Flacco leaves the game with a concussion after Kiki Alonzo’s dirty hit.
M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE — Five days ago, the Ravens were adrift, marooned with a losing record. Their passionate fans sent out an “SOS” — Save Our Season.
Courtesy: huffingtonpost.com
It’s uncertain whether Thursday’s 40-0 win over the visiting Miami Dolphins achieved that. To make thing worse, the Ravens’ quarterback might need more saving than the rest of the squad.
Joe Flacco’s concussion is the latest in what has been a season filled with high-profile injury concerns for the Ravens (4-4), who have hit the season’s halfway point showing themselves to be an alternately dominating and hapless team.
But while the Ravens will closely monitor Flacco’s condition, they can take solace in dominating the Dolphins (4-3) for a second straight season, winning both games by a combined 78-6.
As an announced 70,408 fans looked on, it was also the Ravens’ sixth regular-season win over Miami in the teams last seven meetings.
It was the Ravens’ 12th-lifetime shutout and second of the season after going nine years without one.
The margin of victory was also Baltimore’s largest in a whitewash victory, and it was the team’s first home shutout since a 27-0 win over Pittsburgh in 2006.
Baltimore also notched its 200th-lifetime win as a franchise and snapped a three-year home losing streak in October games.
But with the Ravens now on a mini-bye before their trip to play the Tennessee Titans (Sunday, Nov. 5, 1 p.m.; WJZ-TV; WIYY-FM), the good feelings that came with the win were tempered by Flacco having to leave the game. Flacco was concussed from a head-high hit, delivered by Dolphins linebacker Kiko Alonso after a nine-yard scramble.There was visible blood coming from the cut ear of a visibly woozy Flacco.
If Flacco (10-for-15, 101 yards, touchdown, 107.9 rating) misses any further action, it will be the first time he will sit out since tearing multiple knee ligaments two years ago against the then-St. Louis Rams.
While Alonso is sure to be fined and suspended, he was not ejected for the helmet-flying hit. But Miami was penalized half the distance to the goal line; the Ravens scored soon thereafter.
The hit, which took place while Flacco was sliding and giving himself up on the play, touched off a mini-brawl on the field.
The entire team seemed inspired and angered by the hit. “Our quarterback went down, and we took it personally,” linebacker CJ Mosley said. “We’re just looking out for our family.”
In the third quarter, things got worse health-wise, as left tackle Ronnie Stanley — ostensibly, the only offensive line starter to play all year — left the game with a shoulder problem, moving James Hurst over into his spot and newcomer Luke Bowanko getting inserted at left guard.
Stanley would eventually return but leave again early in the fourth quarter with a right-leg problem.
Despite Flacco’s removal from the game, the Ravens’ offense seemed to immediately come to life. The return of healthy receivers Jeremy Maclin (shoulder) and Breshad Perriman (concussion) helped in that regard, although the latter (again) didn’t contribute much.
Maclin (53 yards, three catches, touchdown) hauled in a well-thrown 34-yard touchdown pass along the sideline midway through the first quarter to give the Ravens a 7-0 lead. But the score was set up by Sam Koch’s 53-yard punt that backed up the Dolphins’ bottom-ranked offense inside its own ten-yard line.
At that point, the Ravens’ revamped defense — taking slower veteran Lardarius Webb out of the slot and inserting Anthony Levine and occasionally Brandon Carr — forced a Miami punt, and the Ravens took over on the Dolphins’ 40, leading to the touchdown.
Courtesy: Sporting News
Maclin’s return was important, as the scoring catch was his third of the year, half of Flacco’s scoring tosses to that point.
Not only that, but the early touchdown pass opened up the run game, and the Ravens were able to penetrate the Dolphins’ fifth-ranked run defense, especially by double-teaming stalwart defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh.
Alex Collins (113 yards, 18 carries) gained 42 yards on six first-quarter carries, but Buck Allen (55 yards, 17 carries) dominated an early second-quarter possession that ended with Justin Tucker’s 55-yard field goal that pushed the Ravens’ lead to ten points.
It was Tucker’s 31st field goal of 50 or more yards since he came into the league in 2012, most in the NFL over that span.
The Ravens continued to dominate both lines of scrimmage with a more physical, aggressive, unpredictable mode of play that they hadn’t shown much to this point all season.
On defense, Brandon Williams played more on the nose so that tackles Carl Davis and Michael Pierce could also be on the field simultaneously. Right guard Matt Skura returned from injury to start on the offensive line, and he and feisty center Ryan Jensen won their double-team matchup against Suh.
This grind-it-out approach led to Tucker’s 48-yard field goal and, with points on three of their first five possessions, the Ravens held a 13-0 lead midway through the second quarter.
Meanwhile, Miami running back Jay Ajayi (23 yards, 13 carries) ripped off a 21-yard gain on the game’s second play — the eighth run of 20 or more yards allowed by Baltimore, as opposed to four all last year — but was then stopped for losses on his next three carries as the Ravens’ bottom-ranked run defense, which had allowed a 100-yard rusher in its last three losses, stepped up its game.
In all, Ajayi gained just three yards on his next nine carries after his initial big gain; the Dolphins rushed for just 45 net yards as a team.
For his part, Collins became the Ravens’ first 100-yard single-game rusher after 19 games without one, the second-longest streak in the league.
The Dolphins didn’t cross midfield until there were six minutes left before halftime, and were forced to punt after each of its first five possessions.
Miami’s first foray into Ravens territory went as poorly as the rest of the visitors’ evening, as kicker Cody Parkey’s 50-yard field goal sailed wide right, his first miss of the year on nine attempts.
The Ravens answered back after the two-minute warning with Ben Watson’s one-yard touchdown catch from Ryan Mallett (3-for-7, 20 yards, touchdown, 89.9 rating), who had to come in after Flacco was injured. Fittingly, Watson beat Alonso to a spot in the end zone to gather in the pass that made it 20-0.
Miami quarterback Matt Moore (25-for-44, 176 yards, two interceptions, three sacks, 47.2 rating), subbing for the injured Jay Cutler (ribs), couldn’t rally Miami the way he did last week when he directed a 17-point fourth-quarter surge in a win over the New York Jets.
The Ravens’ defense had a lot to do with that.
Early in the fourth quarter — a period that had seen the Dolphins dominate their opponents by a 41-10 margin coming into this game — Mosley picked off Moore and ran it back 63 yards for a touchdown that sealed things even more tightly.
It was the Ravens’ first pickoff/score since Jimmy Smith turned the trick with a 24-yarder at Denver two years ago. That was appropriate because Smith would add a 50-yard score of his own with another interception of Moore; it was the Ravens’ first game with two interception runbacks for scores since November 2010, at Carolina.
Random bounces went the Ravens’ way, too, as an Allen fumble was pounced on by Chris Moore in the end zone for another touchdown.
By then, the game had long since been saved.
But it’s uncertain whether the same could be said for the Ravens’ season… or their quarterback.
