Bounces go Carolina’s way in 36-21 defeat.
Sunday, October 28, 2018: The present-day National Football League seems to be designed to relegate every team to an exasperating state of mediocrity. The Baltimore Ravens have fallen deep into that trap.
Since winning Super Bowl XLVII six seasons ago, Baltimore has played to a middling 44-44 regular-season pace, making the playoffs just once over that span, and reaching the halfway mark of every season but one with a mark of 4-4 or worse.
The exception was the 2014 playoff year, in which the Ravens finished their first eight games at 5-3. That season, they got their fifth win over an NFC South team, the Atlanta Falcons.
Coach John Harbaugh’s men wanted to duplicate that feat Sunday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, but they couldn’t. A sloppy, mistake-filled effort resulted in a 36-21 loss to the host Panthers (5-2) before 73,843 sun-drenched fans.
The Ravens’ introduction to the NFC South–a rugged division that put three teams in last year’s playoffs–was a rude one last week. They lost their only October home game to the New Orleans Saints on a shockingly wayward, last minute, point-after touchdown by uber-accurate kicker Justin Tucker.
And with the franchise’s historic Achilles heel of an October road game, the Ravens turned in an effort that saw its top-ranked defense allow its highest point total of the year–with 13 of the points coming off Baltimore turnovers.
Before its bye week, Baltimore begins its second half by playing the first of three intradivision home games. The opponent will be archrival Pittsburgh Steelers. Including the postseason, the game will mark the 50th-lifetime meeting between the teams (Sunday, November 4; 1 p.m.; WJZ-TV, WIYY-FM).
But before that game’s significance can be measured, the Ravens (4-4) had to see if they could poke their head above .500 before. instead incurred the third loss in four games after a 3-1 start.
Before a 27-point Panther run made things go sour, the Ravens began the game seemingly inspired by what New Orleans did in its win at Baltimore last week.
Baltimore began by using short, quick passes for ball control–just as the Saints kept the ball on the ground last week. Once inside the Panthers’ red zone, they switched to the ground, getting a 14-yard touchdown run by Alex Collins after quarterbacks Joe Flacco (22-for-39, 192 yards, touchdown, two interceptions, two sacks, 56.8 rating) and Lamar Jackson gained 30 yards on a pair of runs.
The 75-yard, 11-play jaunt put the Ravens on the board first and ate up seven minutes off the clock. It kept Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton off the field and helped the offensive line–using backup Hroniss Grasu at left guard and rookie Orlando Brown, Jr. at right tackle due to injuries–get acclimated.
On their next drive, the Ravens were backed up against their own end zone but ran a Saints-like fake punt on fourth down. However, an illegal-shift penalty wiped out the first down. The Ravens punted and the Panthers ended up with good field position.
Four plays and 54 yards later, Carolina tied the game on a Christian McCaffrey 11-yard run. The dual-threat back, who gained 45 yards on 14 carries, bounced off the pile, found open space against a lack of containment, and outraced safety Tony Jefferson to the end zone. That play capped off a drive that saw receivers Devin Funchess and DJ Moore (Maryland) make intermediate-depth receptions to set up the touchdown.
t was the first time the Ravens’ top-ranked defense had allowed any first-quarter points in five weeks. Meanwhile, Newton was on his way to a day that saw him gain 271 yards of total offense. The Ravens got 325 as a team.
Newton (21-for-29, 219 yards, two touchdowns, 116.9 rating; 52 rush yards, touchdown) was able to avoid a Ravens’ defense that had posted an NFL-best 27 sacks coming into the game. Newton had only been taken down ten times before this matchup.
But the first half would see the Ravens miss on four of six third-down plays, commit six penalties, and fall victim to a few bad bounces. All of that tipped the scale in the Panthers’ favor.
The Ravens’ patchwork front five has suffered in run-blocking situations, and that contributed to the team sacrificing field position and points–not to mention momentum and control of the game.
Grasu and center Matt Skura found themselves chasing Kyle Love on a first-down play. But the Panthers’ defensive lineman hit Collins and forced a fumble that Carolina recovered on the Ravens’ 12 as the second quarter began.
It was Collins’ third fumble of the season and seventh in just over a year. It would end up with the Ravens allowing a touchdown off a turnover for the first time since Week Two at Cincinnati.
Three plays later, Panthers tight end Greg Olsen beat Jefferson on a slant and scored an 11-yard touchdown to put the home team in front. Olsen would get 56 yards on four catches with Moore contributing 90 yards on five grabs.
Things got worse for the Ravens when the Panthers drove 99 yards in nine plays, thanks in large part to Moore, who caught a 33-yard pass to start the drive and ran twice for 38 more yards.
In a fitting end to the first half, the sputtering Ravens were called twice for offensive pass interference on the same drive. Then Flacco, with the sideline as a safety net nearby, foolishly threw an interception to Mike Adams on a desperate third-and-17 play.
The Panthers turned that gaffe into three more points. Backup quarterback Taylor Heinicke put ex-Raven camp kicker Graham Gano into position for a 54-yard field goal and a 24-7 halftime lead.
The snowball kept rolling in the third quarter as Flacco rolled up on left tackle Ronnie Stanley’s leg–much in the same fashion James Hurst rolled up on Flacco three years ago and ended the quarterback’s season.
Stanley would soon return, but not even his good health could help Flacco. A midfield pass intended for Willie Snead was picked off by Captain Munnerlyn. It was Flacco’s second interception of the game and set up Gano’s 44-yard field goal. The score made it 27-7 Carolina.
The Ravens finally drove into the Panthers’ red zone for the first time since the game’s opening drive. A 75-yard, ten-play possession ended when Buck Allen curled into the middle of the field, took a Flacco pass, and got into the end zone–cutting the lead to 13 points.
Carolina answered right back, though, driving 85 yards in nine plays. Newton capped it off with a designed 12-yard run to the left against containment that did a poor job sealing the outside all day.
A two-point conversion pass was intercepted by Eric Weddle, but it hardly mattered. Gano added a 30-yard field goal before Ravens’ tight end Hayden Hurst scored his first NFL touchdown on a 22-yard pass from Jackson (4-for-5, 46 yards, touchdown, 144.6 rating).
It was a bad way to end a bad day for a Ravens team that isn’t really bad, just mediocre.
