What a difference a week makes. The Ravens couldn’t have dominated the Detroit Lions much more than they did on Sunday, outplaying them in every facet of the game to the tune of a 48-3 victory. The Ravens gained a franchise-best 548 yards of offense against the woeful Lions defense. Their 308 rushing . . . → Read More: Purple and Black Awards: Week 14
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Everything was set up perfectly for the Ravens to beat their bitter divisional rivals, the much-hated Pittsburgh Steelers. Two of their best players on both sides of the ball were out, Troy Polamalu and Ben Roethlisberger. They had a second-year, third-string quarterback starting because of the injury to Big Ben and their backup, Charlie . . . → Read More: Purple and Black Awards: Week 12 I know a win is a win, but could this game have been any uglier? Monday night was supposed to be a tune-up game before the Colts come to town this Sunday. It was supposed to be a game where the Ravens would come out and dominate the Browns on both sides of the ball and work out a lot of their kinks in the process. Instead, the Ravens found themselves tied 0-0 at halftime with a dismal Cleveland team that has only led in a game for about three minutes all season. But the first few minutes of the third quarter finally provided everyone with some (the key word being some) excitement as Derrick Mason took a Joe Flacco pass for 41 yards and Ray Rice finished off the drive with a 13-yard touchdown run. Then, on the first pass of the ensuing Browns’ drive, Dawan Landry picked off Brady Quinn and took it to the house. Even though Hauschka had the extra point blocked, the Ravens still owned a lead they would never relinquish (More on Mr. I-can’t-make-a-kick Hauschka later).
The POG Brady Quinn. Yes, Quinn was the Ravens’ POG since nobody on the Ravens did enough to earn themselves the award. Quinn provided the Ravens with nine of their 17 points as a result of his inaccuracy. Initially, both passes looked like they should have been caught because they hit the receiver’s hands. But after looking at the replays, Quinn was a little off on both passes and his receiver’s couldn’t haul them in. Two of his first three passes of the second half were picked off and he finished the game 13-of-31 for only 99 yards. Quinn looked absolutely horrible especially toward the end of the game, which is where you would think he would be able to complete at least a couple downfield passes. At least he didn’t have to worry about throwing any more interceptions; he couldn’t even throw the ball inbounds. Quinn did do some damage, however, as the illegal block he put on Terrell Suggs knocked him out for 2-3 weeks and could prove to be very costly for the Ravens. It’s pretty safe to say that the Ravens could not have played any worse than they did this past Sunday against the Bengals. They were outplayed, out coached and outsmarted by a team that most people expected them to beat after the Bengals’ comeback win in Week 5. Many people, including myself, were anticipating . . . → Read More: Purple and Black Awards Week 9 With a tough stretch of games glaring at the Ravens over the next couple weeks, Sunday’s game against the Broncos was virtually a must-win. And if the first snap of the game was any indication of how the game was going to play out, the Ravens had to like their chances of handing the Broncos their first loss. Jarrett Johnson blasted through the line untouched and absolutely leveled Kyle Orton, reminding fans of the similar hit Bart Scott put on Big Ben a couple seasons ago. That hit started a day of the most dominant and inspired defense the Ravens have played all season. They held Orton and the Broncos to just 200 yards of total offense, but most importantly kept standout wide receiver Brandon Marshall from hurting them down the field. The Ravens came out hungry and ready to play, and as a result, improved their record to 4-3 heading into Cincinnati next week. The POG The entire team dominated every facet of the game from start to finish, so there’s no possible way I could just pick one player for this award. The offensive balance was remarkable and the defensive pressure was suffocating, but the stats tell the real story. The Ravens offense was an eye-popping 11-for-18 on third downs against the league’s top-ranked defense, and they didn’t turn the ball over despite the Broncos owning a plus-7 turnover differential. In their previous six games, the Broncos had outscored their opponents 76-10 in the second half. The Ravens changed that fortune rather quickly by taking the second half kickoff to the house and continued the 24-7 outscoring onslaught to end the game. The defense only allowed the Broncos to cross into their territory three times the entire game and they only stepped foot in the red zone once. The “Oh, S***” Moment To be continued next week… The “Way to Step up, Young Man” Award Lardarius Webb may have made one of the biggest plays of the season, but it wasn’t without a little motivation from a seasoned veteran. Ray Lewis pulled Webb aside in the locker room at halftime and told him that he was going to run back the second-half kickoff for a touchdown. It was an unlikely prediction at the time considering the Broncos had only given up 10 points in the second half all season. But Mr. Motivator did what he does best and Webb responded with a 95-yard run back, the first touchdown of his career. Not only did Webb’s touchdown put the Ravens up 13-0, but it ended the second half invincibility that the Broncos seemingly had up to that point. You picked a good time to step up, Mr. Webb. Another week, another heartbreaking loss, another disappointed group of Baltimoreans. The repeat button has been on the past three weeks for the Ravens and they can’t seem to skip to the next track. They have had a chance to win the past three games in the closing minutes, but could not finish off their opponents. Now, you can look at that one of two ways. You can say at least they were in every game with a chance to win or you could say that they don’t know how to win close games. I say, they need to learn how to win close games. That is what this league is all about. Moral victories don’t count when you’re vying for a playoff spot in December and January. If the Ravens don’t learn how to shut the door on the opposition, they will be sitting home watching the teams they couldn’t finish off instead of playing against them.
The POG It seems like whenever Ray Rice gets the ball, he runs for about 20 yards before someone can manage to tackle him. He slips through tacklers and wiggles his way down the field while using his signature move, the low-center-of-gravity-turf-push-off (that’s the best name I could think of). You would think that with him being as small as he is that defenders would be able to get him down with ease, but that’s not the case. He uses his low center of gravity to his advantage and when he gets close to the ground he simply springs himself back up by using the turf. It’s a great idea if you ask me! Anyway, Rice finished Sunday’s game with 10 carries for 77 yards and two touchdowns and 10 catches for 117 yards. Can you say all-purpose back? This guy is amazing and Willis McGahee’s days as the starting running back may be numbered. Like it or not, Chad Ochocinco’s trash-talking finally paid off. It was apparent that the Ravens were tired of hearing Ochocinco run his mouth, whether it was on his Twitter page or through the sights and sounds of the media. Either way, it seemed like all the frustrations that were building up throughout the . . . → Read More: Purple and Black Awards Week 5 The Ravens seemed to do almost everything right against the Patriots this past Sunday, but they just couldn’t finish the deal. They had the ball in their hands in the closing seconds with a chance to beat one of the top teams in the league on the road, and were a dropped pass away from . . . → Read More: Purple and Black Awards: Week 4 I’m sure there were people out there who thought the Ravens could go into San Diego and beat the Chargers on their home turf, but I’m not sure if anyone envisioned they way in which it would happen. If I would’ve told you that the Ravens were going beat the Chargers in a shootout, you . . . → Read More: Purple and Black Awards: Week 2 This is the first inscription in a series of articles called the Purple and Black Awards. The awards will be given out to the Ravens’ players and coaches and will contain certain moments that changed the course of the game, for better or for worse. The awards will vary from week-to-week but they will . . . → Read More: Purple and Black Awards: Week 1 |
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