Drinking The Purple Kool Aid

Bengals 15, Ravens 10 September 20, 2010

Bengals 15, Ravens 10

An awful lot to dislike in this game, with the sort of reaction a lot of PTSD people get when triggered by a familiar stimulus. That’s not to say, however, that it was a total disaster. Always the optimist, here’s a quick assessment of what exactly happened in the Queen City.

OFFENSE

It’s easy to throw darts at Joe Flacco, who had his worst game as a pro. Three reasons why he’s going to avoid them from this post:

1. Something was physically wrong with him in the first half. A lot of the throws looked like they were being tipped by invisible defenders.
2. The Mason TD neutralizes two of the four picks. It was that good a throw.
3. Playcalling.

The third is the real mystery, bringing up frightening reminders of the “Let’s Get Cute” Billick era. When Flacco is struggling, you just run Ray Rice alliteratively. At times, it seemed Cam Cameron thought he was still playing the Jets, who did do a masterful job at shutting down the pint-sized Scarlet Knight. While Flacco was terrible, he wasn’t given any help by his coordinator.

For a bit of Monday Morning Quarterbacking, it’s time to come to terms with what Flacco is: the streakiest quarterback in the league. When he heats up, he’s almost undefendable, the kind of franchise passer of which Baltimore fans dream about erecting a statue. When he’s off, he’ll throw picks in bunches. While stats are painfully misleading, these show at least a bit of a pattern. Flacco has 39 career starts (including postseason) and 35 career picks. 27 of them came in 11 games. Three of those brutal games were in Flacco’s first five games as a pro and seven of them were on the road. The moral of the story? When Flacco is comfortable, he’s what we hope he is. When he’s not, three R’s come to mind.

DEFENSE

Tom Zbikowski, Dawan Landry, and Cory Redding have all dropped interceptions this season. This incarnation of the D doesn’t create as many splash plays as they have in the past. But, in a manner that invokes images of the 2000 team, you can’t do anything against them. Opposing talent is not a reason, either: the Bengals have plenty of weapons and the Jets evidently aren’t as bad as the Ravens made them look. The Bengals and Jets have combined for 24 points and 429 yards against them, compared to 52 points and 764 yards against the Patriots who are mediocre, but certainly not bad. The only thing this unit is missing right now are the turnovers in bunches that great defenses are used to. The secondary was the so-called weak point of the team in preseason and frankly hasn’t been one. Chris Carr, Fabian Washington, and Tom Zbikowski have all played great, despite all being presumed depth chart backups. They’ll keep the Ravens in every single game this season.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Why is it that when you bring in an offensive guru like Billick, the offense doesn’t work and the same is true of bringing in a special teams guru? The coverage units have been really, really bad this season, giving up big plays that could have been huge plays if Sam Koch wasn’t the best tackler on the field at the time. It has to get remedied or it will be what lets the great defense down.

How I’m Feeling

Good. You should too. The Ravens lost a close game on the road on a short week to a team that’s had their number for the last couple seasons. Next weekend has hugely Pyrrhic potential, as anything less than a total demolition of the lowly Browns will go into the ‘We Won, But…’ category talk radio meatballs like to wallow in. Flacco and the offense should do some stat padding at home.