Ravens move to 5-1; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

The Baltimore Ravens defense again struggled mightily with stopping the run, and getting a pass rush; but the team was still able to do enough overall to beat the Dallas Cowboys. The Ravens won 31-29, as the Cowboys’ Bailey missed a potential 51 yard game winner with time expiring. With the win, the Ravens won their 4th consecutive game and improved to 5-1 on the year.

Next week, the Ravens will travel to Houston to face the undefeated AFC South leading Texans.

The Good:

1) The Ravens extended their initial drive when Flacco (despite taking a hit) connected with Jones on 3rd and 4. Rice followed that up with a 6 yard gain through middle, riding a block from Leach. One 3rd and 1, Rice carried several Cowboys forward as he ran for a 2nd Ravens 1st down. On 2nd and 8, Flacco threw a strike and completed a 2nd pass to Jones for another 1st. That was followed by a great diving grab from Pitta along the sideline for 8 more yards. On 2nd and 2, Rice fell forward for a 4th Ravens 1st down. On 2nd and 7, Flacco kept his feet moving as he felt pressure, dumping off to Pierce who banged his way up the field for 6 yards. Tucker would knock home a 38 yard FG for the 3-0 Ravens lead. Baltimore’s 14 play, 60 yard drive ate up just over 7 minutes to start the game. Flacco was 5 for 5 on the series.

2) With Dallas facing 3rd and 9 on the Ravens 17 yard during their 2nd series, Jimmy Smith came up with the first real positive defensive play of the game, with a nice play in space. Dallas was forced to settle for a FG, giving the Cowboys a 10-3 lead.

3) Baltimore’s offense tied the game at 10 with a good series on their 3rd possession. Rice started things with a 12 yard run. On 3rd and 7, Rice caught a pass for 43 more yards, taking the ball to the Dallas 22. Pierce put the Ravens in a 1st and Goal situation with his 16 yard run. After a Cowboys penalty, Baltimore had 1st and Goal from the 1, and Rice found the end zone.

4) Having given up a ton of running yards on Dallas’ first two offensive series, Baltimore was trying to keep extra defenders in the box as the Cowboys began their 3rd series. This gave Romo a lot of 1×1 situations with his receivers on the outside. With the Cowboys facing 3rd and 10 from the Ravens 35, Cary Williams came up with the pick. Williams was helped by his defensive teammates getting pressure for one of the first times in the game.

5) Baltimore faced 3rd and 14, from their own 16 just under the 2 minute warning. The Ravens picked up the 1st, when Flacco found Boldin for 14 yards. Was nice to see Boldin get the 1st, as he had just picked up a penalty moving the Ravens back 5 yards. A couple of plays later, Boldin picked up another 20 yards, taking the ball to the Dallas 30. With just over a minute left in the 1st half, Flacco found Pitta for 8 more. Pitta was make another catch for a Ravens 1st down. T.Smith gave the Ravens the lead (17-10 with the extra point) with a 19 yard TD reception.

6) The Ravens defense stood up on 3rd and 3 on Dallas’ first series of the 3rd Quarter, forcing the Cowboys into another FG attempt. Right now for where this defense is, ‘bending without breaking’ is a win.

7) After Dallas had pulled within 4 at 17-13 on their FG to start the 3rd Quarter, Jacoby Jones just exploded out of the end zone with a 108 yard Kickoff Return (tying the NFL Record) for a score. Even with Thompson’s fumble last week, I had wondered if replacing him with Jones (because Jones is the 3rd WR) was the right move. That type of explosion showed it is worth the additional health risk of having Jones back there.

8) Punting out of the end zone in the 3rd Quarter, Koch had a good punt, and Chykie Brown had excellent punt coverage.

9) Ray Lewis delivered his first significant tackle of the year, late in the 3rd Quarter. Coming up and filling the hole on 2nd and 6 on the Baltimore 36, crushing Tanner with perfect form tackle. On 3rd and 5, J.Smith had good coverage down the sideline and forced Dallas to punt.

10) Continuing the ‘bend but not break’ theme, Ngata came up with a 3rd down sack on 3rd and 8, from the Ravens 8 on the Cowboys first series of the 4th Quarter. This forced Dallas into a FG attempt. The made FG made it at 24-23 game.

11) Baltimore started their 2nd drive of the 4th from their own 27 with 8:16 on the clock. Rice started the series with a 9 yard run. Flacco picked up the 1st with a 3 yard run. On 2nd and 10 from the Ravens 39, Flacco found Pitta for 9 yards. On 3rd and 1 from the 48, Rice picked up another 1st with a 4 yard run. Flacco and Boldin would connect on back-to-back passes. One for 13 yards, the next for 31. Rice would eventually score from 1 yard out. The 10 play, 77 yard game took just under 4 minutes, and gave the Ravens the 31-23 lead with under 5 minutes to play.

12) C. Brown had good coverage in the end zone on 2nd and 1 on Dallas last series of the game.

The Bad:

1) After a nice play out of the backfield as a receiver on 2nd down, Pierce was unable to pick up 3rd and 1 on the ground during the Ravens 1st series. This forced the Ravens to settle for a FG attempt.

