With a horrific defensive performance, the Baltimore Ravens fell to the Oakland Raiders week 2 of the 2015 NFL season. Our staff reacts to the performance…or lack thereof.
Tyler Lombardi
Well, folks. We have to face facts. The 2015 Ravens aren’t very good. The defense had its worst day since Week 9 in Pittsburgh last season, and Joe Flacco overthrew two wide open receivers for touchdowns. While I can’t exactly pin the loss on the offense, those are two plays that really need to be made. Steve Smith could have made an effort, again, however, on a not-so-good ball.
The last drive was par for the course for the defense. They were awful all day. Timmy Jernigan makes one of the dumbest mistakes I can remember. Will Hill bumps a receiver on whom he already had good position and may have been in position to intercept the ball anyway.
And of course, the game ends with the dreaded 3-man rush. Dean Pees followed up what was a great game in Denver with one of his worst yet. Repeatedly, he rushed three in key situations and repeatedly the Ravens were scorched for big plays.
I can’t say I’m exactly excited for the rest of the year. I’m certainly not looking forward to facing an adequate quarterback next week in Andy Dalton.
Ryan Jones
For those who didn’t think the loss of Terrell Suggs was a big one they probably think differently now. One week after the Ravens looked like the worst offense and best defense in football, this week was the polar opposite. They couldn’t get off the field and couldn’t stop the Raiders when it mattered most. They’ve now dug themselves a hole that will be difficult to dig out of.
Joe Polek
The offensive line and running backs did their job. The receivers did a real good job (mostly). The defense have up way too much and Flacco want back to bad old habits. Count the amount of times he threw lob passes off his back foot, and not one was completed. That is all on Joe. Step in to it and fire.
I want to thank “The Queen City Ravens Nest”. Got to watch the game with about 100 Ravens fans in downtown Charlotte today. Great group of displaced Ravens fans.
Nadeem Kureishy
We’ll hear from Trestman that “This is on him”. That’s what he used to say every week in Chicago. The Ravens offense went pass heavy throughout the entire game. This is a typical Trestman offense. We didn’t see any naked bootlegs, power runs out of the I-formation, or any other plays that were successful last year. The Ravens should have closed out the game with the power run game, but tried to get cute with passes. The defense is a flat out mess. I struggle to understand why Pees continues to rush 3 and drop 8 into coverage. It just hasn’t worked. There was no pass rush and the secondary was horrible. Anyway… onto the 2-0 Bengals.
Adam Bonaccorsi
Where do I start with this one? Bad penalties, absolutely no pass rush to speak of, secondary with a 10 yard cushion all day giving Carr whatever he wanted and Joe ends it with 2 terrible passes. If the D can’t figure it out and soon, this could be a very long and ugly season.
Looking up from the cellar after 2 weeks is unacceptable for this team. And it doesn’t get any easier than this matchup all year.
Mike Fast
First and foremost, give credit to the Raiders for playing better and wanting it more.
Secondly, that was as poor and lifeless of a pass rush the Ravens have put forth in a very long time. They made Derek Carr look like Aaron Rodgers.
Joe Flacco, and just about every offense player, played a very good game. They made a lot of plays–more than enough to win. Yet Baltimore’s defense let the team down and cost them the game. I really hesitate to say that, as I know football can be a game affected by many players on both sides of the ball. But when you think about it, besides Hill’s interception (which was big), what did the defense do right?
Brian Bower
Certainly not what the Ravens expected after spending the week out west in preparation for this game. The defense was putrid beginning up front with the three man pass rushers to the play of the secondary. Missed tackles again haunt the team and have put the Ravens in an almost impossible hole to get out of.
On offense the Ravens took advantage of a suspect secondary with Steve Smith Sr. having a career day. Smith Sr. passed Torry Holt for the 13th on the NFL’s all-time receiving yards list. Crockett Gillmore shined with his two touchdowns.
Anytime you hang 33 on the Raiders and lose, you never deserved to win in the first place.
Drew Forrester
One of the Top 10 worst regular season losses in the Harbaugh-Flacco era.
No one on the defensive line showed up; Jernigan, Canty, Williams, Davies — all no shows.
Dumervil had ZERO impact on the game. They really missed Suggs in a lot of different ways, including
that QB keeper by Carr in the 3rd quarter that led to the TD that put them up 30-20. Suggs would always stay true to the edge there and negate that play; Webb ran right by the QB.
The Flacco-to-Smith misfire with two minutes left in the game came back to haunt the Ravens, obviously, but this one is all on the defense. The Jernigan penalty was stupid and the Hill penalty was Murphy’s Law at that point. You just knew the refs were going to get involved at some point.
It’s tough sledding now for the Ravens, particularly on defense. This one is going to sting for a couple of weeks.
Tony Lombardi
The Ravens defense was pathetic. I had horrific flashbacks to the Marchibroda years. The Ravens made Derek Carr look like a right-handed Ken Stabler. So much for the San Jose project. Oh and by the way thanks Tim Jernigan for being galatically stupid.
