Baltimore Ravens-Jacksonville Jaguars post-game thoughts

I don't know how much there is to say about yesterday's rout of an undermanned Jacksonville team (I think even the '04 Ravens had better receivers). After a somewhat shaky start, for all practical purposes we put this game out of reach with a picture-perfect, 21-point 2nd quarter. By halftime, I was more interested in the Jets-Dolphins scoreboard than in anything taking place at M&T Bank Stadium.

There is much that I'd like to say about this season---both what we have seen through 16 games and what we can expect to see throughout the playoffs (whether they consist of 1 game or 4). Unfortunately, I have very little time this week---hopefully I'll find some time before next Sunday's kickoff in Miami, but for now I shall confine my analysis to what we saw against the Jags.

1. Joe Flacco: I took some heat from a good friend for being too critical of Flacco's performance last week in Dallas. There shall be no such negativity in this space today: 17 of 23 for 297 yards; a 48-yard bomb to Mark Clayton, a 39-yard strike to Derrick Mason, another bomb to Clayton for 47 yards; check-downs to McGahee and mid-range tosses to the receivers to convert key 3rd downs; zero turnovers.  And he did it at home, where he'd been struggling of late. After a brief flirtation with the "rookie wall," it seems our rookie QB has found his second wind ... just in time for the playoffs.

2. Receivers: For the second time in the past five games, Mark Clayton was the sure-handed deep threat we've all been waiting for. He torched the Jaguars secondary for 128 yards on 4 catches, all of them coming in the first half, before the Ravens offense basically handed the game over to the defense to close. Derrick Mason turned in another gutsy effort in a game we had to have (thanks to that egg the Bills offense laid in Buffalo)---thankfully, the left arm didn't appear to bother him as much as it did in Dallas. Todd Heap continued his solid second half (since being shut out in Cleveland, he's averaged 3 catches and 33 yards per game --- still short of what Ravens fans might have expected in a Cam Cameron offense, but then again, Flacco's only been averaging about 15 completions per game during that stretch). Even Troy Smith and (tight end-slash-linebacker) Edgar Jones got into the act. Marcus Smith again failed to catch the one ball thrown his way (though he did have a nice day covering kicks). 

3. O-Line: Another solid day for the unit that, perhaps more than any other, has given our offense a chance to compete every week. Flacco had all day to light up the Jacksonville secondary (of the three sacks, two occurred on QB scrambles, and the other occurred in the 4th quarter with the game all but sewn up), and the running backs, though they only averaged 3.7 yards/carry, did score two of their three TDs running through gaping holes in the Jaguars' defense.

4. Discipline: The penalty count spiked a bit: 7 flags for 55 yards, including 2 personal fouls. Neither ended up haunting us, but after a generally clean season, that warrants some concern heading into the playoffs. In terms of focus, both sides of the ball started slow --- after one quarter, the offense had only managed a single field goal in 3 tries, and the defense had surrendered 36 yards on 5 carries to Maurice Jones-Drew and an easy TD pass on a busted coverage (one of the few since the blow-out in Indianapolis). The lapse was short-lived, and we responded with 24 unanswered points en route to a laugher ... but stronger focus right from the start will go a long way toward ensuring our postseason ride lasts as long as possible.

5. Coaching: On the one hand, we rebounded from a sluggish first quarter to dominate a 5-10 team. That's makes us perfect in '08 against teams with losing records, a good sign that the coaching staff has the players taking each game seriously. (Compared to Atlanta's near collapse against St. Louis and Carolina's near collapse against New Orleans, that 27-7 final looks even better.) On the other hand, some questionable personnel decisions and a bit of 4th-quarter showboating raise a few (for the moment) minor concerns heading into playoffs. For one, Cam Cameron, what on earth was Joe Flacco doing throwing to Derrick Mason with a 27-7 lead in the 2nd half? Mason caught his final pass with 11:43 remaining, and 2 minutes later, Flacco was sacked 9 yards behind the line of scrimmage. That, my friends, is called playing with fire, and in light of the concussion suffered by Ben Roethlisberger on an equally meaningless play against Cleveland, we were fortunate to escape without injury.

And what of that final drive, when a mere 1:42 stood between us and certain victory and yet Troy Smith was still throwing passes to back-up tight-ends and handing off to 4th-string running backs rather than taking a knee? Those who are charitably inclined might chalk it up to letting the backups have some fun at home to celebrate a very satisfying regular season. Others (myself included) might call it needlessly prolonging the game and embarrassing an already humbled opponent. This in the wake of reports (by Mike Preston) that certain Ravens were caught taunting Dallas fans at the end of the Cowboys game. Let us hope that the classy organization that has showed up for 15 and 3/4 games  is the one that shows up for the postseason. It would be a real shame to allow a return to Billick-era knuckleheadedness to even slightly tarnish all that Harbaugh and company have achieved.