Trying to be nice about it with the title of this post, but "outlast" might not have been the most accurate word to describe the way the Baltimore Ravens lost 27-14 tonight. With almost as many penalty yards as offense, the Ravens were given a couple of gifts in the form of pass interference penalties in the end zone that gave them the ball at the one yard line. However, they still only managed one TD with that field position, thanks to the 4th Red Zone interception in a close game that the team could have won but lost. Once again, the Ravens fail to beat a playoff contender when the game was on the line. Not since the early part of the season have the Ravens even looked like a playoff team andtonight the Packers exposed their weaknesses time and time again.
With Packer QB Aaron Rodgers seeing poor coverage schemes and exploiting them, the Ravens lack of a pass rush came back to haunt them like everyone said it would. The game would be based on the Ravens ability to harass Rodgers and they could not get to him and he made them pay. There is a huge difference between these two teams and perhaps the only thing they do have in common is the embarrassing amount of penalties that had this game the second most combined penalty game in NFL history.
Perhaps it is time to stop with all the post season talk for the Ravens. They are now on the outside looking in, tied with enough teams to have to rely on others to help them get in. Even if they did, they'd most likely be one and done,as their offense is so vanilla and the defense has so many holes that not even Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs could have made the difference tonight.
No, once again, when they started so poorly and were shut out in the first half, they had a chance to come back from a 17 point deficit until Joe Flacco threw them out of the game with another poor Red Zone interception. His mistakes in this game, be it the decision to throw when he shouldn't have, or not throw when he should have, cost the team the chance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Unfortunately, Flacco's poor decision-making mean that this team is exactly what their record states they are, and at 6-6, that is just an average team - at best.
More tomorrow.