OWINGS MILLS — The harsh reality of the Baltimore Ravens’ humbling defeat to the Tennessee Titans hadn’t changed a day later, and neither did the confusing nature of their identity as a football team.
The Ravens’ 26-13 debacle of a loss Sunday to a team that had lost nine of its previous 10 games directly followed a 35-7 demolishing of the defending AFC champion Pittsburgh Steelers.
The contrasting performances early in the season raise the question: Who are the Ravens?
The truth is they’re probably somewhere between the dominant outfit that stomped the Steelers and the lackluster team that didn’t match the Titans’ intensity on defense and quick-strike capabilities on offense.
“There’s nothing perplexing about it,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Monday. “We just didn’t play well enough to win in critical situations. We didn’t block the run game well enough. We didn’t complete passes that we should have completed. We didn’t score touchdowns in the red zone.
“On defense, we couldn’t get off the field. So, it’s not perplexing. It’s disappointing, but that’s how football is in this league. We’re working for the point where we can roll out there every single week and just roll over opponents, but we’re not there yet. .. As good as we felt about our team last week, we don’t feel so good right now.”
One week after setting a franchise record with seven turnovers against the Steelers, the Ravens (1-1) had no sacks on defense, not generating enough pressure as quarterback Matt Hasselbeck dissected them for 358 yards and a touchdown. They had no answers for wide receiver Kenny Britt, who caught a career-high nine passes for 136 yards.
“We’ve got to ask ourselves what was different from Week 1 to Week 2,” outside linebacker Terrell Suggs said. “In Week 1, we got a lot of turnovers and we didn’t give up the ball. This week, we didn’t get so many turnovers and we gave up the ball.”
Offensively, the running game was stonewalled.
And quarterback Joe Flacco was erratic after throwing three touchdowns against Pittsburgh, completing just 15 of 32 throws for 197 yards and two interceptions with one score against the Titans.
“The same performance we took responsibility for against Pittsburgh, we take responsibility for against Tennessee,” Harbaugh said. “Both of those games are ours. That’s who we are, and we build off both of those games. We take what we learn and we take it to St. Louis and try to become a better football team.”
Harbaugh attributed the setback in part to the unique offseason where minicamps and organized team activities were wiped out by the NFL lockout.
And he ended his press conference by reminding people not to panic after one bad game.
“You can’t let that affect how you see your guys and overreact,” Harbaugh said. “I really believe everybody in the National Football League is a work in progress. There have been probably been more surprises this year as far who’s winning and who’s not winning and some of these scores. This is the lockout-shortened year, and we haven’t had all the time to figure out who we are as a team and who everybody else is.”
Under Harbaugh, the Ravens are now 18-2 against teams with losing records.
Harbaugh emphasized that there were no danger signs heading into kickoff as far as bad practice habits or taking the Titans lightly.
“We were emotionally ready to play,” Harbaugh said. “All you’ve got to do is look at the effort. We played really, really hard. We didn’t execute the way we needed to. We practiced very well last week, and it didn’t transfer to the way we executed on gameday, which is disappointing.”
The Ravens don’t have time to dwell on this game as they launched preparations Monday for this week’s road game against the Rams.
“There will be moments where you grieve about it,” said running back Ray Rice, who scored the Ravens’ lone touchdown in Tennessee on a 31-yard screen play. “I won’t say this loss doesn’t bother me. I don’t like losing. Nobody likes losing, but you got to get it out of your system fast. That’s part of being a pro because St. Louis is next.”
Cornerback Lardarius Webb, who had his share of struggles against Britt, pointed toward middle linebacker Ray Lewis inside the locker room after the game as a reason why the Ravens will rebound from the loss.
“You see that man right there?” Webb said. “We have no choice but to bounce back with the leadership we have. Bounce back is what we do.”
