A little bit of hyperbole in that headline, sure. The Ravens didn’t really save anything. They could, in theory, have survived a loss Sunday and still gone on to become a playoff team. But damn if the odds didn’t just get a hell of a lot better.

It wasn’t just that they knocked off a previously undefeated Denver team, it was the way they did it. They won all three phases of the game, punctuated by Lardarius Webb’s touchdown return to open the second half. Their newfound ability to pressure the quarterback played to the benefit of the secondary, and it was the first game where it seemed like Ed Reed was, well, Ed Reed. Solid all around.

One question I can’t shake, however, is what the ratio was yesterday between the Ravens being that good and the Broncos playing that badly.

Broncos quarterback Kyle Orton — who I maintain is a highly underrated player — put it best when he said ”We didn’t play our best ball, but they’re a pretty good team and they beat us pretty good today on all sides of the ball. We didn’t really do a whole lot.”

Indeed. The Ravens are a pretty good team, and they did beat the Broncos on all sides of the ball. And the Broncos didn’t really do a whole lot.

It’s something to consider going forward. They looked like a playoff team yesterday, but they haven’t yet been forged in the fire that is their upcoming schedule. A win is a win, one game at a time, etc. All the usual clichés apply, but things don’t get any easier from here.