Ravens Vent Session: 5 Takeaways From Week 4 Loss

1. The Score Was Misleading

If you just looked at the score you would think that this was a shootout between Derek Carr and Joe Flacco. Carr came to play. He scored four touchdowns but that in itself is misleading. The defense did everything it could in this game. The dam broke and the touchdowns came pouring in. Two of the Raiders touchdowns were set up. One when a deflected punt led to a return deep in Ravens territory. Another score was set up with a short field due to a Ravens turnover. You can’t do that against a good team; you can’t make your defense bail out the other two thirds of the team.

When the Ravens play they never make it easy. It wasn’t exactly easy for the Raiders offense. Carr threw for only 199 yards. The Raiders rushing game played little impact into the final result. The Raiders were going to make some plays, but the Ravens gift wrapped ideal situations for their offense. The fact that Baltimore almost came away with a victory is insane.

Here is an ridiculous but true stat. The Raiders earned 13 first downs in this game while the Ravens offense had 25 first downs. That shows you two things. First of all the Raiders scored with big plays much more than sustained offense. Secondly, this shows the impact of the field position battle. Against an explosive offense the defense stood their ground. Big plays happen in the NFL, the offense has to help out.

The Ravens offense was stagnant in this game. The Ravens walked away with two field goals in the first half. The offense kept stalling. Sometimes it was because Joe Flacco was playing like a shell of his franchise quarterback self. Other times it was because of penalties. You got a healthy dose of Marc Trestman’s patented one and two yard passing plays, seven punts and a fumble. Every group of players is accountable for the Ravens offense having yet another slow start.