The Ravens lost to the Browns in Baltimore for the first time since 2007, and it was once again an overtime field goal that did them in. The Ravens are now 1-4 after a 33-30 loss and alone in the AFC North basement. Our staff reacts:
Tony Lombardi
Josh McCown throws for 457 yards (not a typo). To put things in perspective the great Gary Barnidge had 139 yards receiving. Meanwhile the Ravens No. 1 WR was shutout in the second half. NEWSFLASH: CJ Mosley couldn’t cover a corpse with a blanket. Turn out the lights, the 2015 season party is over!
Brian Bower
Piss poor performance by the defense allowing Cleveland to even make a game out of it. Costly penalties, lack of pass rush make getting off the field on third down impossible. Injuries have once again decimated the Ravens on both sides of the ball and there’s nothing that can save their 2015 season.
Adam Bonaccorsi
You can be the better team on paper, but injuries will always trump all. Losing Dumervil, Webb, Forsett, Waller & Will Davis in this game, coupled with the injuries to Suggs, Gillmore and Smith Sr. all culminated in a terrible loss to the Browns today in a game that should have been owned by Baltimore.
Injuries aside, we can also point to questionable play calling by Trestman once again, the inability of this defense to tackle or generate pressure, a myriad of penalties that were more mental that judgement calls, and ineffectiveness on third down for the D and O.
I’m honestly at a loss for words and not sure how the Ravens can come back from such a hole this season.
Derek Arnold
457 passing yards allowed to Josh McCown. 10 penalties. Allowing 12/19 on third downs. Making Gary Barnidge look like Gronk. If Marc Trestman had decided to commit to the run earlier in the game, this one might have turned out differently, but who knows with the sieve out there masquerading as the Ravens defense. Throw in a pile of additional injuries, and this one hurts in more ways than one. This one is shaping up to be a long, long year.
Brian McFarland
The slow, painful death of a season….
Nadeem Kureishy
Injuries and a lack of quality depth have finally caught up to the Ravens. Look at the draft picks from the first couple of rounds from the previous 4 years – Matt Elam (IR), Arthur Brown (Bust), John Simon (Texans), Pierce (Jaguars), Kindle (Out of NFL), Cody (Out of NFL). These are supposed to be the starters for your team and newer players are supposed to be reserves with a couple of breakthrough players starting. Add the players to a revolving carousel of Offensive Coordinators and you have the 2015 Ravens.
Mike Fast
How on earth do you let a divisional rival come into your house, run a vanilla offense, and still rack up 505 yards? Virtually all of Cleveland’s offense was a check down pass and loads of yards after the catch.
Where was the fire in the defense…the mentality that wouldn’t allow anyone, much less the Browns, move the ball at will against them?
I’m not saying they had to be perfect, but seriously, the Ravens made Gary Barnidge look like Shannon Sharpe today.
I guess it could’ve been worse, as the special teams unit played an outstanding game, limiting the electric Travis Benjamin to two yards on two punt returns.
But if the Ravens want to make the playoffs, they can’t lose again this season. Period.
Ryan Jones
The Ravens lack a killer instinct and allowed the Browns to hang around the whole game. They also made Josh McCown look like Aaron Rodgers. Nothing will come easy for this team all year because they simply have too many flaws.
Joe Polek
Win or lose, it didn’t really matter. Between injuries and penalties and just not being a good football team, the Ravens season seems like a lost cause. The defense is soft, the Secondary is poor, and the entire team is not disciplined. As much as I put into these games emotionally, it seems like the payout this season will not be a good one. Ravens fans have been very lucky to be a part of such a winning franchise. Seasons like this a few and fair between but it doesn’t make it any easier.
Drew Forrester
Clearly the worst home loss in the Harbaugh-Flacco era given the opponent, their weakness defensively, and a couple of double digit leads.
Lots to digest from this one — and as much as the Baltimore defense was clearly vulnerable and nearly-useless in the second half, the offense’s inability to get the ball into the end zone in the final minute was the real crushing blow.
Penalties were crushing, too. You can’t make those kind of mistakes (Babin lining up offsides? WTF?) and expect to win a game regardless of who you’re playing.
And just to be fair — it’s important to note that McCown played his ass off for the Browns. Sure, the Ravens secondary looks like it belongs in a Peanuts cartoon, but the Cleveland QB really manned up today.
It was a bad, bad loss. No other way to say it.
Ken McKusick
The Ravens should continue to try to win, of course, but the team is now officially in transition with both top pass rushers having uncertain futures and a MASH unit at cornerback. This season looks a lot like 2007, with a similar injury profile on defense.
The only thing truly upsetting from this point would be if the Ravens don’t use the remaining live fire this season to see what they have with some of their young players.
