Returning from their bye, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Miami Dolphins 26-10 at M&T Bank Stadium.

With the victory, the Ravens moved to 6-2 overall, and 4-0 in the friendly confines of home. The Dolphins might not agree with the premise of Baltimore being friendly, as they entered this game 4-0 on the road.

Further improvement is going to be necessary for this team to get where they ultimately want to go, but if you are complaining about a lopsided win over a decent team; than life is pretty good.

The Good:

1) Despite his bobble, seeing David Reed back to return the opening kickoff was the first thing I was excited to see.

1a) With Stallworth returning to action today, the chances of D. Reed impacting the receiving game are even further decreased. Due to that, Reed getting an extended opportunity in the return game is the best use of the roster.

2) Have to give some credit to Miami for their shoddy tackling, but the opening Touchdown to McGahee was fun to watch. He made some people miss, and provided the immediate reminder that he needs to be part of this offense.

3) The Ravens had 402 yards of total offense, and dominated the time of possession holding the ball for over 38 minutes.

4) McGahee’s TD was set-up with by a 23 yard strike from Flacco to Houshmandzadeh. It

5) Nice pick and return from Webb. He might not be all the way back from his leg injury, but he is close. It is my belief (and the friends I was with today) that Webb’s future will include multiple Pro Bowl appearances.

6) Suggs delivered a good sack on 3rd and 8 for Miami. The Dolphins knew the pass-rush was coming, but still could not block Suggs. I thought Suggs was particularly active today, and had one his better games of the year. This has to become a common occurrence down the stretch.

7) Obviously Flacco and Rice were in-sync today with their screens. Rice was gobbling up yards after the catch, and Flacco was doing a good job of allowing the plays to develop before getting the ball to Rice. Rice finished the day with 29 touches for 180 yards. Flacco was 20 for 27 and completed passes to 6 different receivers.

8) After Miami ran the ball down the Ravens throat on their opening drive, Baltimore’s defense responded. The Dolphins did average 4.3 yards a carry, but they were held to just 73 yards rushing (most of which came early).

9) 2 Games played for Ed Reed and he has 3 picks. How many Ravens fans let out a collective sigh of relief when he did not lateral the ball on his interception return?

10) Cundiff had another strong game with his kickoffs.

11) Josh Wilson ended the game with a pick, that prevented the Dolphins from putting up further yardage or garbage time points.

The Bad:

1) The Ravens offense handed the Ravens defense a 7 point lead right-away, and the defense immediately was put on their heels by the Dolphins. There was no trickery here, no Wildcat offense. This was straight ahead, hat-on-hat rushing straight up the middle. Either credit the Ravens coaches for making adjustments, or credit the Dolphins coaches for giving up on their rushing offense too early – either way that opening Dolphins drive was not want you were looking to see coming off of the bye.

2) To start the 2nd Quarter, the Ravens offense faced 3rd and 1 at the Dolphins 7 yard line. I liked the call to get McClain the carry. I disliked the play that was called. The Ravens like to give the ball to McClain with inside hand-offs. He is a better runner in single-back, I formation runs where he gets a head of steam.

2a) I wish the Ravens would return to using their Jumbo package more often, with the additional tackle. Run the ball down the throat of the opposition, and take away their will.

3) Minutes after his interception, Webb was back returning a punt. Does our best starting CB really need to return punts, coming off of an ACL injury?

4) The Ravens gave up 4 sacks today. Not all of that is on the pass-blocking, as I thought Flacco held the ball a bit long a few times. Still, the Ravens (and Peter King’s pick for All-Pro at RT Marshall Yanda) did have trouble with the speed of Cameron Wake off the edge.

5) Another game where Housmandzadeh got involved with the offense early, and went missing the rest of the day.

The Ugly:

1) After Webb’s interception, the Ravens started on the Dolphins 4 yard-line. Flacco was sacked twice in that series, and the Ravens also had a 5 yard penalty. The Ravens than proceeded to blow their opportunity at a FG when Koch dropped the snap. This was a series of ugly play-calling and poor execution.

Up-Next:

The Ravens return to action quickly, facing the 6-2 Falcons in Atlanta this Thursday. The NFC South leading Falcons beat Tampa 27-21 today. With the win, Atlanta moved to 4-0 at the Georgia Dome.

Matt Ryan, Michael Turner, Roddy White, Tony Gonzalez, and Michael Jenkins is plenty of offensive fire power to deal with. Preparing for them will be even more difficult due to the short-week.

Chris Stoner
Chris Stoner

Owner

Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.

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