The Ravens struggled to move the ball, but explosive plays in the running game and on special teams carried them to a 24-16 victory in their preseason opener against the Indianapolis Colts. Here are five things we learned from the game.

Keaton Mitchell really is back

Mitchell has commanded plenty of attention this summer, with teammates and coaches testifying to the third-year running back’s reborn burst.

He played tentatively last season after climbing back from the terrible knee injury that cut short his tantalizing 2023 debut. The guy who’d averaged 8.4 yards per carry as a rookie managed just 30 on 15 carries in five games.

In retrospect, it was about what we should have expected. Running backs often need two years to regain full quickness and confidence in the wake of an ACL repair, and besides, Mitchell didn’t receive many opportunities playing behind Derrick Henry and Justice Hill.

Nonetheless, Mitchell entered Thursday’s preseason opener looking for a signature moment to confirm that he really is back. He found it on the Ravens’ second drive, when he bounced off right end and covered 23 yards before the Colts knew what hit them. Two plays later, he accelerated through a gaping hole, again on the right side, and churned until he crossed the goal line for a 22-yard score.

Here again was the guy who looked like he’d beamed in from a video game when he gave the Baltimore offense a jolt midway through the 2023 season.

Mitchell said he kept faith throughout his grueling rehabilitation, that even before Thursday night, he believed he was a better all-around athlete than he had been before his knee gave out.

Still, he hadn’t tasted the end zone in a long time.

“Obviously, it felt great,” he said.

Mitchell will enhance the Ravens’ kickoff return game but still faces an uphill push for offensive snaps given Henry’s greatness and Hill’s all-around utility as a third-down back. If he’s a threat to turn simple plays into touchdowns, however, offensive coordinator Todd Monken will find a way.

The Ravens found themselves a punt returner

LaJohntay Wester teased the home crowd before bringing it to ecstasy.

The first time the rookie return specialist fielded a punt, he collided with a teammate before breaking free for 17 yards. That play would have been enough to enhance Wester’s case for a showcase special teams role. He sprinted up to catch the ball confidently — always the first trait Ravens coach John Harbaugh looks for in a returner — before turning a potential calamity into excellent field position for his team.

It was merely an amuse-bouche.

The next time Wester caught a punt, he again danced and stiff-armed his way through traffic. He did not stop until he reached the end zone, 87 yards later.

The Ravens drafted the 5-foot-9, 170-pound Wester in the sixth round precisely because his college tape suggested he could produce such magic. As a wide receiver, he’s an undersized long shot. But they needed a punt returner to bring pyrotechnics back to a unit that fell flat in 2024.

Wester’s confidence borders on cockiness, and that’s no bad thing in a job that rewards boldness. Before his debut, he called his father to say, “I feel one comin’.” He told Mitchell the same.

“Oh my God,” Mitchell said. “He said he was going to take one to the crib, and he did it. … He’s definitely going to make something happen in this league as a returner.”

Did Wester need a spectacular return to prove to himself that his words were more than empty boasts? No sir. His college coach, Deion Sanders, always told him, “It’s your world back there,” and Wester believed.

“If you know me, you know I always have confidence,” he said.

Though Wester faces competition from Dayton Wade and Anthony Miller, it’s hard to imagine he didn’t win a job with those two returns. He got the first shot, and he couldn’t have done more with it.

Tyler Loop missed, but he didn’t fail

The rookie kicker had owned M&T Bank Stadium four days earlier, hyping up an enthusiastic crowd as he bombed field goals from 60 and 56 yards in a showcase practice session.

Harbaugh gave Loop an A++ grade for that outing. “So happy for him,” he said. “Just for him to get through that, and now he knows ‘Hey, you know you can do it, and you know how to do it, just like that.’”

With his camp competitor, John Hoyland, out of the picture, Loop’s path to succeeding Justin Tucker seemed unimpeded.

One caveat: he needed to remain accurate under the pressure of game conditions.

