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RAVENS REPORT CARD: Giants 30, Ravens 10

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NEW YORK GIANTS 30 BALTIMORE RAVENS 10


NOVEMBER 16, 2008



 

Coming into this week’s game against the 8-1 New York Giants the Baltimore Ravens knew there were plenty of hurdles to overcome. The Ravens would have to outplay an opponent who experts were already calling the NFL’s best team.   And they would have to do so on the road, for the third consecutive week, this time in the notoriously cold and windy Meadowlands.


 

It’s rare for NFL teams to find themselves playing three consecutive road games in a single season, and rarer still to win all three. Of the last ninety times teams who have tried, only five managed to succeed in sweeping three in a row.


 

So it should not have come as a huge surprise that the Ravens failed to achieve their chance at a road-trip trifecta against the defending world champions. The surprise this week was how easily Big Blue whipped up on them, 30-10.  That result must rival Big Brown going to New York to run in the Belmont Stakes, only to finish dead last. 


 

Whatever you think of the Giants, this was first and foremost a case of the Ravens beating themselves.  They never gave themselves a chance to be in the game, with penalties—nine in the first half alone— and poor tackling.   They simply opened the door for the Giants to run away with the contest, who happily obliged with over two-hundred yards rushing.  Brandon Jacobs ripped the Ravens vaunted rushing defense for 70 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter alone.  It was embarrassing for the proud Ravens defense and it helped the Giants establish an early 20-3 lead.  From there, the Giants coasted to a restful win, with Jacobs basically watching most of the game from the sidelines, after getting his work in early.


 

Although the Ravens managed to extend their streak of games without a 100-yard rusher to 29— miraculously—there was nothing to boast about after the Giants piled up 210 rushing yards on them, the most rushing yards allowed by Baltimore since surrendering 214 yards on the ground to the Pittsburgh Steelers back on October 5, 1997.  Jacobs averaged nearly seven yards a touch while Ahmad Bradshaw’s average approached 10 yards per carry.


 

Despite the pounding the team endured early, they showed some passion and resilience in the third quarter, and actually had themselves back in relatively decently shape.  They cut down on the penalties, with just one in the second half and they were controlling the clock, driving on the Giants, down just 20-10.


 

But that’s when Derrick Mason failed to get his hands up fast enough on a Joe Flacco throw to the sideline.  Was it because of Mason’s dislocated left shoulder?  Regardless, the pass bounced off Mason’s left earhole, up and into the open arms of Aaron Ross at midfield to gift him a second interception on the day.  Flacco tailgated Ross all the way into the Ravens end zone. 


 

It was the proverbial nail in the coffin, as the Ravens defense seemed to lose whatever edge they had discovered after halftime, and the sloppy tackling re-appeared.  From there, both teams and the CBS broadcast crew sleepwalked their way through a meaningless fourth quarter.

 

With only one burst of sustained life on the Ravens’ part all day, their grades suffered.



 


Quarterback: B-



 

You can’t pin the loss on Joe Flacco. He did his best to carry the team, making accurate throws, for the most part, moving well in the pocket and finding receivers, mostly Derrick Mason for critical first downs when needed.  Despite playing on the road, and down 17 points, Joe was un-flacco-ble, er, unflappable.  He did throw two interceptions to end a long errorless streak at 124 tosses.  The first was a case of forcing the action at the end of the first half while the second a pass that caromed off of Derrick Mason can’t really be pinned on him.  Later, when receivers were not open, Flacco showcased his surprising running ability, if we can still call it surprising.  He carried the ball six times for 56 yards, which was unfortunately the high water mark for Ravens’ rushers.  At other times Joe moved in the pocket to buy time and find open receivers.  He was very resourceful in finding ways to keep the chains moving. He did force some throws that he was lucky to see fall to the ground. He finished the day 20 for 33 (61%) for 164 yards, one touchdown, and two interceptions.  He could have padded those numbers if the Ravens had not taken the air out of the ball midway through the fourth quarter when the game was out of hand.  There were no Troy Smith sightings this week.


 


Running Backs: C



 

Other than Joe Flacco’s carries, the Ravens rushed the ball just 20 times for 64 yards, with four different players getting carries, Willis McGahee, Ray Rice, Le’Ron McClain, and Mark Clayton.  They showed varying degrees of passion, but none of them got much production.    Willis McGahee had a false start called against him, and mostly plunged into the center of the Giants defense with little effect before sitting out most of the second half, aside from one meaningless carry.  He may have suffered an injury, or perhaps simply a blow to the ego.  Ray Rice was no more productive running the ball, although both he and Le’Ron McClain contributed in other ways.  Between them they had six catches for 47 yards, nearly a third of the output for the passing offense, and the team’s lone touchdown on a McClain catch and run.  Rice showed good hustle blocking down field in passing situations.  McClain showed nice footwork on a couple plays, but these positives were too little and too infrequent in a losing effort.



