Christmas is two days away, but the San Diego Chargers, Miami Dolphins, and the hated Pittsburgh Steelers received an early Christmas present from the Baltimore Ravens. The Ravens, or whoever was masquerading as a football team that calls M&T Bank Stadium home, evidently decided to celebrate the holiday three days ahead of time.
But given the level of play the most appropriate holiday was Halloween, not Christmas.
It was the Rocky Horror Show of football games.
The New England Patriots embarrassed the Baltimore Ravens right off the field with a 41-7 hammering – handing the Ravens their worst home loss in team history – that was, sad to say, not that close. Not close at all.
Given that the Ravens were playing “on the edge” for the past several weeks, I had a sinking feeling that a blowout loss might be coming somewhere down the line. I thought it would have come last week in an away game, in a dome, against a desperate Lions team that really needed it. Never did I think it would come at home against a team the Ravens had routinely outplayed in the recent past.
This game brought back memories of the previous worst home loss, a 25-0 thrashing by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002. I was there for that Chris Redman-led mess too, but at least then the club had an excuse – it was the opening game following the 2001 salary cap purge and the Bucs were on their way to a Super Bowl winning season.
I’m not a nuts and bolts student of the game like some of my colleagues on this web site who can break down line play and schematics. I’m just a fan. But my friends and I who sit in section 134 have compiled a few simple questions:
Did they get lulled into a false sense of security by the Dolphins loss to the Bills earlier in the day?
Why do the Patriots consistently throw to the middle of the field and the Ravens don’t?
Why do little gnat receivers like Julian Edelman and Danny Armendola consistently get open but 6-foot-plus wide outs like Jacoby Jones and Torrey Smith can’t separate themselves from inside a paper bag?
How can the Ravens be inside the Patriots 5 yard line twice and Vonta Leach not be in the game as a lead blocker?
Why did John Harbaugh go for a field goal when the Ravens were 20 points down?
Has Jim Caldwell morphed into Cam Cameron II?
Joe Flacco played a terrible game, knee brace or not. If I can see the wide-open receivers he missed from my corner end zone seats, why couldn’t he? His receiver selection was baffling. The entire game plan was baffling. The Ravens defense played a banged up Patriots offensive line and only sacked Tom Brady twice while giving up 142 yards rushing.
The only purple studs in the stadium were the fans. All 71,433 of them. I was astounded that most of them were still in their seats well into the 4th quarter. It took a bone-sucking Patriots drive leading to a LeGarrette Blount touchdown with 2 minutes left to empty the place. We are faithful if nothing else.
Here is what we are left with. The Ravens are 8-7 and will secure the 6th seed with a win over the Bengals in Cincinnati – who have a higher seed to play for, plus a Dolphins loss at home to the Jets – who have nothing to play for, or a loss by the Chargers at home to the Chiefs – who also have nothing to play for. Terrific.
The good news is that the Bengals game next Sunday will not be flexed from its 1 PM start so we will learn fairly quickly whether we can plan our January Sundays to include something other than football. As was said about the Detroit Lions last week, the Ravens have gone from masters of their own playoff fate, from being in the driver’s seat, to being passengers, and the backseat variety, too. Too many good things have to happen the right way at this point for the Ravens to progress.
This past weekend I bought a Justin Tucker bobble head doll. Too bad they don’t make they don’t make them for an entire team. Given what happened on Sunday it would have been most appropriate.
Statistics courtesy of the Baltimore Sun and NFL.com.
