A last-minute drive for the Baltimore Ravens stalled today, and New England held onto a 27-21 victory. With the loss, Baltimore falls to 3-1 on the season.
The Ravens did not get the win, but they should have left the game today having learned some more about the team they are.
The Ravens are talented enough to suffer through a number of mental-errors and injuries, and still have an opportunity to win a road game against a talented-experienced team.
Joe Flacco’s maturation continues to be shown, as he showed little evidence of wilting under the pressure, during that final drive.
Baltimore gave away 3pts on the Opening Kickoff, and gave away another 3pts with Flacco’s pick at the end of the 1st-half.
The fact that they dealt with that adversity, and the injury to Jared Gaither; and still had a chance to win, is impressive.
The Good:
1) Flacco’s Opening and Closing drives were examples of a big-time QB.
2) Five different Raven players caught at-least 4 passes. (Mason, Rice, Clayton, Heap, Washington)
3) Ray Rice had 152 all-purpose yards, including a 50 yard-rush. He is tremendous in making plays in space.
4) The Suggs sack and strip of Brady was beautiful to watch. Edwards being able to retrieve the ball for a TD, is not a play that lots of players of that size are capable of.
5) The Ravens held Moss to 3 catches, and 50 yards. That is a win for the secondary. The fact that Welker was able to make plays underneath against the LB’s, is not a negative on the Ravens defense. Give credit to the opposition, a WR should beat a LB, and will when paired with a QB like Brady who gets rid of the ball quickly.
6) It will get lost because of the last-play, but Clayton did have 3 receptions for 30 yards during that last-drive.
7) The x-rays on Gaither’s neck came back as negative. It is always scary to see a player carted off, and it would be almost as scary to have seen the Ravens adjust to life without Gaither long-term.
The Bad:
1) Have to wonder how long Gaither is out, even with the x-rays coming back negative. My guess is that there is zero-chance of this coming weekend vs. Cincinnati. After-that, the Ravens will have to decide if they try and Gaither back for Minnesota, or if they keep him out of that game, so he can have nearly a month off, when factoring in the Week 7 bye.
2) In the 4th Quarter at the 7minute mark, the Ravens failed to convert 4th down on their own 45 yard-line. If the Ravens were going to go for it on 4th down, then they should have attempted to run McClain on at-least 3rd down. The Ravens defense wound-up stepping-up and forcing a punt, but I think going for it was a mistake. If the Patriots had converted one 1st-down, they could have kicked a field-goal, and effectively ended the game then.
3) Chris Carr’s muffed kick-return to start the game, put the Ravens on the defensive. He made a play later in the game as a defensive-back on Moss, but he was also replaced by Webb as the Kick Returner by games-end. For a player who has had so much past-success returning kicks, it is hard to understand Carr’s apparent lack of confidence.
4) Rice had 11 carries, McGahee had 5 rushes, and McClain had none. Considering Rice had over 100+ yards, it might have been worthwhile to continue to try and run the ball more often. 47 pass-attempts for Flacco seems a bit stubborn. As if the Ravens came into today, committed to passing the ball; and decided against diverting from their game-plan. Running the ball could have also helped with the time-of-possession, which the Ravens lost by nearly 10mts.
5) Welker was matched against a LB, or Safety too-often today. While you give credit to Brady’s release, and the NE scheme, an adjustment should have occurred.
6) The Flacco interception with a little over 1 minute left in the 1st-half should not have happen. The lack of communication cost the Ravens 3pts.
The Ugly:
1) You win as a team, and you lose as a team. There were plenty of plays that happened today which put the Ravens in poor position. That said, Clayton has to make that catch to end the last-drive.
The Ravens can take some solace in knowing they played basically even with NE in Foxboro, even without playing their best-game.
Still, the bottom-line is that Baltimore lost. This lost today could prove to be the difference between hosting the Patriots for a play-off game, and having to return to Foxboro in January.
If that occurs, at-least they will have had the experience of playing in Foxboro once-before.
Up-Next:
The attention better turn to Cincinnati pretty-quick. The Bengals are a freak-play away in Week 1, from being 4-0. They already have 2 division wins. Carson Palmer is not going to be intimidated lining-up against the Ravens. Chad ‘Ochocinco’ Johnson, Laveranues Coles, and Chris Henry are plenty-of-weapons to make life difficult for Baltimore. The Ravens will need to win this game at-home.
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.