Baltimore blown out in San Diego; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Before the game tonight even started, the Baltimore Ravens had secured a position in the playoffs for the 4th consecutive season. Had the Ravens won tonight, and their last two games against Cleveland and Cincinnati; Baltimore would have been the AFC’s overall number 1 seed when the post-season began.

With that at stake, it is hard to understand what we saw tonight from the Ravens in their 34-14 blow out loss to the Chargers. We knew San Diego was a talented team, capable of beating the Ravens. You have to give the Chargers some deserved credit for what they accomplished on the field. Still, Baltimore’s players and Coaching staff have to take a lot of deserved blame for not being competitive at all. Despite having beat Pittsburgh twice, the Ravens are now at risk of losing the division, and again having to go on the road for multiple games in the playoffs.

The Good:

1) Ray Rice and the Ravens had some immediate success, with Rice running 21 yards on his initial carry. This was followed by Flacco hitting Bolding for 33 yards on 3rd and 12. The drive would stall, and eventually come up empty when Cundiff missed his FG attempt, but it is always good to see the offense have early success moving the ball.

2) The Chargers would recover, but Cary Williams did a good job knocking the ball loose from Ryan Matthews on San Diego’s first series.

3) On the 2nd Ravens possession, Flacco missed Smith badly on a 2nd down, forcing the Ravens into 3rd and 10. On that 3rd down, Flacco took it upon himself to pick up the 1st, scampering for a 12 yard gain to the SD 29.
3a) Beautiful 15 yard strike from Flacco to Dickson to tie the game at 7. This was a good response to early adversity. Baltimore went 75 yards over 13 plays, on their 6 minute 14 second drive. The Ravens rushed for 49 yards on the possession.
3b) Facing 3rd and 10 on their 3rd possession, Flacco hit Smith on the outside for the 1st. Nice throw, better catch. Smith really showed his explosion on his TD, racing across the middle of the field.

4) Despite the 6 sacks allowed, multiple Ravens were pointed out for their blocking tonight, including Yanda, Leach, and Pitta. Special mention for Birk. I went into the year worried about how Birk would hold up, but the veteran Center has played well overall.

The Bad:

1) Strong opening drive from San Diego. Baltimore was pushed down the field, as the Chargers went 12 plays over 74 yards for the score. SD picked up a 3rd down to continue the drive, and scored on 3rd and Goal when the Ravens had a chance to limit the Chargers to a FG. The 7 minute drive included 5 San Diego 1st downs.

2) A Redding sack was wiped out on a Suggs penalty (head-slap).

3) Gates picked up 20 yards, when Lewis let him go in coverage. Lewis can’t possibly cover Gates 1×1 in coverage to begi with, where was the help?

4) Rivers missed the throw, but Vincent Jackson blew past Smith for what should have been a Chargers TD.

5) The Ravens 3rd drive ended when Flacco missed an open Ray Rice. That is a play that needed to be completed.

6) With Baltimore on their own 45 yard line and 2 seconds on the clock, there was not a lot of reason to have Flacco running around for his life as the 1st half ended.

7) Jammer missed a pick off a deflection, which he should have had. On the next play, Spikes would pick Flacco and run the ball back past midfield. The replay showed Flacco tried to force a play that was not there.

8) Down 31-7 in the 4th Quarter, the Ravens should have been using all 4 downs on offense. No reason to punt the ball, when you have had extreme difficulty stopping the opposing team at all.

9) After punting in the 4th, Baltimore did have SD starting within their own 5 yard line. Baltimore was not able to force a 3 and out and quickly get the ball back in good field position.

10) SD used multiple players to help take away Suggs. With all of the attention Suggs was receiving, why were plays not able to be made from the other side?

11) Lewis missed a tackle on Tolbert in the 4th.

12) Baltimore could not get off the field on 3rd down. The Chargers were 6 of 9 on 3rd down, and racked up over 400 yards of offense.

13) The Chargers came into the game tied for 28th in the league in sacks. Tonight SD got to Flacco 6 times.

The Ugly:

1) The Ravens missed a chance to take the initial 3-0 lead, when Cundiff could not hit from 36 yards out. It would be a reach to say Cundiff’s miss helped cause the Chargers initial TD, but it is fair to say it helped swing momentum back to the home team.

2) With just over 2 minutes left in the 1st half, Rivers found Jackson down the sidelines for 58 yards. The Ravens brought a blitz which was picked up in part by Gaither (who just ate up Lewis), and Williams was beat over the top down the field. This put San Diego in position to end the half with additional points, and grow the lead. A couple of plays later, Rivers would beat Williams again, finding Floyd for 19 yards to the Baltimore 1 yard line. Matthews would score on the next play. 7 plays, 80 yards, 2 minutes 52 seconds to basically end the 2nd Quarter.

3) San Diego received the ball to start the 2nd half, and again went right down the field for a score. The TD came on a 28 yard pass from Rivers to Floyd, with Smith being beat badly once again. Coming out of half-time, I was irritated by the lack of defensive adjustments. You were not getting pressure, so why put your CB’s in position to defend those big SD receivers in single coverage?

4) CB’s are going to have days where they are beat, especially when the front 7 is not getting pressure. We’ve seen talented Ravens CB’s (CMac, Starks) have days where they were beat badly. I do not recall ever seeing a game where a well regarded Baltimore CB (not Frank Walker) had such a rough night.

5) SD scored on their first five possessions. With all of the confidence and bravado of the Ravens defense, that is going to be hard to live with on the long plane ride home.

6) The best Tackle on the field was Gaither. Antwan Barnes entered the game with 7 sacks, and added 4 more. I hated losing both players, and said so at the times they left respectfully. Tough to watch former players have their way against you.