Ravens Fast Five: As if the Holidays Aren’t Stressful Enough…

Discuss your thoughts on the Ravens dropping to 6-4 with their lost to the Titans on our message board.

Game felt like two conservative teams, and one just had to win, just because.

I’m still trying to wrap my head around this game. It felt like with the Ravens 21-10 lead, it was almost in the bag. When the Titans were deep in Ravens territory and they opted not to use Derrick Henry on three downs and then kick a field goal, seemed like a conservative choice that greatly favored Baltimore.

At that point with about 11 minutes left in the game, the Ravens needed one of those drives where they chew up around seven or eight minutes, answer with a field goal at minimum, and force the Titans into a touchdown AND two-point conversion scenario just to force overtime.

The Ravens gave the ball back quickly. The game was put into Lamar Jackson’s hands late in the game deep in Titans territory. 3^rd down on the 8 yard line, I wanted to the best athlete on the field try to score. Designed run on 3^rd down would have been ideal, and if didn’t make it, then you kick the field goal and go to OT. If he makes it, you essentially win the game. Instead, Jackson rolled out, looking for a receiver, taking half the field out of play, had to throw the ball away. Kick the field goal but settled for it instead of trying to win. Just, not what I would have down with Tennessee having momentum.

Head games before the game.

If you have watched the Ravens these last few weeks, you can tell the discipline has not been there. Bad penalties, the preventable kind. Late hits that aren’t necessary. Extra curriculars after the play. Contacting referees. It has been sloppy.

The Titans tried to get under the Ravens skin before the game even started by having their pregame team huddle on the Ravens logo at the middle of the 50-yard line.

Have you seen a team, a road team none the less, do this before? I have, once in a while, more or less in college, and it always come with some retaliation. Credit to John Harbaugh for looking like the first Raven out there to say, “get off my lawn,” or something of that nature.

Good effort by the Titans. Head Coach Mike Vrabel, a former Patriot, likely taught to gain an edge anyway you can, not surprising in hindsight. But the Ravens didn’t take the bait, despite blowing this game in the end. It wasn’t because of this childish act by the Titans.

Lamar Jackson was clutch, but not clutch enough.

4^th quarter, down three, 2:18 to play. It’s been knock on him. Fairly, or unfairly. He hasn’t had success playing from behind, but also has put the Ravens in a position so many more times that they haven’t had to play from behind. But he needed this. You aren’t going to dominate every team 14 out of 16 games a year. It obviously gets tougher than this in the playoffs. Jackson needed this to give the Ravens faithful hope that games aren’t over until the final gun sounds.

Kudos to him for marching the Ravens down for a game tying FG, but man, he really needed to finish that drive with a TD. I wonder if he’s listening to the peanut gallery that want him to be a better passer (as if he wasn’t a great passer last year). As mentioned before, with a chance to win the game, rather than play for OT, he needed to use his phenomenal athletic ability to gain eight yards.

6-4 is a tricky spot to be in, with the undefeated Steelers coming up. Feel like they should have tried for 7-3 and OT if it didn’t work, rather than let the unpredictable nature of overtime dictate the game.

Despite conventional thinking, Ravens depleted front seven limited Derrick Henry…until it mattered most.

At one point the Ravens had Henry limited to 10 rushes for 31 yards. 3.1 yards per. Late in the game they had him at 25 carries for 85 yards.  3.4 yards per. He wasn’t much of factor. I mentioned the favor the and the Titans may have done the Ravens by not going to him early in the 4^th quarter with the Titans inside the 10-yard-line.

All of that hard fought play, overcoming the absence of Brandon Williams and Calais Campbell…wiped out by a 29-yard run to end the game.

For most of the game I thought J.K. Dobbins was going to be the running back most of us would be talking about the day after. He played the bell cow role today, and I think most Ravens fans want to see that continue. 15 carries for 70 yards, scored a TD. Caught both is targets for 15 yards. Gus Edwards and Mark Ingram had three and two carries each respectively.

Look ahead to the Steelers and hopefully a happy Thanksgiving.

Not much to say about this one. The Steelers kept their undefeated streak alive as they beat the hapless Jaguars today. Ravens fans like to say that they gave the game away in the matchup a few weeks ago with four turnovers and some undisciplined penalties. That the better team didn’t win that game.

Time to prove it on a short week. No more excuses. The Ravens came into today in a playoff spot thanks to the expanded playoffs to seven teams. If they want to stay in the hunt, a win is a must, while the division is basically completely out of reach.

The Browns have jumped the Ravens into second place in the division. Let that sink in. Playoff talk needs to halt. The schedule “looks” easier coming up. But not if they keep losing.

Numbers and stats don’t really matter in Ravens vs. Steelers games. Discipline. Making the plays when it matters. Winning the turnover battle. Doing those things would go a long way to making us all feel better about the games going forward. Gobble-gobble everyone!