Losing late against Buffalo, a strong Super Bowl favorite, I get it. Losing a fourth quarter lead against a good Miami team was tough, but Sunday’ 24-20 to the NY Giants was, well, unacceptable.
The Ravens have been in command of every game they’ve played this season, but all it means is a 3-3 mark. The Ravens are led by one of the most dynamic players in the NFL, Lamar Jackson, who often can turn something bad, into something good. Today against New York, his flair for the dramatics was his undoing.
After picking up a bad snap, Jackson, throwing off-balance, was picked off, and handed the Giants a game-winning touchdown. That error came exactly one play after the Ravens wiped out a first down by lining up incorrectly. Are you kidding me? That’s a college team mistake, a bad college team mistake.
But those two plays summed up the afternoon and the Ravens’ season so far. Today Baltimore outplayed New York on both sides of the ball, but inconsistency and carelessness cost the Ravens dearly.
Today against the Giants, as well as previous losses to both Buffalo and Miami, the Ravens dominated the game in the first half. How dominating today? Baltimore held a 256-90 advantage in total offense, but, thanks to seven penalties, and a (gasp) missed field-goal attempt from Justin Tucker, the halftime score was only 10-7 Ravens. You could sense it coming.
And it did indeed come, but only after Baltimore again built a double-digit lead at 20-10. And the collapses are, again, self-inflicted, with the Ravens beating themselves with inexcusable penalties.
Give Jackson credit for owing the mistakes. He took full accountability in the Baltimore postgame press conference. Jackson said all the right things, like “I’ve got to play better” and “smarter.”
But in the end, another week, another collapse by the Ravens, who again found a way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Today in the end, it was two horrible Jackson turnovers that will get all the attention, and deservingly so; the fourth quarter interception was downright ugly.
A disturbing trend for the Ravens is that this was the third straight week that Jackson was not-on-target with his receivers, especially Devin Duvernay. In the second quarter, Jackson missed a wide-open Duvernay in the end zone and again in the third quarter. The usual Jackson to mammoth tight end Mark Andrews combination is no longer automatic, with Jackson overthrowing Andrews on a potential 40-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter.
Baltimore finished the game with 10 penalties for 74 yards, lost a fumble, had an interception, and scored one touchdown in three tries in the redzone. Again this week, I found myself questioning the thought process by the Ravens offensive coaching staff. Why not run the ball behind a strong offensive line and an extra running back and Jackson on every snap?
So far, the Baltimore fan base has had coach John Harbaugh’s back, some minor finger-pointing, but placing the blame on the players and lack of execution.
Eventually, the execution failures, the fumbles, the picks will fall back to coaching. Today the Ravens were simply unprepared to finish off a Giants team that was more than ready to be finished. Baltimore could do nothing but look at the final score in total frustration, wondering again when they will stop giving away wins.
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