Costly penalties and a horrid secondary led to the demise of the Ravens in a game with huge playoff implications. Matt Elam is a liability on the football field yet there’s no one to replace him. The Ravens will only go as far as their secondary allows and sadly it won’t be the postseason. ~ Brian Bower
The Ravens are an embarrassment defensively and they can thank their horrific secondary for that. They couldn’t cover a corpse with a blanket and that includes their $50M corner Webb and first round pick Elam who with each passing game is redefining the meaning of “bust”.
Dean Pees’ approach this time around was a real head-scratcher. His unit dictated pre-snap where the pressure was coming from, they didn’t mix up their pressures like they did in New Orleans and their corners played way too soft to enable the pressures to get to the slow-footed Rivers. The Ravens really don’t have corners – they have a collection of safeties that can’t cover. And by the way, Elvis Dumervil what the hell were you thinking? Oh and if you think it’s just the fans that have no confidence in this stench of a defense, how about the Ravens going for it with a pass on 3rd and 4 with 2:30 to go saving the Chargers some clock, and then lining up to fake a field goal! I guess John Harbaugh feels our pain.
Overall the Ravens blew a great opportunity to control their own destiny but unfortunately, no matter what happens from this point forward they will go only as far as their secondary will take them and that unfortunately is nowhere. They should be referred to as a tertiary. ~ Tony Lombardi
Barring a miracle finish and a lot of luck with other teams losing Ravens will once again miss the playoffs this year due to a miserable secondary that simply can’t make even one play in a critical game. Overshadowed a good game by Joe Flacco and the offense. ~ Tom Moore
A complete collapse by the Ravens coaches and players cost them a crucial win today. It was inexplicable to throw on 3rd and 4 with San Diego being out of timeouts. The coaching staff also wasted a precious timeout on a fake field goal attempt/formation that was extremely unlikely to work. That timeout could’ve been used to stop the clock after Aiken’s key grab with 2 seconds left.
The entire secondary is pitiful right now and John Harbaugh’s staff was severely out-coached in the 2nd half. The Chargers wanted to win more in the Ravens’ house, and that is 100% inexcusable. ~ Mike Fast
Monday vs. the Saints was not a must win; but today vs. the Chargers basically was. If you knew ahead of time that the Ravens would split these games, you would have wanted the results reversed.
The Ravens allowed 21 4th Quarter points, and San Diego was 9 of 11 overall on 3rd down. With the existing Secondary issues, the defense has to get consistent pressure and turnovers to compete. Not enough of either today.
The Ravens had a 10 point lead with 6:13 left. You have to close that out. The only saving graces of the day are the wins from Buffalo and New Orleans. OTOH, Cincinnati won again, and as we know; the Ravens lost both games head-to-head vs. Cincinnati, and the Bengals have better Division and Conference records. ~ Chris Stoner
The Ravens were able to overcome their pieced together secondary the last couple weeks, but they were exposed today. When the Chargers took over on their last possession you could sense the Ravens had no chance of stopping them. A gut wrenching loss for the Ravens that will make playoff berth a lot more difficult. ~ Ryan Jones
Ravens did what they had to do., and then they didn’t.
Offensively, They ran the ball well. Forsett is so fun to watch. Give him the ball 20 times every game. They also moved the ball well in the passing game, with some nice catches but also had a number if poor drops.
Defensively, they let the Chargers just march down the field time after time. The secondary played off the receivers too far and let too many catches happen.
And don’t even think of blaming the refs. The Chargers passed all over our defense, and the Ref’s had nothing to do with that.
The Ravens controlled their own fate and let a win get away. There is no excuse for losing this game at home. The Chargers played well, but the Ravens should have won this game. With a favorable schedule, the Ravens still have a chance at making the playoffs, but if they can’t stop anyone defensively, does it really matter? ~ Joe “JP” Polek
What good has spending early draft picks on defense done? Dean Pees’ wet paper bag unit had chance after chance to take this game over, and failed miserably time and again. A good effort by the offense is wasted, as are favorable results in Pittsburgh and Buffalo. No discipline, no creativity on defense, and a winnable game lost. ~ Derek Arnold
A game full of mistakes and poor play-calls in critical situations marred the Ravens’ chances to win a critical game at home. But the defensive ineptitude cemented this loss. Once Rivers’ had a bead on Pees’ blitz, the defensive coordinator backed off and played cushion coverage. In turn, the front four rush wasn’t able to make up the difference. Whenever you give up an 8-10 yard cushion in coverage, it’s easy pickings for any QB, let alone Rivers. Now the team has dropped yet another AFC game to a playoff contender. They head into a road game against Miami with a defense that can’t get a stop to save their lives. ~ Dev Panchwagh
Moral of the story is, you’re going to have trouble winning shoot-out games like this when your wide receivers drop balls and you have a terrible secondary playing against a quarterback that can win a game with the ball in his hands.
No blaming refs today. All those field goals after turnovers were haunting, as you would’ve guessed in the beginning… 3’s instead of 7’s = loser. ~ Matt Costantini
Unacceptable. There is no way the Ravens should score 33 points at home and lose. How do you line up off offsides on 3rd down? How does a 34-year-old Antonio Gates run unopposed in the secondary? On a day when the Browns and Steelers both lose, how do you not make up ground on both? The Ravens are now long shots to make the playoffs. Unacceptable. ~ Fran “The Fan” Vojik
