Week 10 Recap: Ravens Take Care Of Business and Go Into The Bye At 6-4

11/10/2014 4:10 PM

I’d be lying if I said I was satisfied with our positioning right now. Last place is not a familiar place for the Baltimore Ravens, especially this late in the season. But it’s not a familiar place for any 6-4 team. That’s a testament to the strength of this division. It’s the best in football. The AFC North is the first division with every team 2 games over .500 at any point in the season in the Super Bowl era. It’s not lost on me that we’re playing the NFC South this year. Yeah that division is trash. But you can’t blame these 4 fine teams for taking care of business. It’s gonna be a dogfight to the end. It’s time to get healthy and prepare for the home stretch. Just glad we took care of business yesterday. Some more thoughts on the Titans win:

– The secondary was the major concern going into this game, and will be moving forward. They didn’t look too hot out of the gate, but settled in and played terrific. Anthony Levine and Danny Gorrer get my gameballs without a doubt. Levine hid in the shadows of the secondary, quietly chipping in on dime packages earlier this year. He was considered to be a safety until the roster overhaul last week, but has been taking snaps at corner in practice all year. It showed. Gorrer did a fantastic job as well and was rewarded with a pick late. I’m not ready to say we have the answer to all our defensive problems, but things are looking a lot better than 24 hours ago.

– Offensive MVP has to be Justin Forsett. 112 yards and two tuddys. Credit to our interior lineman for another great game on the ground, they’re the reason we’ve got a top 5 rush attack in the league right now. What a turnaround from 2013 when we finished 30th, Gary Kubiak’s fingerprints are all over this offense.

– Joe Flacco was meh, but he didn’t make mistakes. That’s exactly what we needed in a game like this. 16/27 for 169 yards is an underwhelming statline, but it got the job done. He threw a beautiful ball to Torrey for his one TD on the day. When you run the ball as well as we did yesterday, you don’t need him to be Johnny Unitas.

– The one concern in the passing game was the protection. Flacco was pressured heavily early, which stalled our offense for the first 20 minutes or so of the game. There have been a few stretches this season where Flacco looks like 2008 Joe Flacco, who never looked comfortable in the pocket and rarely stepped into his throws. We saw a lot of that last week, and it continued into the first half yesterday. The Titans brought the blitz early and often, and he was sacked 5 times. He settled in late when the Titans had to respect the run more, but we’ve got to protect better. There are going to be times down the stretch where we HAVE to throw the football, and the protection has to be better when that time comes.

– Steve Smith was relatively quiet except for his postgame comments. He’s as cold as he was hot early in the season. Only 155 receiving yards and no touchdowns the past 4 weeks. He says the bye is coming at the right time, so perhaps he’s banged up a bit. Who knows? I’m confident he’ll bounce back after a week off. Here’s the block/hold referenced post-game by the way…

– On the other hand, Torrey Smith is back (probably at Steve’s expense). He’s looked his best this year when he gets inside positioning on those slants, and we saw that 3 or 4 times yesterday for first downs. We know he can get behind the defense and catch those TD’s like he did yesterday. He’s got 5 TD’s in the past 5 weeks, so it’s safe to say he’s a difference maker once again.

– If you want to find a monster hit that’s considered legal by the NFL, look no further. Terrance Brooks laid the boom on Delanie Walker. Textbook shoulder to shoulder hit and jarred the ball loose to cause a key 3rd down incompletion before the half. This should serve as an example to the rest of the league of how to play good clean hard-hitting football:

– This was the first week Will Hill was unquestionably a starter at safety, and he did a fine job as well. Didn’t let anyone get behind the defense, came up with a nice pass deflection, and made the tackles he should have. I’ve been singing his praises for weeks and it looks like he’s as entrenched as anyone in the secondary.

– Elvis Dumervil dominated Michael Oher and the Titans offensive line. Registered 2.5 sacks to bring his total up to 10.5 on the year. He was a big factor in making Mettenberger uncomfortable as the game went on. Did somebody say All-Pro?

– I loved the 4th and 1 call on Forsett’s first touchdown. The fake FB handoff/HB toss was the best play in the Madden playbook, and when you have a back like Forsett who can beat people around the edge, it’s a great play in real life too. 4th down conversions were problematic early this season, but no longer. Our 8 conversions are the most in the league, and 8/14 is rock solid.

– The delay of game penalty we took on the defensive substitution is beyond ridiculous. I realize you have to give the defense an opportunity to make substitutions when the offense does. But we were set, ready to snap the ball with 12 on the play clock, and the umpire didn’t let us snap the damn ball. That’s ridiculous. That needs to be a 5 yard penalty on the defense if anybody. They’re the ones lollygagging. Mike Carey has stumbled all over rule explanations all year, but he was especially terrible trying to defend that one. He’s a joke and so was that penalty. That’s gotta get fixed.

– Speaking of conversions, 3rd down conversions were completely indicative of the flow of this game. The Titans dominated early, converting on their first 4 attempts. On the flip side, the Ravens failed on their first 5. At that point it was 7-0 Titans and it probably should’ve been 14-0 if it weren’t for a goal line fumble on the game’s opening drive. From the middle of the 2nd quarter on, the Ravens were 4/8 and the Titans were 0/8. And so went the game.

– Practice squad O-lineman Marcel Jones has a magnificent fro. No idea how this flew under the radar for 10 weeks. Such an asset.