Baltimore Ravens beat Colts: The Good, bad and ugly

The ugly:

Give Greg Roman credit for changing things up in the second half, that’s good. You know what wasn’t good? His game plan coming into this battle with the Colts. Seriously, it made no sense. The biggest problem the Ravens had was it was a self containing offense, bottled up by its own accord.

The Colts were ready for the running game and the game plan of the Ravens didn’t seem to let Jackson be the franchise quarterback that he is. It’s almost like the Ravens were over-reacting to Jackson’s turnovers against the Colts. This was bottled up offensive football by play-calls.

Jackson ended the game with a very efficient stat line. He was 19-23 for 170 yards and he didn’t commit a turnover. Within the framework of the game plan, Jackson played fairly well. If the Baltimore offense went into the game with the same mindset they had in the second half, Jackson may have had 220-250 yards in this game. That’s what sticks out to me in this one, the game plan was restricting Jackson, doing the defense’s work for them and frankly it is unacceptable.

The lack of big plays in this offense is starting to be felt. J.K. Dobbins averaged 2.5 yards per carry. Gus Edwards had a worse average gain. The Ravens took no shots down the field to Marquise Brown. Everyone was excited to see Dez Bryant and he barely got a chance to play. Nick Boyle led the team in receiving yards with four receptions and 46 yards. That’s not very exciting football.

The offensive line was bad and there is no getting around it. The run blocking which was all the sudden there last week against the Steelers went missing again in Indianapolis. The offense still struggles to find identity. The offensive line is a big problem, which is nothing new.

The Colts also have a very strong defense, particularly up front. It doesn’t matter though. The Ravens have to make this work with the offensive linemen that they have and these guys just didn’t cut it on Sunday.