Ravens Steamroll Pats

I wasn’t one of the few and proud that predicted the Ravens to beat the Patriots on Sunday.  I said on air that if both teams played their best games that the Ravens would win a close one.  I didn’t; however, think that the Ravens could overcome the variables they faced: the Patriots mystique; the preferential treatment Tom Brady gets from the refs; and the self inflected mental mistakes that have been a reoccurring theme this season.  The Ravens not only turned in their best and most complete performance of the year, they trounced Patriots in what some NFL analyst are calling the end of New England’s dynasty. 

The Ravens scored on their first play from scrimmage then immediately turned the Pats over on their fist defensive series and scored again.  The Ravens defense turned Brady over in three of the Patriots first four offensive series en route to scoring 24 first quarter points.  After the first quarter barrage the Pats never came within 13 points of the Ravens.  The halftime score should have been 24-0, but John Harbaugh failed to challenge a bad referee call that awarded the Patriots a fumble recovery off a New England punt.  At 27-13 in the third quarter the Ravens faithful must have felt a little uneasy, but those fears were short-lived as the offense continued to pound the ball and control the clock.

There’s something so beautiful about watching a team impose their will on an opponent.  The Ravens were going to run the ball, everyone watching the game knew that and still the Patriots couldn’t stop them.  Joe Flacco attempted ten passes!  Ten passes – high school quarter backs regularly attempt more passes than that.  The 234 rushing yards the Ravens put up is just as much a testament to the offensive line as it is to the running backs, because they smashed the Pats’ defensive front without a passing game. 

In addition to the outstanding offensive line play I thought the defense turned in their best performance of the year.  The much maligned defensive backfield deserves a lot of praise for how they played on Sunday.  Ray Lewis played an outstanding game and led all defenders with 13 tackles, but I thought the best tackler on the field Sunday was Domonique Foxworth.  Foxworth whose 5’11″, 175, and known to be a suspect tackler at times recorded ten tackles (nine solo) and prevented a number of five yard receptions from being 15 yard receptions as he shutdown Randy Moss. 

Greg Mattison put together a great defensive scheme and called an excellent game as well.  He dropped a lot of defenders into pass coverage, but was still able to sack Brady three times.  You never want to see Tom Brady stand comfortably in the pocket, but the Ravens coverage held up and made Brady pay by intercepting him three times.  Frank Walker even had a good game! 

Boomer Esiason, Mike Greenberg and some other NFL analyst discredited the Ravens’ performance by saying that there must be something wrong with Tom Brady.  Yeah there was something wrong with Tom Brady; he went up against a Ravens defense that still knows how to hit people in the mouth.  I’m not denying that Brady is banged up, but who isn’t?  From week 13 (when Brady supposedly sustain his rib injury) through week 17 the Pats were 3-2 Brady threw eight touchdowns to five interceptions and averaged a 90.8 QB rating.  Those numbers aren’t stellar, but they certainly don’t jump off the page indicating that there is something really wrong with the golden boy.  As much as I hate Bill Belichick I’ll have to say that he gave the Ravens their due when he said that they were the better team in all facets of the game.  

So it’s onto Indianapolis for the Ravens where they’ll try and exercise another skeleton from their closet.  In week 11 of the regular season the Ravens held Peyton Manning and the Colts to 17 points, but narrowly lost the game.  The Ravens didn’t sack Manning on that day, but forced him in two interceptions and somewhat contained the hall of fame quarterback.  This time the Ravens will be on the road and they’ll most certainly be underdogs, but that’s just how they like it. 

Alive And Kicking

All you have to do is qualify for the playoffs and you have a one in six chance of making it to the Super Bowl.  That’s about 17%, but I think the Ravens are collectively pleased with those odds, especially considering the peaks and valleys they’ve experienced this season.   By mid November the playoffs seemed like a long shot for this team, but despite the grim outlook the Ravens never gave up.  Harbaugh’s group continually played hard, although not always smart, and ultimately earned the right to compete for a championship. 

Now the Ravens are in the playoffs and heading north to take on Brady and Belichick.  The Pats are the team of the decade with three rings and a perfect regular season under their belts, but they aren’t in the best shape heading into this playoff season.  The Pats will be without pro bowl wide receiver Wes Welker, who likely tore both his left ACL and MCL in yesterday’s loss to the Texans.  You never want to see a guy suffer a knee injury of that nature, because there is always a chance that it’s career altering (i.e. Daunte Culpepper).  That being said, the absence of Welker is a huge benefit for a Ravens’ secondary that’s depleted with knee injuries of their own.  In addition to Welker’s injury it’s reported that Tom Brady has been playing with three broken ribs since week 13.  

In stop-and-go action against the Texans Brady looked pedestrian, throwing a pick and registering a passer rating of 70.4.  I would venture to say that part of the reason for Brady’s poor play can be attributed to him being pulled and then reinserted into the game; however, the rib injury could have certainly factored into his performance.  Broken ribs make breathing uncomfortable, so I can’t imagine how it would feel to riffle a football twenty-six times with three of them. 