 


Receivers: C-



 

Derrick Mason showed great toughness, playing through a dislocated shoulder injury that clearly limited his range of motion, but not necessarily his productivity. He was the Ravens offense in the first half with 4 catches and 55 yards.   He added three more catches and 27 yards in the second half and showed very nice separation downfield.  But he later failed to haul in a well-thrown ball by Flacco that led to Ross’s interception return, and whiffed on a block attempt that allowed Ross to corral McGahee for negative yardage play.   Mark Clayton was thrown to twice and netted just one catch and 10 yards. Yamon Figurs did not factor at all. Todd Heap caught three passes, but only one 12-yarder that amounted to anything, extending a drive.  As a group, the receivers blocked poorly.



 


Tackles: D



 

Adam Terry, coming off an ankle injury that limited him to a back-up role for the last five weeks, had a poor game back as starter. He jumped offsides to start Ravens first possession.  He also blocked poorly on the back side, which contributed the team’s rushing woes. He struggled at times in pass protection, although he improved his play in the second half.    Terry later tweaked his ankle and was replaced by rookie David Hale for a series. Then, with Terry back in the lineup, Jared Gaither, who has battled his own injuries, sat while O’Neil Cousins was inserted. Cousins showed no signs of improvement from his poor preseason performances, immediately getting beaten and tackling a pass rusher for a penalty.



 


Interior Linemen: B-



 


Chris Chester, Ben Grubbs and Jason Brown showed flashes of some good blocking at the point of attack and decent mobility on the shorter throws.  Despite the Giants sending seven or even eight pass rushers at times, the middle of the line held up.  When the Giants blitzed nine, they still held up in the middle, allowing Flacco to find Le’Ron McClain who had slipped out of the backfield.  But for most of the day there was not enough push for the Ravens running game to get untracked.

 



 


Cornerbacks: C


 

Poor tackling by Ravens corners allowed the Giants to extend their runs after catches.  Samari Rolle was beaten early by Plaxico Burress on an out pattern and easily blocked by WR on long run. Fabian Washington made a poor attempt on a tackle of Burress.  Rolle was out of position when he was flagged for interference in end zone covering Burress on a fade. He later redeemed himself successfully defending another fade to Burress when the Giants tried going back to the same well.  He nearly had a spectacular interception that was negated by a successful challenge from Giants’ head coach Tom Coughlin.  Fabian Washington was a little more steady, and even had a nice interception that was wiped out by an offsides penalty against Justin Bannan.   Washington fell down in coverage on Steve Smith on one Giants first down reception.  Dixon, Smith, and Toomer each gashed Washington with 12-16 yard catches.  He did show nice speed and effort to track down Bradshaw at the end of this 77-yard run, which prevented a touchdown.


 


Safeties: C-



 

Ed Reed struggled with some tackling assignments, notably failing bring down Jacobs on a touchdown run. For the second week in a row Jim Leonard allowed a receiver to run free for a touchdown.   Both safeties were effective when called upon to blitz Eli Manning, pressuring him to make poor throws including one near interception.


 


Linebackers: F



 

Ray Lewis was exposed in one of his poorest performances as a pro.  When the Giants were not blocking him back into the secondary he was over-running plays and making diving attempts at arm tackles.  He was at his worst when he failed to stop Ahmad Bradshaw for a three-yard gain, which allowed Bradshaw to run for 74 more.  The Giants controlled all the Ravens linebackers in the running game, and the frustration was showing for this group as the shoving and jawing after the whistle began to mount. Ray did manage an interception on a very poor throw by Manning to ruin a Giants scoring attempt.  Terrell Suggs was held in check for the most part, except for a mini burst of energy he flashed at the start of the second half.  He did finish with six solo tackles, a team high.  Jarrett Johnson showed a nice burst when he ran over Giants’ FB Madison Hedgecock to sack Eli Manning.  Bart Scott was largely ineffective, plunging into Giants blockers repeatedly and coming up empty.


 


Defensive Line: C



 

This unit was simply not able to get much push against the highly touted Giants offensive line, which helped propel the Giants running game.  When both Trevor Pryce and Haloti Ngata were swept up inside, Brandon Jacobs blew to the outside en route to his first score.  They were not able to pressure Manning with a four-man rush, which had been a key to the team’s success during their four-game winning streak.  They did flash some sporadic signs of life, whether it was a nice goal line tackle by Justin Bannan, a beautiful swim move by Ngata, or a big hit by Ngata on Jacobs at the goal line.  But these individual bursts were overshadowed by inadequate play overall.  Double teams on Trevor Pryce completely neutralized the veteran, who was in on only a single assist all day long.



