Ravens fall to 3-3; The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The Baltimore Ravens scored 21 Fourth Quarter points, but lost 33-31, when their last-second Field Goal attempt was missed.

The Ravens have to evaluate plenty of other things that went wrong today, but the bottom-line is that they made the decision go with Kicker Steve Hauschka, and Hauschka just missed the first-pressure kick of his career.

Considering the come-back made by Baltimore, it is extremely deflating that Hauschka was not able to put the winning points on the board.

Cincinnati lost at-home to Houston today, to fall to 4-2, but Pittsburgh beat Cleveland to improve to 4-2. At 3-3, Baltimore is a full-game behind their division rivals, with the loss on the books at-home to the Bengals.

Minnesota took control of the game early today, with 14 First-Quarter points. In-fact, their initial drive was helped out by a short-kick from Hauschka.

Hauschka ended the first-half with a FG, as the Ravens went to the locker-room at half-time down 14-3.

With 10:08 left in the 4th Quarter, the Vikings were leading 27-10. Flacco was able to manufacture a 90 second-drive, resulting in a 32 yard strike to Clayton in the end-zone. Minnesota returned the favor with a FG of their own to take a 30-17 lead, wth 6 mts left. In 45 seconds, the Ravens had engineered another TD drive, with Mason scoring on a 12-yard pass.

The defense forced a 3 and out, which included Ray Lewis dropping Farve for a tremendous sack. With 3:37 left in the 4th, Baltimore took their first-lead of the game, when Ray Rice ran 33 yards untouched into the end-zone.

Farve pulled out some of his old magic, rolling-out and throwing deep, again hitting Sidney Rice down the field. Frank Walker manged to grab Rice’s jersey the last 5 yards of the pattern, but could still not defend the pass. Longwell knocked through the go-ahead (and what proved to be the winning) FG with just under 2mts left.

The Ravens made the plays necessary to give Hauschka a 44-yard attempt indoors for the win, but Hauschka could not convert.

As many of us said during the pre-season, this season could only be called a success for the Ravens if it resulted in a Super Bowl. When those are the expectations, going with a 2nd-year kicker trying to establish himself, over one of the most accurate kickers ever, was a mistake. If Hauschka cost you a game, it would be too late to correct that decision.

Hauschka missed the kick, and the Ravens have to live with the decision they made. It would be easier to take, if Hauschka was actually providing a significant improvement on Kickoffs (a long-term weakness of Stover) but he is not.

The Good:

1) The Ravens were down 14-0, and 27-10 in the 4th Quarter. To come-back against an undefeated team in their home-stadium, with those deficits, and have an opportunity to win; says a lot about the character of this team.

2) Flacco threw for 385 yards, and was able to continue to make plays in the face of pressure. Considering the adversity he was facing, and the injuries he was dealing with during the game, I think today was his most impressive career outing.

3) Ray Rice had 117 yards receiving, and 77 yards rushing, with 2 TD’s. Forget the comparisons to Maurice Jones-Drew, Rice is looking more like Thurman Thomas.

4) Oher had a few problems with crowd-noise, but I think he deserves credit for his work on Allen. Allen finished with 1 sack, but Oher was able to limit Allen from controlling the game.

5) The Ravens got contributions from a number of receivers today. Mason had 97 yards, and a TD. Clayton had 57 yards, and a TD. Heap and Washington both had at-least 48 yards, and Williams made a crucial reception when Washington was hurt.

6) One of the reasons the Ravens wound up having a chance to get back into the game, was because Webb kept providing solid field-position. In Webb’s 7 Kick-returns, he averaged 23.6 yards, including a 40 yard return.

7) Gooden showed his athleticism in running down Peterson in the 4th quarter. Keeping Peterson out of the end-zone, allowed the Ravens to have a chance to win.

8) I thought Harbaugh showed good clock-management late in the 4th, using the 3rd timeout with Minnesota facing 3rd and 9. It allowed the Ravens to get the ball with basically the last 2mts remaining.

9) I thought Trevor Pryce had one of his more effective games as a pass-rusher in some-time. I thought Dwan Edwards getting some-time as an edge-rusher also helped. McKinney added some bulk in the middle.

10) Ellerbe made a sweet-tackle on Peterson.

11) Grubbs, Birk, and Chester improved as the game progressed.

The Bad:

1) Carr is no-longer returning kicks, and is a liability in pass-defense. I was excited about his addition for Special Teams, but he has not helped at all.

2) Farve has long-used his TE, which made think that Visanthe Shiancoe could be a factor today. The Ravens looked completely unprepared for how to defend him.

3) The NFL is a copy-cat league. Foxworth, and Washington have good speed, and are decent cover-corners. Neither one is elite. Neither one is able to defend bigger receivers like Sidney Rice who ate the Ravens alive. Neither one is totally to blame, when the pass-rush is so inconsistent.

4) The Ravens had 3 sacks today, but they are simply not getting to opposing Quarterbacks enough. Beyond sacks, you have to get hits. Farve was able to step up into the pocket way too often today. The best speed rusher is Antwan Barnes, who I do not believe played today. The Ravens spent a 2nd-round pick on Paul Kruger. He might not have the LB skills you want him to have, but they need to take advantage of the pass-rushing skills that they saw when they drafted him.

5) In the pre-game, Dierdorf and Gumble related the story of Harbaugh telling them the Ravens had to rush the ball today, to be able to win. Rice, McGahee, and McClain had a combined 18 carries. McGahee now has a combined 20 carries in the past 4 games. McClain now has 15 carries total in 6 games. The Ravens have got away from the formula that propelled them deep into the 2008 playoffs.

The Ugly:

1) The Ravens allowed 167 yards rushing to the Vikings today. Yes, 84 of those yards came on two carries, but they still count. At their best, the Ravens are built as a team capable of running the ball and stopping the run. For the Ravens to get back to the playoffs, they are going to have to eliminate the run week-in, and week-out the rest of this season.

2) The missed FG is not the only reason the Ravens lost today. You can not put 60mts of football on Hauschka’s shoulders (or leg) alone. That said, that kick is the difference of completing a great-comeback and being 4-2, and Baltimore losing their 3rd-straight game to fall to 3-3. The Ravens now head to their bye, needing to likely go 7-3 down the stretch to again make the playoffs.

Up-Next: Bye

The remaining schedule is:

Denver
@Cincinnati
@Cleveland
Indianapolis
Pittsburgh
@Green Bay
Detroit
Chicago
@Pittsburgh
@Oakland

The Ravens absolutely must win their next 3 games. You do that, you are 6-3. You would have beaten Denver at-home in a game that could have post-season implications. You would have equalized the home-loss to the Bengals.

After that, I would expect Baltimore to lose to Peyton Manning and the Colts. You can split the next two-games, preferably beating Pittsburgh at home.

Detroit has some good young-players, and I respect Jay Cutler; but the Ravens should beat both Detroit and the Bears. In my-mind that gets the Ravens to 9-4 heading into the last two-weeks of the season.

Baltimore can clearly win at Pittsburgh, but the expectation has to be a loss. That means 9-5 heading to Oakland with the playoffs on the line. If the Ravens can not win that game, they do not deserve to make the playoffs.

At 10-6, Baltimore likely gets in, but it will be close. It also likely means that the Ravens would have to win 3 playoff games to get to the Super Bowl.