Baltimore beats Houston; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

Buoyed by the bye, the hope was that the Baltimore Ravens would use their fresh legs to run away from the Houston Texans.  That did not happen, as the Texans spent much of the game controlling both lines of scrimmage. However, the Ravens were able to do just enough to win 20-13. With the victory, Baltimore will now head to Foxboro to play the Patriots next Sunday for the AFC Championship, and an opportunity to reach Indianapolis for Super Bowl 46.

You can dissect this game all you want. What matters is that the Ravens are moving on.

The Good:

1) After the horrible kickoff coverage to start the game, the Ravens defense stepped-up by limiting the Texans to a FG. Baltimore was able to stop Foster on 3rd and 1, with Reed coming up to make the tackle.

2) On that remarkably poor play by Houston’s Jacoby Jones, Williams did an excellent job of pinning Jones’ arms back, and preventing him from recovering the ball.

3) Baltimore made the Texans pay for Jones’ mistake, by getting the TD, and not settling for a FG. Houston had made stops on 1st, and 2nd down, when Flacco found Wilson in the end-zone for the score. That play was improvmised, as Flacco made contact with Leach, which threw off the timing of an intended carry for Rice.

4) Boldin got good seperation on his initial catch, making the reception the back shoulder throw. Baltimore went up 17-3, when Boldin cashed in the field position from Webb’s interception. Boldin turned Jackson around on the play, and Flacco hit him perfectly. Boldin beat outstanding coverage from Jackson for a 28 yard gain, putting the Ravens into Houston territory with 2 minutes to go in the 1st half. With under 4 minutes left in the game, Boldin made another important catch, gaining 1st down on a 2nd and 9 slant.

5) Baltimore went up 10-3, when Cundiff hit from 48 yards out. As Flacco had been hit and fumbled on the previous play, it was good to see Cundiff pick-up his teammates and extend the Ravens lead. Cundiff again put the Ravens up 7 at 20-13, with his 44 yard FG in the 4th.

6) The Texans’ 3rd offensive series ended, when Lewis jumped the rout and got a deflection on 3rd and 6. Lewis helped force Houston to the sidelines (and settling for a FG) in the 2nd Quarter, when Lewis made a nice play shadowing Yates on 3rd down. In the 4th, he sniffed out the screen to Foster.

7) Webb’s first pick was partly the result of Yates locking-in on Johnson, and partly to the credit of Webb himself. The Baltimore CB had great 1×1 coverage on Andre Johnson on that play, and shieled the WR off to make the interception.
7a) Webb’s second pick was vitally important. He had great coverage on Walter underneath, and he made the play to give the ball back to the Ravens offense.

8) With about 3 and 1/2 minutes left in the 1st half, Ricky Williams picked up an important 3rd and 1.

9) Nice play from Flacco in the 3rd, avoiding the Texans pass rush and finding Pitta for the 1st down.

10) It was a lost year for Lee Evans. He pretty much made up for that with his 1 handed 30 yard catch on 3rd and 5. A beautiful catch, and a very important play.

11) The Ravens were up 17-13, with Baltimore facing 4th and Goal with under 2 minutes left in the 3rd Quarter. The fact that the Ravens could not punch it there was ‘Ugly.’ The fact that they went for it, was ‘Good.’ While a FG would have put the Ravens up a TD, a TD would have put the Ravens up by two scores. Harbaugh was right to give his offense the opportunity to score there.

12) Great open-field tackle from Pollard in the 4th.

13) The Ravens did not recover, but Ngata did his job forcing a Foster fumble in the 4th.

14) Baltimore’s 3rd down defense improved in the 2nd half, as did their rush defense.

15) After missing 2 picks earlier in the game, it was only appropriate for Reed to bounce back with his 8th post-season interception to effectively end this game. On Houston’s final offensive play, Reed sold out for the ball and appeared to hurt his leg or potentially his foot.

The Bad:

1) The Kickoff coverage to start the game was pretty much as bad as it gets. You wanted to put Yates in a difficult spot to begin the game. Instead you put him in good field position, and gave him a chance to build some early confidence.

2) Baltimore recovered, but Webb fumbled the Texans’ opening kickoff.

3) The Ravens 3rd series ended when Flacco and Dickson could not connect on 3rd and 5. Flacco’s pass needed to lead the TE, but was behind Dickson. Dickson still should have made the catch.

4) Reed mistimed his jump, and should have had the pick on the Houston attempt down the field to end the 1st Quarter. Things were made worse with Reed being shook-up when he hit the ground on the play. Reed was miss another interception later in the half.

5) On that series, the Texans picked-up multiple 3rd downs, culiminating in a FG to pull withing 11 at 17-6.

6) After reaching the Houston 33 with 2 minutes to play in the 1st half, the Ravens would go no further, and in-fact lose 8 yards when Flacco was sacked on 3rd down.

7) The Ravens were held scoreless in the 2nd and 3rd Quarters, after putting up 17 points in the 1st. They went 7 consecutive possessions without scoring.

8) Baltimore went to the half, with Rice having just 8 carries, and 2 receptions.

9) We will discuss the Ravens inability to stop the Texans rushing offense below, but almost as important was the lack of a Baltimore pass-rush.  With play-action and zero pass rush to be afraid of, Yates was able to step-up in the pocket and make some throws.

10) The first Baltimore possession of the 2nd half ended with Flacco being sacked. Flacco had a ton of time to find a WR, but nobody was able to get open.

11) I did not like Webb’s fair catch to end the 3rd Quarter. Baltimore took over at mid-field, but it appeared that Webb gave up the opportunity to pick up some additional yards.

12) From the 1st game, Houston made the adjustment to place Joseph on T. Smith. Smith was blanketed all day, and did not have a catch until under 6 minutes left in the game.

The Ugly:

1) Up 17-3, the Ravens appeared to be in complete control. Houston was able to get back in the game with their rushing offense. The Ravens defense is always predicated to stopping the run. Foster and the Texans were punching the Baltimore defense right in the mout. The Texans closed the game to 17-13, when they capped of a 12 play, 5 minute 49 second, 86 yard drive, with a Foster TD. At the half, Foster already had 95 yards on the ground, and another 29 yard receiving.

2) Baltimore’s offensive line had a poor game, with pretty much every player on the line getting physically beat by their Houston opponent. Clearly the defining play for the line was their inability to move the Texans D-line on 4th and Goal in the 3rd.