Ravens down Jets; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

It was a rather ugly game, but a potentially important win nonetheless, as the Baltimore Ravens beat the New York Jets 34-17.

Below we talk about the Jets trying to overcome the loss of their All-Pro Center Nick Mangold. That was a significant loss, and did directly impact the game. However, overcoming injuries is part of life in the National Football League. Also, one look at the inactive list tonight shows Baltimore had to deal with missing multiple starters and rotation players of their own. (Lee Evans, Ben Grubbs, Jimmy Smith, Chris Carr, Haruki Nakamaura, Daniel Ellerbe, David Reed)

Even as the Jets have made the past two Conference Championship Games, people have questioned just how good they are. After getting physically beat-up in Oakland last week, and making multiple errors to help beat themselves tonight in Baltimore; it is fair to wonder where this New York team will wind-up when this year ends.

From the perspective of the Ravens though, the takeaway is that  despite not playing well on offense, Baltimore was able to do what was necessary to secure a victory over a conference opponent.

The Good:

1) During the Ravens first possession, Baltimore faced 3rd and 13. McKinnie had a great block at LT, and Dickson picked up the 1st on second effort as he dragged his defender for the last yard and a half.

2) Following up Dickson’s 1st, Pitta had a 14 yard gain of his own.

3) On the Ravens initial punt, L.Williams made up for his muffed return on the Kickoff, with a strong Special Teams tackle.

4) Reed did a great job disguising his blitz, and going for the ball(instead of the hit) in-time to force the fumble. Credit to McClain for the recovery and putting the 6 points on the board.
4a) Starting the 2nd half, McClain did a good job batting away an attempted Jets screen.

5) Rice showed his hands, and elusiveness on his 52 yard reception over the middle.

6) Flacco’s 12 yard gain to Rice on 1st and 10 from the Jets 45, was excellent. The 4th year QB was able to move around in the pocket, and strong enough to avoid being tackled.

7) Vonta Leach provided the key block on the Rice TD run.

8) The Ravens did nothing to force the missed snap, but Kruger exploded off the line to get the recovery. Later in the game, Kruger was providing some pass rush.

9) As stated above, we understand that Mangold was missing tonight for NY and that his absence impacted things for New York. Still, Ngata (and Cody) dominated the Jets interior lineman they were up against. You had to feel for Sanchez a little bit when Ngata brought him down.

10) Like McClain earlier, give Johnson credit for picking up the Sanchez fumble and finding the end-zone.

11) The Ravens got a lot of free runners tonight into the Jets backfield, and not all of them were against Baxter.

12) On the heels of Flacco’s fumble, Webb gave momentum (and points) back to the Ravens with his 73 yard interception return.

13) Baltimore’s defense held New York to 150 yards, and put 21 points on the board.

14) The Ravens dominated time of possession, holding the ball for over 37 minutes.

The Bad:

1) The Ravens were able to recover, but obviously the L.Williams fumble on the initial kickoff was something that can not happen.

2) Flacco missed Smith on 2nd and 7 from the Jets 19 on the second Baltimore possession. On the next series, Flacco under threw Smith, who had beat a Safety down the field.
2a) Flacco was 0 for 10 in the 2nd quarter.
2b) Flacco finished just 10 of 31 for 163 yards, with the INT, and the fumble. The Jets defense gets some credit, but really was just an off night for the Ravens QB.

3) Flacco was knocked around a bit, getting hit six times, and sacked twice.

4) In the first three games, the Ravens were 7 of 16, 7 of 17, and 6 of 15 on 3rd down. Tonight the numbers were similar (6 of 17) but it appeared to me that Baltimore had more 3rd and long situations than in the previous games.

5) Finally shying away from throwing the ball around, R. Williams would fumble on 2nd and 18 at the Ravens 47  in the 4th.

6) Up 17 points in the 4th, was there any reason to have Reed back returning a Punt?

The Ugly:

1) Baltimore did not get to celebrate their defensively created Touchdown very long, as the Special Teams allowed a 107 yard TD return on the ensuing Kickoff.

2) Up 27-7, the Ravens were in complete control with just over 6 minutes left in the 1st half. If Flacco is going to get picked off there, it needs to be down the field. A short pass coming on 3rd and 11 from your own 34, taken back to the house is again something that just can not happen. Very disappointing to see the Ravens give the Jets 14 points tonight.

3) At half-time, Coach Harbaugh told NBC’s Michelle Tafoya that the Ravens were not going to sit on their lead and go into a shell. Ok, fine. However, as the Ravens started their first possession of the 2nd half – they knew Flacco and the passing game had struggled in the 2nd Quarter. Facing 3rd and 9 on their 25 yard line, they could have taken a more conservative approach on that particular play. Instead, Flacco was sacked and would fumble giving the Jets excellent field possession.