Overall: C
You can’t afford to miss opportunities when they present themselves, especially on the road vs. a division rival. The Ravens missed out on a chance to give themselves some distance in the division today. Joe Flacco continued his poor play at Cincinnati and the defense, which got the team back into the game, could not close the deal when it was needed the most. Injuries are starting to pile up on this team as Jimmy Smith left the game early in the 1st quarter. The secondary was never the same. It seemed like a revolving door on the OLINE as guys were coming in and out the entire game.
Offense: C –
Joe Flacco gets an F! He was not accurate today, his decision making was questionable at best and one of his two interceptions was solely on him. He also missed several receivers downfield. The RB’s get a B, as I thought Forsett and Taliaferro both ran hard and hit the holes that were there. Bernard Pierce was a healthy scratch, something I think he needs to get use to. The WR’s get a D. The team missed Owen Daniels although Crockett Gilmore did a decent job. Torrey Smith who went out for a bit with potential concussion symptoms is an all or nothing guy and Steve Smith can’t beat double coverage all game long. Michael Campanaro looked like a Wes Welker like receiver until his injury. Aiken MUST catch that ball in the end zone, which should have been a TD on a 4th and 1 call. Those lost points made a huge difference. The OLINE gets a B- as they only gave up one sack and 3 QB hits. Their push on running plays was good as well. A slow start to the game by the offense against good teams has to stop.
Defense: C
This unit is going to get a lot of negative feedback this week. Yes they gave up the winning TD, they also caused back to back 4th quarter turnovers that allowed the Ravens to take a 24 – 20 lead with 3:59 left in the game. The key play of the game was when Brooks and Franks lost sight of an under thrown Dalton pass to Sanu that went for 53 yards. While the secondary was weak overall the defense kept the team in the game today. Mosley and Smith were everywhere today as the Ravens limited the Bengals run game to under 3 yards a carry. The Bengals best run was on 1 reverse by Sanu, other than that they gave up nothing on the ground. Ngata also played extremely well. The pass rush from Suggs and Dumervil (did he even play) was not good enough. Giving up 8 first downs on 3rd down out of 14 attempts is not good enough either.
Special Teams: A
Playing with a new snapper, it was the same ole same ole. Tucker was great, Koch only punted once for 50 yards and that was only returned for 6 yards. A solid game as always by the special teams.
Coaches/Game Plan: B
Outside of a slow start I thought the team was prepared and played hard. The game plan was good on both sides of the ball. Execution is not on the coaches or the game plan. Coaches had the team ready to go. You can question not taking the 3 points in the 1st quarter but if Aiken catches that TD pass, no one would second guess. The play call worked, the execution didn’t. Jimmy Smith was a huge loss in game for this team and I thought the secondary sans 1 play held up well. The offense needed a better Joe Flacco today.
[cardoza_wp_poll id=”1254″]
