The Ravens mounted a comeback, then gave it up late in a 28-27 loss to Oakland. RSR staff react below…
Brian Bower
Penalties, blocking and lack of a first-half run game ended the Ravens chances of going 4-0 to start the season. Between James Hurst and Jeremy Zuttah, the offense again started slow and it proved costly.
While the defense played well throughout the afternoon, it broke when it needed to bend when Michael Crabtree hauled in his third touchdown reception of the day.
The coaching staff isn’t without fault as well including Harbaugh opting to take the penalty that led to the go-ahead touchdown and going for two in the third quarter.
Ryan Jones
If the game plan had been better the Ravens could have scored 40 points in this game. Joe Flacco was being pummeled the entire first half, but Marc Trestman kept calling pass plays. That changed at halftime and you saw the results.
The Ravens offensive line, albeit with two backups on the left side, made the worst statistical defense in the league look like the 2000 Ravens. At the end it came down to the Raiders offense versus the Ravens defense and the Raiders prevailed.
Tough loss but the Ravens are still 3-1.
Derek Arnold
The Ravens lost by 1 point. This game came down to terrible coaching decisions, from the decision to start James Hurst, to the one to go for two WAY too early, to the one to accept a penalty that gave Oakland another chance on third-and-long rather than decline the one that would have forced them to try a field goal.
This defense can keep the Ravens in a lot of games, but again proved they may not be able to be counted on to shut things down late.
It was nice to see the offense finally commit to running the ball in the second half, and have success doing so. Hopefully they keep that in mind moving forward. OL penalties doomed so many first half drives that I lost count.
Joe Polek
This one will come back to bite us at the end of the season. Cannot lose that game. The defense had good moments but on the two most important drives of the game, they got soft and allowed touchdowns.
Harbaugh made a bone-head call by accepting the penalty to try to make a stop, but instead the D allows a TD. His decision to chase points and go for 2 instead of kick the extra point might have cost us too.
There were too many dink and dunks in the passing game but the run game really helped the offense in the second half. Joe’s passing game was never a threat, and showed in the final drive with some awful throws.
Every team with have their ups and downs (see Patriots last week and this week), but this winnable game could hurt in December.
Adam Bonaccorsi
(Deep breath…)
In no particular order of fault:
-Shareece Wright with terrible coverage
-Dean Pees continued to move Jimmy Smith off of Crabtree on every TD drive
-Marc Trestman can’t call a game to save his life.
-James Hurst is a human turnstile.
-Jeremy Zuttah is a human turnstile.
-Meanwhile an active Alex Lewis rode pine.
-Shareece Wright still can’t cover.
-TERRIBLE coaching decision to go for 2 with 18 minutes left in the game.
-TERRIBLE coaching decision to accept the personal foul on a 4th down stop
-Did I mention Shareece Wright can’t cover?
I’m sure there’s more but I’m blinded by anger, especially knowing the Ravens cupcake schedule will only get tougher as the season progresses.
HOPEFULLY next week we’ll see Ronnie Stanley, Alex Lewis, Kenneth Dixon and Darren Waller. All could’ve helped today.
Brian McFarland
Pet peeve – never give up sure points early. Going for 2 in the 3rd quarter lost them the game – or, at least, what should have been a tie game at the end.
Otherwise, looked too much like last year – slow start, fight back and then have the D let down at the end. How can you hold a team to 153 yards after 3 quarters and then let them throw at will all over you in the 4th?!?
Ugh.
Ken McKusick
Lots to be unhappy about on both sides of the ball.
Carr had an eternity to throw
The offensive line fell apart with 4 holding calls and false start
Special teams gave up a big punt return
Harbaugh made a poor game-management decision and accepted a penalty when the Ravens should have accepted a short FG attempt.
It’s a bad result, but this is a case where I don’t think it says too much about the Ravens’ ability to recover next week if Stanley is back.