2) Despite Flacco connecting with Dickson for an 8 yard gain, the Ravens went 3 and out on their 2nd series. On 3rd down, Flacco attempted to go down the field but was hit as he threw. Dallas defenders broke through from both the interior and the outside.

3) Dallas began the 2nd half going right back to the run game, with Jones running off tackle for 11 yards. Witten then changed the field position with his 35 yard gain. Another 1st down later, the Cowboys were in position for Bailey’s long 43 yard FG. The Ravens did not completely break, but giving up points to start the 2nd half was obviously not ideal.

4) On the Cowboys 2nd series of the 2nd half, Dallas faced 3rd and 11 from the Ravens 48. Bryant had a 13 yard grab over the middle, dragging Williams the last several yards. Back-to-back 4 yard runs from Jones took the ball to the Ravens 31. Jones then went for 9 more, and then Tanner got a couple of carries. A 5 yard penalty on J. Smith gave Dallas 3rd and 2 from the Ravens 10 yard line. Dallas went big, and the Ravens defense was not able to come up with the short-yardage stop. With a new set of downs, Romo had a beautiful back-shoulder throw to Byrant for the TD, pulling Dallas within 4 (24-20) with the extra-point.

5) Due to Jones’ Kickoff return – and the 2 scoring possessions from Dallas to start the 3rd Quarter – the Ravens offense did not touch the ball until there was just over 3 minutes left in the Quarter. Jones attempted to run out another kick, and was tackled viciously. A Sean Considine holding penalty backed the Ravens up further, resulting in Baltimore starting their first drive of the 2nd half from their own 8 yard line. A quick 3 and out had the Ravens punting and giving Dallas good field position.

6) Baltimore 2nd offensive series of the 2nd half, began the 4th Quarter. After keeping Ware in-check all day, the Ravens were not able to contain Ware on 3rd and 4. Ware got the sack, and Baltimore punted. Dallas took over in Ravens field position.

7) Dallas started their first series of the 4th from the Ravens 47. As FOX’s Brian Billick was stating, the Cowboys were not doing anything tricky. They were running straight at the Ravens, and Baltimore could not stop them. Tanner for 6. Tanner for 9. Tanner for 1. Dunbar for 11. Tanner for 1. Romo to Bryant for 6.

8) J. Smith was charged with defensive holding on Dallas’ last drive of the 4th Quarter, giving the Cowboys a 1st down from the Ravens 32 with about 1:45 on the clock. Smith was later beat down the field into the end zone by Ogletree, but the pass was dropped (and there was a penalty on Dallas on the play). On 3rd and 22 from the Ravens 44, Bryant picked up 17 yards, with a bunch coming as he ran through would-be tacklers, and setting up a manageable 4th down. On 4th down, Witten gained the 1st with a grab to the Ravens 16. On 1st and 10, Witten picked up 9 more, taking the ball to the Baltimore 5. Dallas would pick up another 1st down, setting up 1st and Goal from the Ravens 3 with 36 seconds remaining. Bryant got in-front of Williams, set-up position, and caught the TD to end the drive. This made it a 31-29 game, with Dallas going for the 2 point conversion.

9) The pass interference call on C. Brown gave Dallas an opportunity to attempt the winning FG.

The Ugly:

1) Dallas came out moving the ball. Murray picked up 5 yards on 1st down, followed by a Romo pass to Vickers for 11 yards. The Cowboys gained a 2nd 1st down when Romo found Byrant for 14 yards on 3rd and 4.  Bryant was more physical with J. Smith at the line. On 2nd and 6, Murray ran through several missed tackles for 28 yards, taking the ball down to the Ravens 12 yard line. Dallas was penalized, and moved back to a 1st and 20. Jones rushed to the left, gaining 21 yards and giving the Dallas the 7-3 lead. A poor defensive series after the offense had started the game out with points for the Ravens. Particularly galling was the atrocious run defense and tackling on the series.

2) Dallas’ 2nd series was not any better for the Ravens. The Cowboys continued to do anything they wanted with their running game. Utilizing a 2 TE set, the Ravens were being blown off the ball with regularity. Several times you saw Cody, and Ngata on their heels; several yards down the field. After Romo started the drive with an 18 yard pass to Bryant, the Cowboys ran the ball on 9 consecutive plays – moving the ball from the Dallas 38 to the Baltimore 18. Most importantly, Webb was hurt on the series.

3) I’m an Ed Dickson fan, but he obviously had an issue with drops last year, and he should have come up with a TD reception today on the Ravens 3rd series.

4) For the 2nd consecutive week, the Ravens allowed 200+ rushing yards, the first time in team history that has occurred.

5) Ayanbadejo, who earlier had problems in coverage, was not able to come up with the on-side kick from Dallas.

Notes:
Murray and Jones had 14, and 18 carries respectively; both having 92 yards rushing.
Flacco was 17 of 26, for 234 yards, with 1 TD.
Boldin had 5 catches for 98 yards.
Outside of his 19 yard TD grab, Smith only had 1 other catch for 5 yards.
Baltimore was out-gained 481 yards to 317.
Baltimore was 6 of 10 on 3rd down, Dallas was 7 of 15.