It’s been a few days since the Debacle in Denver and people around town are slowly peeking their heads back into daylight.
Children are going out to play again and there are no structures on fire. I gotta tell you that I was afraid there would be a giant “Closed – Nursing Our Wounds” sign at the city-county line on 295, where I entered Baltimore Friday morning.
That was some Super-sized shellacking for the Super Bowl champion Ravens in the first game of the defense of their world championship. The Broncos, whom the Ravens stunned in the playoffs last January in Denver, blew open a close game at halftime, with five second half touchdown passes from Peyton Manning. Manning, who threw for seven touchdowns and nearly 500 yards and no interceptions, shredded the Baltimore defense, doing Thursday what he didn’t do in the playoffs.
In the first test of the new look Ravens defense, the first without future Hall of Famers Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, things looked a bit askance. True, Denver managed just over 60 yards rushing, but Manning was too busy throwing on the Ravens to worry about a paltry output on the ground.
In his first game as the $120 million man, quarterback Joe Flacco did well, throwing for 362 yards and two touchdowns, as well as two interceptions. Flacco’s numbers would likely have been better had not two veteran pass catchers, wide receiver Brandon Stokely and tight end Dallas Clark, not handled passes like plates hot from the kitchen.
The Ravens’ running game of Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce did about as well as Denver’s did, which is telling, since Baltimore will depend on Rice and Pierce to supplement Flacco, if not, in some cases, bail him out.
Here’s the point where we apply the brakes to the inevitable bandwagon leaving the Ravens’ base of support. This was, after all, just the first game of the season, with, Lord help us, 15 more to come. As the new titular team leader, Terrell Suggs, noted, this was just one loss. No one should have expected the Ravens to win all 16 games this year.
With an extra few days of rest and practice before next week’s home opener against Cleveland, the Ravens should emerge in a better position. They probably won’t be playing in 90-degree plus heat. They clearly won’t be playing in Denver’s mile high altitude, and, in Browns quarterback Brandon Weeden, they certainly won’t be facing one of the best passers in NFL history on a hot streak.
And with the Steelers, Bengals and Browns all losing Sunday, the Ravens haven’t lost ground in their division, the AFC North. All that said, Thursday’s performance shouldn’t be completely written off as an outlier either. There are too many differences from last season’s team to know yet what the Ravens will be.
Last week wasn’t a complete failure for the Ravens. They bucked the rest of the NFL and agreed to help publicize the Affordable Care Act in Maryland. But a couple more games like Thursday’s and the Ravens’ season will soon be in intensive care. And that’s how I see it for this week.
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