Which was why the home crowd fell stone silent in the third quarter after Loop’s 46-yard attempt hooked wide left — the direction that bedevils him — against the Colts.

One errant swing of his mighty right leg — distance is never Loop’s problem — seemed to introduce new uncertainty.

Harbaugh didn’t see it that way. To his eye, it was more important that the rookie bounced back to split the uprights from 52 yards in the fourth quarter and that he struck the ball well all evening.

“I know what happened on that kick,” Harbaugh said of Loop’s miss. “I thought the way he responded was really good.”

Loop earned another passing grade, he added, even if it wasn’t an A++.

So don’t expect to see a more seasoned kicker in camp next week. Loop’s highlights have outweighed his misfires, and Harbaugh sounded more confident, not less, after the rookie’s imperfect preseason debut.

Malaki Starks keeps looking the part

This is a bit of a strange compliment, but Starks has stood out by not standing out through the first few weeks of training camp. As a rookie taking his snaps with the first team, he has simply belonged.

That jibes with his profile as a first-round pick coming out of Georgia, where he progressed seamlessly from five-star recruit to three-year starter for one of the nation’s top programs.

With Ar’Darius Washington recovering from a torn Achilles, the Ravens don’t just want Starks to plug in as a starting safety next to Kyle Hamilton; they need him to.

Starks didn’t do anything spectacular in his preseason debut against the Colts. The rookie wasn’t even the most productive player at his position. Beau Brade led the Ravens with three tackles in the first half, making a case that he needs to be on the 53-man roster, competing with Sanoussi Kane for snaps.

But Starks did pounce on tight end Tyler Warren, Indianapolis’ first-round pick, to limit him to a six-yard gain in the first quarter. On the next play, he lined up wide to cover Warren one-on-one and afforded him zero breathing room.

He played like he was born to patrol the back line of an NFL defense, and that’s the point with Starks. He seems comfortable doing anything and everything the Ravens ask of him.

Fellow rookie Teddye Buchanan was asked about Starks’ work as a communications hub for the defense. He sounded like he was describing a 10-year veteran.

“He knows what he’s doing,” Buchanan concluded.

The jury’s out on whether Cooper Rush is a significant upgrade

The Ravens signed Rush to a two-year deal believing that he’d be a steadier hand backing up Lamar Jackson than Josh Johnson or Tyler Huntley were the previous three seasons.

It’s inherently difficult to judge the value of an insurance policy, because the goal is never to need it. Only an injury to Jackson, the ultimate crisis, would give Rush a true chance to assert his importance in Baltimore.

That said, his interception on the second play of Thursday’s game continued an uneven summer for the eight-year veteran. Rush has made some splendid throws in training camp practices. On other days, he hasn’t fired more accurately or led the offense more efficiently than the well-traveled Johnson did last year.

The Ravens passed for just 59 yards against the Colts, and Harbaugh jokingly asked if a team had ever won a preseason game with so few.

Does that mean the Ravens aren’t getting their desired payoff for investing more in Jackson’s backup?

It’s premature to say based on a quarter of preseason action. Coaches have expressed nothing but satisfaction with Rush’s professionalism, and he did lead the Ravens to a touchdown on their second drive against the Colts.

“I feel good about Cooper,” Harbaugh said.

Rush started eight games with the Dallas Cowboys last year and won four of them, a record that by itself makes him more qualified than many NFL backups.

“Well, he just gets it,” Monken said recently. “When I was in Tampa, we tried to get him there. But we were pretty loaded at quarterback. We thought we were going to get him, and you don’t make it as long as [he has] without understanding, one, what’s asked of you through your system and yet knowing your liabilities as a player. And I think he’s maximized that. I mean, he knows where to go with the ball, knows when to get it out on time, knows when to protect himself [and] understands concepts. That’s what makes him a true pro.”

Reassuring words about a player who’s meant to offer reassurance.

No matter what Rush does the rest of preseason, the Ravens have already bought in. Will their faith be rewarded? They hope they’ll never have to find out in a game that matters.