Baltimore Ravens flip script on their biggest weakness in 27-14 win

Remember all that talk about the Baltimore Ravens offensive line and how the Broncos front seven had a huge advantage? The Ravens changed the story:

The Baltimore Ravens won the game against the Broncos in a very surprising way. The defense got off to a slow start and the Ravens offense had to keep up the pace. Think about the situation the Ravens were facing after falling behind 7-0. Everything the Ravens faithful feared, came into fruition in the first couple minutes of the ball game.

The Ravens came into this game fresh off a loss to the Bengals where the offensive line got dominated. All week long the main concern was how the Ravens would protect Flacco. Flacco gets wrecked by a sack on the first drive. Then the Broncos blocked a punt. Then the Ravens gave up a one play touchdown drive. The story was writing itself. Then everything changed.

Baltimore marched down the field like it was easy and made it a 7-7 game. The Broncos came right back with a touchdown. The Ravens game had all the markings of a shootout. Eventually, the pass rush was going to be a problem right? Wrong. The Ravens offensive line only allowed two sacks and Flacco found many open receivers down the field.

The Ravens had a good game plan against the Broncos. The ball was released quickly by Flacco. The running backs caught short passes that made the Denver pass rushers, just wasted defenders. The Ravens controlled the line of scrimmage. Matt Skura got eaten alive a week ago, by Geno Atkins. This game saw Skura hold his own and much less pressure up the middle of the pocket.

Flacco was on top of it and that helped more than anything. Pressure came off the edge and he rolled out and made a throw. Flacco took some pass rush in this game, but he kept it chasing him. Flacco kept the Broncos off balance. He even drew some offside penalties by using a hard count.

Von Miller only had two tackles in this game and neither of them was a sack. Miller was a non-factor in this game. Shane Ray and Bradley Chubb recorded the only sacks of the game for Denver. The pressure was going to deliver some results but the results were minimal.

Happiness as I love to point out, is based off expectations. A Ravens win seemed reasonable. A Ravens win where Flacco only got sacked twice and the pass rush had a small impact on the game… that wasn’t a realistic expectation. The Ravens offensive line got a huge confidence boost in this game. Marty Mornhinweg delivered one of his best game plans and Flacco executed it beautifully. The Ravens flipped the script on their biggest weakness and that is huge.