Ravens Survive Chiefs 9-3; Game Notes

Oct 7, 2012; Kansas City, MO, USA; Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice (27) runs for a first down against Kansas City Chiefs safety Abram Elam (27) and linebacker Tamba Hali (91) in the first half at Arrowhead Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-US PRESSWIRE

The Ravens did not win today, they just managed to avoid losing. They will walk away with a 9-3 victory. here is what I saw.

-The Ravens defense in the second half was excellent when compared to their first half. After giving up 125 yards on 23 carries to Jamaal Charles in the first half, they limited him to just 15 yards on seven carries in the second half. The Ravens much maligned passing game held the Cheifs to a total of 124 yards between Brady Quinn(32) and Matt Cassel(92) and snagged two interceptions. It is worth noting that both were tipped passes.

-Cary Williams had his best game of the season. he tipped one ball that was then picked by Lardarius Webb and then got an INT for the second consecutive week on a pass dropped and tipped by Dwayne Bowe. He allowed a few catches, but mostly against Dwayne Bowe who had to work hard to get them. There is no shame in that. The Ravens secondary has now allowed just 2 passing TDs total, zero in man coverage, and forced 6 INTs. Fans need to get a grip and realize that this position group has had an incredible start to the season.

-Big props to Justin Tucker who was 3-0 on the game and is now 10-11 on the season further proving that the Ravens made the right choice by gambling on him. Billy Cundiff is now 7-12 on the season for the Redskins after going 2-6 over the past two weeks.

-Joe Flacco had a decent second half to recover from a first half where he failed to reach 85 yards, but he still struggled. He did pick up a huge first down on a 12 yard run. Flaccos numbers were bad, but don’t rush to blame it all on him. the Ravens WRs and TEs dropped 6 passes(5 on third down) and failed to catch 8 additional catchable balls. take away the drops and cut the catchables in half and Flacco has somewhere in the neighborhood of 23-27 passing for 285ish yards and at least one score(first quarter drop by Boldin where he would have walked in). Flacco was also sacked 4 times and hit an addition 9 times. to have 13 sacks/hits on 27 drop backs is inexcusable for the OL. I don’t have an official number of hurries, but I would be willing to bet it was at least 17.

-dovetailing on my last comment, the OL has got to be better than they have been the past two weeks. they have allowed Flacco to get hit on almost 60% of his drop backs, that number needs to be cut at least in half.

-Ray Rice has crossed the 100 yard mark again, this time on just 17 carries. averaging 5.88 yards per carry. Rice also had a 16 yard catch, but he dropped two other passes(both on third down).

-The Ravens pass rush was decent today, they didnt register a single sack but there were only 18 Chiefs passes attempted in the game. Cassel was forced out of the pocket and on the run several times and was also hit several times including a vicious hit by the trio of Pernell Mcphee, Paul Kruger and Haloti Ngata that knocked him out of the game.

-The Ravens were saved by turnovers today. They picked off Matt Cassel twice and recovered 2 fumbles for a turnover margin of plus 2(Flacco was picked once and Deonte Thompson fumbled on a kickoff). The Ravens are now plus 7 for the season.

-The Ravens have a long week ahead of them as they prepare for the Dallas Cowboys. Dallas is a better team than Kansas City and it will take more than 9 points to beat them. The Ravens have to play more disciplined and sharper next week.

-The Ravens will hold on to their division lead for at least two more weeks as the Bengals lost this week to the Dolphins. The Steelers won, but would have to win next week with a Ravens loss to hold a tie for the division lead, the same is true for the Bengals.