Baltimore Ravens at Cincinnati Bengals: Three Things We Learned
By Andrew Kim
Here are three things we learned from the Baltimore Ravens losing to the Cincinnati Bengals 34 to 23 in Week Two on Thursday Night Football.
Last week, we saw Joe Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens go off in a 47-3 win against a mediocre Buffalo Bills team that barely could get a drive going.
Thursday night we saw the opposite of that as Flacco was off the whole game against the Cincinnati Bengals and the defense let up three touchdowns to A.J. Green in the first half.
C.J. Mosely went down early in this game with a bone bruise but the Ravens secondary could not limit Green and Boyd as they went after Tavon Young in the slot. The Bengals played against the Ravens strengths and exposed them as this should have been a blowout.
The Ravens offensive line was overwhelmed by the Bengals defensive line and was the main reason why the offense could not get anything going till the second half. But in general, Flacco made some bad reads and throws that could have ended up as picks the Bengals defenders could have had plus the two picks Flacco did throw in the game.
The Ravens also did not capitalize on a few passes that could have been picked off (Marlon Humphery especially) and gave a big chunk plays consistently through the air.
Cincinnati’s offensive line protected Dalton well last night, as the Ravens could not generate enough pass rush to even sack him once. The Bengals did let the Ravens stop them on a few drives offensively and defensively gave up a few plays till the Ravens just gave up in the last two minutes. Instead of kicking a field with the best kicker in the NFL currently (Justin Tucker), they do short dump off plays in a row and that chewed off the clock as it pretty much signaled the Ravens just gave up instead of taking shots in the end zone.
The Cincinnati Bengals end this game going 2-0 in the AFC North as they play the Carolina Panthers next Sunday. They have a big lead in the division as the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cleveland Browns tied in Week 1 and the Baltimore Ravens fall to 1-1. They play the Denver Broncos next Sunday. The Bengals and Ravens play again in Week 10 as the AFC North will likely be decided in December.