Ravens concoct winning recipe on offense

After weeks of trying, the Ravens seem to have discovered their offensive formula for winning football games again.

It's not pretty, and it certainly isn't what you'd expect from a franchise-caliber quarterback like Joe Flacco. But for this team at this time, it's the ideal game plan.

Instead of having Flacco throwing the ball all over the stadium like he did in the opening weeks of the season, the Ravens came out trying to establish the run.

They nickel and dime teams down the field with their passing attack using running back Ray Rice and wide receiver Derrick Mason.

And by midway in the second quarter, the Ravens are opening up the offense, allowing Flacco to take some shots down the field, as he did with the 20-yard touchdown pass to Mason early in the fourth quarter.

"We played this way against Minnesota but didn't come away with a win," said Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. "But our emphasis has been on being fundamentally sound, and I think we've been that way on offense the last two games."

The Ravens stayed with the formula in the first period, and halfway through the second, they were starting to grind down the Broncos. The Ravens rushed 35 times for 125 yards, and Flacco completed 20 of 25 passes for 175 yards. More importantly, the Ravens had the ball for 33 minutes and 37 seconds compared to 26:23 for Denver.

The Ravens also ran the no-huddle and kept the Broncos off balance. That's exactly how the Ravens won most of their games last season.

Secondary plays solid

Let's hope the Ravens cornerbacks don't get ahead of themselves after not giving up a big passing play to the Broncos.

There are high school teams in the area that have a more sophisticated passing game than the Broncos, who consistently failed to throw downfield even when behind by 16 points early in the fourth quarter.

Cornerbacks Fabian Washington and safeties Dawan Landry and Ed Reed did do a nice job tackling after short receptions, easily their best collective effort of the season.

Next week, the bombs will come again when the Ravens travel to Cincinnati.

Pressure gets to Orton

The Ravens punked Denver quarterback Kyle Orton, and the moment it occurred came with 11:27 left in the first half.

On a second and 17, Orton dropped back to pass only to be pressured by Ravens defensive tackle Kelly Gregg. Before Gregg got within two yards of Orton, he chucked the ball without stepping into the pass, and backed off afraid of being hit by Gregg.

From that point on, it was the Ravens game to win because Orton might as well have been on the sidelines waving pom-poms with the Ravens cheerleaders.

Ravens played with urgency

Denver has been and continues to be a soft team. But the way the Ravens put pressure on Orton and protected Flacco was impressive.

The Ravens played with a sense of urgency in the trenches and mugged a Denver team that controlled the line of scrimmage in its previous six games.