The Baltimore Ravens lost a sloppy 20 – 13 game in Indianapolis against the Colts. There were a total of seven turnovers in the Ravens vs Colts matchup. The Ravens were plus one in the turnover column after giving up three turnovers and forcing four. Joe Flacco was subject to a lot of pressure from the Colts defense. Andrew Luck and the Colts offense held onto the ball and imposed their will as the game wore on.
The Ravens late comeback bid was cut short when Flacco slightly under threw a pass to Torrey Smith on a 4th down. They had the matchup that they wanted which was Smith one on one against cornerback Greg Toler. Toler was able to tip the ball away and that resulted in a turnover on downs. Flacco had a chance to make a big play a few plays earlier when he was flushed out of the pocket and attempted to throw the ball across his body and down the field to Marlon Brown.
Flacco was sacked four times by the Colts defense. Their offensive line struggled to keep the pressure from getting to their quarterback. The Ravens didn’t give up a single sack over the previous three games. Bjoern Werner is filling in for the injured Robert Mathis and had two sacks along with plenty of pressure on the quarterback. Former Raven Cory Redding was very disruptive and registered a sack as well.
Penalties were also something that showed up for the first time today. The Ravens were the second least penalized team coming into this game. They had five penalties which resulted in a loss of 36 yards. The Ravens had been able to convert on third downs pretty well during the season but only converted on one out of eleven third down situations. That contributed to the Colts domination of the time of possession. The Colts had the ball for 38:43 while the Ravens only had the ball for 21:17.
Despite being a faster tempo offense, the Colts lead the NFL in time of possession. Today showed why. They converted 47% of their third downs. Most of them coming from veteran receiver Reggie Wayne. Andrew Luck continued to throw the ball well. He made some big time throws to extend drives. One of them was a perfect dropshot just over Ravens linebacker C.J. Mosley and into the hands of DeWayne Allen for a 28 yard pickup. Luck ended up with 312 yards and one touchdown. He was good on 32 of his 49 attemps and threw two interceptions.
RANDOM NOTES
- Steve Smith Sr. had five receptions for 34 yards while Reggie Wayne had seven receptions for 77 yards in what was a battle of older receivers that were playing well
- Justin Tucker had missed two field goal attempts of over 50 yards this season but drilled a 52 yard field goal today.
- The Ravens were held to only 287 yards of offense which is over 100 yards less than their previous average of 394.2 yards
- Lardarius Webb took over the punt return duties after Jacoby Jones muffed a punt early in the game. He appears to be fully recovered from the back injury that limited him this year.
- This was the first game this season that Flacco didn’t throw a touchdown
- The Ravens 13 points was the lowest amount of points on the season and the second time that they were held to under 20 points this season.
- Rookie linebacker C.J. Mosley continued to play really well. Mosley notched his first career interception and he had a hit on Andrew Luck that resulted in an interception by Haloti Ngata.
- Ngata is the Ravens team leader in interceptions with two. Only he and Mosley have interceptions for the Ravens this season.
- The Ravens held the Colts to two scores in their five red zone visits.
The Ravens will travel to Tampa for the first of two games against NFC South teams. They will be facing a Buccaneers team that is coming off of a loss on the road the New Orleans Saints. They are a re-energized team thanks to the play of second year quarterback Mike Glennon and the emergence of newly signed free agent Louis Murphy. The Ravens return to Baltimore to host the Falcons in two week.
