Ravens make a complete 180 turn from performance against the Raiders

The Ravens played a great game against the Raiders in Week 5. Coming home to face the 1-4 Bears, it seemed that the Ravens should be able to keep the momentum going.

Or not.

Everything that went right for the Ravens against the Raiders went wrong against the Bears.

Against the Raiders, the offensive line played well. It opened up holes for the running backs and kept Joe Flacco clean. Against the Bears, the line was, at best, mediocre. It was unable to consistently give Flacco the time he needed, leading to Flacco having to run outside the pocket, and three sacks. Flacco had pressure on him throughout the game. The Bears front was able to get in the Ravens backfield often, leading to five tackles for loss and three QB hits. Jermaine Eluemunor, especially, really struggled in this game

Against the Raiders, Joe Flacco threw the ball downfield throughout the game. Those big plays were still in the playbook, but were vastly less than a week ago. Flacco averaged 4.4 yards per completion in this game.

It surely didn’t help Flacco that his receivers were not reliable. There were multiple drops, and they came in big spots. Breshad Perriman had a drop that led to an interception, and later a touchdown for the Bears. Michael Campanaro had a drop on a third down, on a ball that would have given the Ravens a first.

On top of that, the receivers struggled to get open. The Ravens targets Kyle Fuller often, but Fuller would not be beat. In fact, Fuller’s coverage lead to the Adrian Amos pick six. Plus, one of the Bears sack came as a result of good coverage forcing Flacco to hold the ball for too long.

Mike Wallace and Breshad Perriman were asked to make an impact with Jeremy Maclin out, but neither did so. Combined, the two had three catches for 30 yards. To be more specific 100% of those three catches for 30 yards were from Mike Wallace.

Against the Raiders, the Ravens offense were able to stay on the field for long enough to give the defense a break. But against the Bears, the Ravens went three and out so many times. Brutally, this included getting great position on the first drive of overtime, but failing to take advantage. It led to a tired defense, and it surely didn’t help that the Bears were very heavy on running the ball.

The defense gifted the Ravens so many opportunities to get back in the game, and the offense failed to do so. The defense forced three fumbles, but the Ravens only were able to score three points off of those turnovers. Most notably, after the defense forced a fumble, the Ravens drove inside the Bears 10, but Flacco ran past the line of scrimmage and threw the ball anyway on a third down. This cost the Ravens a touchdown and forced them to settle for a field goal.

But most importantly, the offense did not score a touchdown in this game. The Ravens kicked three field goals, and scored two special teams touchdowns. They reverted back to the type of performance that led to ugly games against the Jaguars and Steelers.

As opposed to many weeks, this wasn’t totally Marty Mornhinweg’s fault. Mornhinweg’s play calling wasn’t great, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been in previous weeks. It still included the check downs on third down that I can’t stand, and Flacco’s average completion was short.

Mostly, the problem was execution. Flacco did take some shots down the field. Some of the throws were incomplete because of bad throws, and some were incomplete because Flacco’s receivers didn’t help him out at all, especially with drops.

The offense was simply brutal in this game, and it was thanks to the defense and special teams that this game went into overtime. Based on the offensive display, that game as much closer than it should have been.

The loss dropped the Ravens to 3-3 on the year. All the losses have been ugly, and this one was no exception.