If you weren’t one of the five people outside the greater Baltimore and Cleveland areas who caught last night’s Monday Night Football game you missed a real barn burner.  Perhaps you tuned in for ESPN’s pregame coverage, which consisted of two hours of analysis on Bill Belichick’s decision to go for it on fourth and two and then switched the channel to ABC’s Dancing with the Stars. 

I appreciate a smash-mouth defensive contest more than most, but that was a hard game to watch.  In this instant gratification, offense-happy league I feel the Ravens’ style of play is often unfairly labeled as boring, but last night the Ravens perpetuated that stereotype.  Jack Lambert, Dick Butkus, and Mike Singletary with 150 hot wings and a keg of Schlitz couldn’t have enjoyed that game.

Cleveland’s offense is one of the worst professional units I’ve seen in a long time.  They don’t just lack talent; they lack organization, aggressiveness, and emotion.  You could see it in their eyes as soon as the Ravens scored their first points of the game…they were defeated.  The Ravens’ seven point lead might as well have been a 52 point lead, because the Browns had thrown in the towel. 

Coming into the game I honestly thought Brady Quinn would be the catalyst that sparked life into the Browns offense.  I believed that the Browns were the inferior team, but would give the Ravens a game, because - A. They have nothing to lose; B. Division games are often tough; and C. The Ravens were on the road in a prime time game…see our futile record on MNF.  Quinn managed to prove me wrong by throwing two picks and passing for less than 100 yards and a QB rating of 23.5. 

In all fairness to Quinn, it didn’t matter who was taking the snaps, because the Browns offense is fundamentally flawed.  The Browns have scored 78 points in nine contests this season…enough said.

Now that I’ve completely discredited the Browns’ offense let me address the Ravens’ offensive unit. 

This marked the second game in a row Cam Cameron has come up with a lemon.  The offense looked frantic and had no rhythm and I blame that on Cam’s play calling.  After starting the season off looking like an offensive juggernaut the Ravens have reverted back to the stone age (Stoney Case age) these past two weeks.  It’s tough playing on the road, but when you convert third downs at a 29% rate you’re not going to be successful offensively.  At least the Ravens won the time of possession and turnover battle against a one and seven team.  I still think Cam is one of the absolute best offensive coordinators in the league, but I think he needs to stop over thinking things. 

Shockingly enough I think the offensive line, a very promising unit, was the weak link in this game.  I give credit to a Rob Ryan defense that played very hard, but the Ravens’ O-line underachieved.  They didn’t blow people off the ball on running plays and Joe Flacco’s pocket clasped too quickly on most mid to long passing plays.  Cleveland’s front seven is the strength of the team, but I’m expecting this Ravens O-line to be dominant in the near future and they took a small step back this week. 

Steve Hauschka…oh Steven, we hardly knew yee.  You had a lot of potential, but your nerves got the best of you.  Mike Nugent, expect a call from Ozzie Newsome sometime this morning.  I just hope we can get Matt Stover back once Adam Vinatieri returns to the Colts.  I just mentioned way too many kickers in this paragraph. 

Silver lining time…The Ravens won the game!  The Ravens are five and four and while our upcoming scheduled looks like a death sentence we still control our own destiny. 

I thought Greg Mattison’s defense played well in light of the fact that they were playing the hapless Browns.  The secondary tackled extremely well for a change and Mattison did a good job using movement in his defensive front to disguise pressures. 

Lardarius Webb plays with the most hustle of anyone on the team, which is usually a trait of the less talented, but man does this guy have talent.  Webb is the same size as Fabian Washington and Domonique Foxworth and just as fast, but he plays with an aggression that is missing from those two. 

I think Jon Gruden put it best when he said that these next two weeks are when we find out about the Ravens.  Indy and Pittsburgh at home…it’s time to make a run.

~ Pat Cary

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 at 1:38 pm and is filed under AFC, AFC North, Baltimore Ravens, Cleveland Browns, Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.