Regardless of the injuries the Patriots are a very tough draw, especially in Foxborough.  The Ravens have never beaten the Patriots.  In five contests the average margin of defeat has been just under a touchdown and the last two contests saw the Pats edge out the Ravens by three and six points respectively.  I’m certain that Ravens fans remember the primetime game against the Pats in 2007 (the Bart Scott flag throwing incident) and the contest just a couple months ago (the Mark Clayton 4^th down drop) all too well. 

Personally, I would rather the Ravens play the Bengals in the first round after, especially after their performance last night against the Jets.  I realize the Bengals didn’t have much to play for and they didn’t want to tip their hand to their round one opponent, but they really looked terrible last night.  You never want to enter the playoff off of a 37-0 shellacking where your starting quarterback throws as many completions to the opposite team as he does to his own receivers.  The Bengals also would have difficulty beating the Ravens three times in one season.

Side note: I still think the Jets are a pretender with their limitations at quarterback, but they can run the ball and play defense and that is a dangerous combination.  Cincinnati isn’t exactly a menacing place for the opposition, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Jets advance to the second round.    

If the Ravens want to beat the Pats this weekend their going to have to continue to run the ball well and stop the run.  They’re also going to have to have Chris Carr and Frank Walker step up.  Carr has played relatively well these past two weeks, while Frank Walker has been shaky, but not terrible.  I’d like to see Corey Ivy get in the mix more.  He had a tipped pass yesterday and could be effective as a nickelback.  Another key to victory will be improved play from the passing game, all aspects.  The line needs to pick up the blitz better; Flacco needs to think quicker under pressure; and the receivers need to get separation.  Oh and how could I forget – we need to pray that Billy Cundiff improves significantly in a week.  I realize that long snapper Matt Katula had a terrible day, but those kicks weren’t even close.  The Ravens recently signed long snapper Nick Sundberg to their practice as an insurance policy.  Perhaps it’s time to cash insurance policy in, because I don’t see the Ravens signing a third kicker this season. 

It should be a wild playoff season.

Self Inflicted Wounds Kill Ravens

Yesterday’s game marked the third time in two seasons that a John Harbaugh led team thoroughly out played the Pittsburgh Steelers, but managed to lose the game. 

Three touchdowns…three touchdowns were negated by careless penalties or lack of concentration.  “T. Sizzle” went from being unproductive to downright detrimental when he carelessly and unnecessarily blocked a Steeler in the back during Domonique Foxworth’s interception return for a score.  Kelley Washington blatantly held a Pittsburgh defender during a Willis McGahee TD scamper, when his block was not necessary for the score.  And ole reliable, Derrick Mason, dropped a TD pass that a decent high school receiver could have caught.    

If you told me that the Ravens were going to outrush the Steelers by 127 yards; win the turnover and time of possession battles; and hold Big Ben to under 260 passing yards I would venture to say that they would be 9-6 and assured a playoff berth.  Good teams don’t lose in that scenario. 

Yesterday’s game was a microcosm of the Ravens’ 2009 season…a talented team that doesn’t play like a cohesive unit.  Undisciplined is another word you could use to describe this bunch that continually produces double digit penalty flags.  It’s hard enough to win in the NFL and this team isn’t good enough to give their opponents 100 plus penalty yards on a regular basis.  The Ravens’ dominant third quarter performance gave a glimpse of how good this team could be, but their fourth quarter self-imposed meltdown was more indicative of their true identity. 

My biggest concern going into the game was the ability of the Ravens makeshift secondary to stop Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh aerial attack.  The absence of Ed Reed for the fourth straight week didn’t help to ease my mind, but I have to say that the DB’s held their own.  I realize that Frank Walker’s late pass interference call negated Tom Zbikowski’s INT and effectively ended the game, but that’s not why the Ravens lost this one.  The DB’s and the defense as a whole played well and put the Ravens in a position to win on the road. 

I think the biggest help to the secondary was the pressure that the defense was able to apply.  Pittsburgh’s offensive line is not the strong suit of the team, but the same could be said for the Ravens’ defensive line.  The four sacks registered by the Ravens on Sunday was a lofty total compared to their normal output and helped keep the Steelers passing attack in check.  That being said, there were times that Roethlisberger had all day to sit in the pocket and surprisingly the coverage was able to hold up fairly well. 

To be honest I gave the Ravens little chance of coming out of Western PA with a victory, so I guess I can take some solace in the fact that they outplayed the Steelers.  If the Ravens had to lose that game I’d rather them lose it the way they did rather than be completely outmatched. 

As disheartening as the Ravens’ latest performance was they still manage to find themselves in the driver’s seat needing only a win over the 5-10 Oakland Raiders to assure them a wildcard spot.  The Ravens need to soundly beat the Charlie Frye or JaMarcus Russell led Raiders, so they can have some momentum going into the playoffs.  No one will call the Ravens a Super Bowl contender, but I assure you that they are a scary team to face when playing well.