 


Special Teams: C+



 

Matt Stover was forced to kick low on his first field goal attempt because of the windy conditions at the Meadowlands, and a poor block by Ben Grubbs led to a blocked kick by Fred Robbins, which didn’t stop rolling until it reached the Ravens 33.  It may have been the play of the game because the Ravens had just answered the Giants opening drive with their own 11-play, 65-yard drive, down to the Giants 13.  Instead of getting points, the play gave the Giants the field position needed to go up 13-0.  Later Stover made a 38-yarder.  The Ravens improved their kick coverage and kick return game this week, with Yamon Figurs averaging 25 yards on his four kick off returns.  The Giants punted just three times, out of bounds, into the end zone, and to Figurs, all with no return yardage.  Figurs downed one of Sam Koch’s punts at the five, but a tripping call on Tom Zbikowski erased the effort.  Frank Walker was also guilty of a hold to kill the advantage of another well-covered punt.   Koch also punted just three times, with a 31-yard net average.  Steven Hauschka handled kick off duties well.


 


Coaching: B-



 

As frustrating as this loss was, it’s hard to pin it on the coaching staff when the players on the field were creating penalties, tackling poorly, and missing on scoring opportunities.  Cam Cameron called a decent game after the Giants took away his running game.  Rex Ryan’s group simply failed to execute for him.  Aside from getting caught in blitzes against screen passes, there was not much bad to say about the game plan.  Perhaps the team was not prepared to play, although they didn’t quit when the came out of the locker room in the second half.


 


Officiating: B-



 

Ron Winter’s crew called a fair game although they did have their fair share of group confusion.   They failed to signal a touchdown on a Jacobs run and had to huddle before deciding, what the heck, ‘touchdown.’  There was also confusion over Samari Rolle’s near interception, not just because they had to reverse the call on replay, but because they threw a penalty flag and then waived it off without explanation. 


 


Broadcast: D-



 

Dan Dierdorf may be on CBS’s “A Team” but he doesn’t impress much as a broadcaster and that’s too bad because Greg Gumbal deserves better.  Dierdorf comes across as a front-runner who simply drones on about the game’s bigger names and headlines, without much insight into what is really happening on the field.  His commentary mostly consists of phrases like, “aren’t the Giants impressive?”  And, “who thought the Ravens defense would give up this rushing total?”  All without much insight into why the game was progressing as it was. As an example of his shallow approach to describing the action, CBS eventually showed a replay of Hedgecock tripping Ed Reed, and Dierdorf’s comment consisted of a giggly, ‘yes, that was a trip,’ while failing to point out it probably took away a blocked punt. The Ravens had just scored to make it a 20-10 game, and had held the Giants to three and out (and nearly a Rolle interception).  Had Reed blocked the punt, it could have completely changed the game, but that idea went unspoken.  Dierdorf also went overboard when he ostensibly credited Eli Manning with Pro Bowl abilities for being able to execute a hard snap count.   A hard snap count?! That sort of hyperbole makes it difficult for viewers to appreciate actual on-field accomplishments. 
 
CBS also did a terrible job of paying attention to the action as it occurred. For instance, on an intriguing, 17-yard reverse to Mark Clayton they did not comment on the play as it happened. Furthermore, instead of showing a replay, they cut to a pre-ordained Sixty Minutes promo, and then a commercial.  When they came back from the break, they continued to ignore the successful trick play, and instead showed a third replay of the previous Giants touchdown pass…except that replay merely consisted of Dierdorf meaninglessly circling the tight end’s posterior prior to the snap.  As if we didn’t know where tight ends line-up.  Odd.  Later, when the Ravens were making somewhat of a game out of it, they seemed to get bored and drift away to more promos for CBS sitcoms, highlights from other games, or long graphical interludes of the two team’s upcoming schedules. 


 

The faster the 6-4 Ravens can move on from this debacle and back home to face another NFC East opponent in the Philadelphia Eagles, the better.    The Eagles escaped a loss to the lowly Bengals when Shane Graham’s overtime field goal sailed wide.  The 13-13 tie, and Donovan McNabb’s three interceptions, puts the Eagles at 5-4-1 and undoubtedly in a bad mood coming to M&T Bank Stadium.  It will be John Harbaugh’s chance to impress against his old team, who will be playing in their second of three road trips over a four-week period.  

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