Monday Hangover, Week 7: A game-changing victory

Well, that was awesome. The Ravens went into Seattle facing a proposition; get a win here and be recognized as one of the better teams in the AFC, or take a loss and drop back into relative anonymity among the rest of the conference.

They obviously did the former and they did it in style, with Lamar making some highlight reel-type plays and some new acquisitions coming in and making a big time impact in their own right. There’s a lot to talk about so without further ado let’s jump right into it:

How bout that Eric DeCosta?

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Oh man, what a game for EDC and some of the additions he’s made recently. Earl Thomas walks out of Seattle with a big revenge win, L.J. Fort was a beast at linebacker and Marcus Peters nabbed a game-changing pick six.

For the few mistakes he’s made, DeCosta has been pretty aggressive about going out and trying to fix them in a proactive manner. So far, the results have been pretty good.

Was this the biggest win of Lamar’s career?

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It’s definitely right up there. This has shades of the L.A. and Cleveland wins in 2018, but maybe even bigger than those. That’s mainly because Lamar felt like a focal point of this game as opposed to only at certain points in those victories.

Here he was the truck, and the team was the trailer. When they needed a drive, he got them a drive. When the offense stalled out near the end zone, he let John Harbaugh know he was confident they could make it happen on fourth down and he went out and did it.

He was the team’s MVP today in the toughest environment he’s faced in his career, and that counts for plenty in my book. Oh yeah, and he’s only 22 years old; people forget that.

Is the defense fixed?

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I don’t think they’ll ever be a top-five unit this season, but they showed today that they can perform well above their skis in a pinch. Part of that is DeCosta’s additions, and part of that is the talent that was already there.

The fact that Peters and Marlon Humphrey combined for 14 points today is an absolute testament to both of those ideas working in unison. At the very least, they won’t be the clown show that we saw at times in the first few games of the year - that’s perfectly fine with me.

How do we feel about this team’s ability to go snag the division title down the stretch of the season?

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John Harbaugh voice: Good!