Ravens beat Bengals 23-17: The good, bad and ugly

The Bad:

While the defense got some praise out of me, you cannot ignore the problems they showed on the field. The pass coverage was much improved however there were still a couple of plays with wide open pass catchers. One blown coverage led to C.J. Uzomah being wide open down the middle of the field for a lengthy completion. The pass rush should have been a lot better against an offensive line that is considered one of the worst in football. The Ravens only got two sacks in this game and the pass rush was non-existent for most of the game. It was easily the biggest frustration in this game.

The Ravens had 10 penalties, while the Bengals had four. This isn’t an entirely fair thing to gripe about considering the officials made some very questionable calls. The problem is that it is still a trend for the purple and black. If you take away three penalties that I deemed completely frivolous, you still have seven flags thrown against Baltimore. This is something that John Harbaugh has to address moving forward. This is something that will cost the Ravens games.

It would have been nice to see the ball in the end zone a couple more times in this game. Baltimore scored two first quarter touchdowns and settled for a field goal in the following three quarters. On the final possession (not counting the three kneel downs) Jackson and company could have iced the game completely with a touchdown. The Ravens have to get better at putting the ball in the end zone.