Oh, what a night. The Monday Night Football crew spent the pregame show trying to decide if the Ravens were the best team in the AFC or a flawed offensive unit in need of more spark from quarterback Joe Flacco. Unfortunately, the Ravens and Flacco weighed in on the wrong side of that argument.
Head coach John Harbaugh will try to explain what happened at his second-day news briefing this afternoon. He'll have had time to look at the film and break down what broke down. I'm guessing everything.
Let us count the ways. Ray Rice couldn't hold onto the ball. Flacco couldn't find any receivers -- though I'm pretty sure the Ravens have some. Brendan Ayanbadejo got thrown out of the game for swinging at Jacksonville tackle Guy Whimper. He was provoked, but it was right after the Ravens stopped the Jags on third down at the 7 yardline, so you've got to show some poise there.
There was a point in the game when Flacco had a pass knocked back to him and caught it, which gave him more receptions than the Ravens had first downs in the first half. Billy Cundiff missed his only field goal attempt, which was a very tough try but might have changed the game if he had made it.
The thing that has me scratching my head the most, however, is the fact that Rice had just eight carries in the game. He clearly was in the penalty box for a series after his second fumble, and the offense steered away from him the rest of the way, which is a curious thing to do to your go-to guy. By contrast, Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew fumbled three or four times (depending on whether you count the one that didn't count), but the Jags just kept riding him all the way to a 105-yard evening.
Still, I'm going to ignore the handful of comments here from anguished fans insisting the Ravens will never win with Harbaugh and Flacco. Get a grip. The Ravens are 4-2 and have hammered the Steelers, Jets and Texans.
Clearly, their problem right now is getting mentally prepared to play mediocre teams, something they had better figure out since there are a lot of them remaining on their schedule.
