from then-Browns starting quarterback Bailey Zappe late in their regular-season finale, a 35-10 win in Baltimore.

The Ravens’ two-game playoff run came and went last season without a takeaway. They left Week 1 with a couple of dropped interceptions, along with a forced fumble, but still no takeaways. How rare is a three-game drought in Baltimore? It last happened seven seasons ago, when the 2018 Ravens’ well went dry from Week 8 to Week 10.

Takeaways were a focus this offseason for the defense, which ranked 20th in the NFL last season (17). But, after a productive preseason, the Ravens forced Bills quarterback Josh Allen into making just one turnover-worthy play Sunday, according to PFF. Flacco had none against Cincinnati; both of his interceptions came on dropped passes.

“Historically, we’ve always been a pretty high-takeaway team, generally,” Harbaugh said before Week 1. “But last year was not good. We still overcame it and won a bunch of games. … I would say our goal every year — and this has been true for all these years — our goal is always to be the top takeaway team. That’s our goal, and that’ll be our goal again this year. And, if we achieve that goal, we’re going to be playing some really great defense.”

4. Myles Garrett nearly had a three-peat Sunday.

On a first-and-10 midway through the fourth quarter, the Browns’ star defensive end powered through Bengals left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. on a bull rush, shrugged off a late double-team block and dragged Burrow to the ground. On second-and-16, he got home again, taking advantage of a compromised pocket, a backpedaling Brown and an escaping Burrow. On third-and-21, Garrett worked around a chip block, looped around the line of scrimmage and was a half-second away from a third straight sack, only to watch defensive end Isaiah McGuire pull Burrow down near the goal line himself.

“There are a number of things that you have to do against any elite player — it doesn’t matter who that is,” Monken said. Garrett “just happens to be one of those elite players that you’ve got to do a great job [with] the modes you play in, the looks you give him and the help you’ve got to give your guys. That’s all part of it. That’s no different. And he’s an elite player. He’s going to wear a gold jacket. He’s hard to go against. He’s hard to prepare for, as the whole defense is.”

Garrett lined up almost exclusively against the left side of Cincinnati’s line. He played most of his snaps as a right-sided defensive end last year, too. But the six-time Pro Bowl selection could see right tackle Roger Rosengarten nearly as often Sunday as he sees left tackle Ronnie Stanley, if not more often.

In Week 18, when the Ravens limited Garrett to four pressures and two tackles, he lined up against the left side of the Ravens’ line 32 times and against the right side 24 times, nearly a season high, according to PFF. Stanley was the Ravens’ best offensive lineman Sunday against Buffalo, not allowing a pressure on 23 pass-blocking snaps. Rosengarten was less steady.

5. Only one player from the Ravens’ 2019 draft class is still in Baltimore — and it was a pick they might not have made without Flacco.

In February 2019, with Jackson entrenched as the Ravens’ starter, Flacco was traded to the Denver Broncos for a fourth-round pick. On Day 3 of Eric DeCosta’s first draft as general manager, after taking wide receivers Marquise “Hollywood” Brown and Miles Boykin and outside linebacker Jaylon Ferguson, the Ravens drafted running back Justice Hill No. 113 overall.

Hill’s first three years in Baltimore were bumpy. He missed the 2021 season with a torn Achilles tendon and had just two touchdowns entering the final year of his rookie contract. But Hill emerged as a reliable third-down back and now, after two extensions, is under contract through 2026. He had a career-high 611 yards from scrimmage and four touchdowns last year.

“He does everything for us, and he does it at an elite level,” assistant head coach and running backs coach Willie Taggart said last month. “Justice knows his role, and he plays his role to the best of his ability. He’s been great, not just as a player but as a teammate and bringing other guys along. I think he helped Derrick adjust last year when he came in to a new team, and Justice was right there with him. I personally say he was a big part of helping Derrick with his success and integrating with the team. He’s what you’re looking for in a football player and a teammate. He’s a heck of a football player.”