Ravens-Texans Postscript
The Ravens’ identity seems to have solidified with their healthy win over the Texans. They are finally a balanced team, with one of the best defenses in the league and an offense that can run and pass. These are strange times in Baltimore.
The defense is the best in the league at stopping the run, but with the secondary playing as poorly as they are why would any team want to run against the Ravens anyway? I know the box score says four interceptions, but only one was made by a player in the secondary.
On the offense, the Ravens finally have a respectable backfield with three rushers who can all hold their own. They still don’t have a receiving corps of note, but it was nice to see Todd Heap finally decide to show up.
At this point it’s easy to get excited. The Ravens seem to be able to put a game plan together and stick with it and are tied at the top of the AFC North. There is one glaring problem:
The Ravens have not beaten a winning team yet.
Over the rest of the season they will face the entire NFC East, who all have winning records at the moment. They will also face the Jaguars, who are a different team every week, and the Bengals, who are the only respite.
As we saw against the Colts, a good passing game can be a kill shot against the Ravens. Sage Rosenfels is a really bad quarterback and he still managed to have some throwing success against the Ravens’ secondary, completing passes to eight different receivers. With the season half over, the intensity is picking up. Let’s just hope the Ravens can keep growing, becoming a better team every week.
Nice win. The Ravens look very good right now. Next week is the big test though.
I’m curious why you guys didn’t make a big play for DeAngelo Hall, considering your secondary issues. The Skins got him for almost nothing. I know he’s kind of a head case and has had a down year, but he’s got talent, and you can just release him if he sucks or throws a tantrum or something. Low risk/high potential reward for sure.
I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited and terrified. Winning team football has been a ton of fun to watch, and the Ravens are using a very balanced attack – does anyone not love Cam Cameron right now? – and a good defense to squash these bugs like the Browns, Bengals, Texans, and Dolphins.
But yeah, every time we get to one of these “test” games we flop. Our defense gave up late in Pittsburgh after a truly exhilarating first half. We all know about the Colts. I’m not too down about losing to the Titans, but all the same the Ravens seem to be the benchmark team. If you can beat them you’re playoff caliber, or at least definitely in the picture, and if you can’t you suck. The only game that I’ve actually been impressed with the Ravens is last week at Cleveland with Flacco leading the late rally for the win. Everything else has been exciting, solid football, but really, if we’re getting excited because we trounced Houston and Miami, we’re probably over blowing the whole thing.
I think that the Ravens are definitely in the playoff picture (of course they are) and that whoever wins when the Steelers come to town is probably the division winner, and the other guy is probably a wildcard, but let’s not forget the X factor, especially with our secondary already seriously banged up – we lost our bye week and who knows how the team fatigues down the stretch?
Excited, but terrified. I also think the Giants beat us up, since they have a real quarterback – and we haven’t proven any ability to beat a real quarterback yet.
andrew there are a couple of things that we need to remember though. the ravens basically beat the titans (and totally dominated at times) and got a ridiculous 15 yard penalty against suggs for brushing kerry collins’ shoulder. not making excuses, but they hardly whupped us.
we also dominated the steelers for over three quarters – i believe neal will concede that – and in the fourth flacco made a couple of boneheaded decisions resulting in fumbles and quick scores if i remember correctly. again, not excusing the loss but i’m quite confident that joe flacco doesn’t make those mistakes if the game were played now.
there is no question that the ravens are vulnerable through the air. the thing is, our pass rush has been so dominant that it hasn’t hurt us – and better yet, our offense can now win the 34-30 games. also, even though we can give up 300+ pass yards, chances are that that pass rush will cause quarterbacks to make awful throws under pressure, resulting in interceptions regardless of who back there for us.
all that said – there are only two teams in the afc that truly worry me. the colts have our number – plain and simple. to me the way teams match up isn’t talked about enough – and the ravens just don’t match up well with the colts for whatever reason.
the second team is still the steelers. again, it’s the matchup. you just cannot predict the outcome of the game or ever have that feeling that you’re going to win. our teams are absolute mirrors of each other – now more than ever with this young qb of ours.
i won’t predict a win at the meadowlands this sunday – but i will say that i think the ravens are a top four team in the afc right now for what it’s worth.
also i’ll get into this later in another post but i’m also not convinced that the nfc east is the dominant steamroller that the national media has made it out to be. we’ll find out sunday won’t we.
Andrew said:
“- and a good defense to squash these bugs like the Browns, Bengals, Texans, and Dolphins.”
As a Bengals fan, I’d be really offended if it wasn’t so true…
Flacco has evolved since all three losses. He isn’t turning the ball over, he’s throwing the long passes, he’s finally throwing to Heap… he’s everything Kyle Boller tried to be, except Boller had no POISE, which is all Joe Flacco knows how to be.
I’m telling you, if Flacco had the confidence he has now when we played those teams back then, Baltimore is an easy 8-1 team. I don’t expect to win in the Meadowlands, but I’m guaranteeing it will be close and America will know Baltimore.
“America will know Baltimore”
hahaha i love that shit!
I agree. I totally agree that Flacco looks better and better every week. But until he and the Ravens show me that they can compete with a team like the Giants for the whole game (and we really crushed the Steelers for 75% of that game, but in the end it is what it is) then he and they will be upper echelon of the middle of the pack. And that’s okay. The team should only get better and better. This is a hell of a starting point.
Don’t forget his still just a rookie. He’s bound to take a few steps backwards at some point. He’s not always going to look this good.
I don’t think there’s any chance the Ravens go up to the Meadowlands and beat the Giants. But, nor do I think a loss there dramatically affects their playoff hopes. That’s not a game they’re supposed to win, and it doesn’t have divisional or conference implications. It is a “test” game, but it isn’t quite the same as when they play the Colts or Pittsburgh.
If they did manage to win, though? That’d be something.
@brad I completley agree. He has been taking strides that I didn’t think he’d take, and has looked like a veteran way before I thought he would, but he is still a rookie. I think he unfortunately falls on his face one more game this year. I hope I’m wrong. But looking how he rebounded from the Indy game, I think he’ll take 2 steps forward the following game. Just to be sure, this doesn’t make me any less wacco.
@neal I agree. Looking at their schedule, I think they win @Bengals (7 wins). I think they take 2 of 3 from vs. Was, vs. Pit vs. Jax. (9 wins). Then if we can steal 1 of 3 from @NYG, vs. Phi, @ Dal, we’re at 10 wins.
So this is the sort of game that wouldn’t be a big loss, but would be a huge win.
You’re right Random Dude. So far this year, for every step backwards that Flacco has taken, he has taken two steps forward. Don’t we love cliches?
That being said, he will be taking some steps backward yet this season for sure. And don’t be surprised if it’s in a really bad situation, like against the Bengals, for example. People will think he’s most likely going to look bad against the Giants, and they might be right, but if he continues to play well, his bad game will come against a bad team because he’ll lose focus.
To sci: According to…something I read, somewhere…the Ravens finished 2nd in the bidding for DeAngelo Hall to the ‘skins.
Also, if you look at the way the Giants have played the AFC North teams so far this year, we should feel more than just a glimmer of hope going into this one. A beat down from the G-Men is far from a foregone conclusion.
I put up a post earlier today detailing what I just pointed out.
football > baseball