October 1st, 2006
Ravens, Week 4
Ah, this was a close game. The Ravens did just enough to win, but unlike the first few games, this was against a legitimately good team. The Ravens were fortunate the Marty Schottenheimer pulled another late game boner, trying for a 52-yard field goal, rather than just punting it or even just going for it.
The Ravens Defense was tested by the best offense they played so far this year (well, so was the Chargers Defense, but that is not really to their credit). The Ravens held the San Diego Offense to 13 points, just 6 after the first drive. That was a strong performance by the Defense, against a skilled, balanced and talented offensive team. The San Diego QB, Philip Rivers, looks like he will be a good QB. It is quite possible that San Diego made the right decision swapping Rivers for Eli Manning with the NY Giants.
The Ravens Offense is still not very good. They had more turnovers. The big positive was the Ravens’ QB, Steve McNair go the job done at the end of the game.
This was an important game for the Ravens. From this game forward, no team playing the Ravens can afford to take them lightly, because offensively and defensively, very few teams are as talented or balanced at the Chargers on both sides of the ball. When the Ravens play their best, they are going to be very, very tough to beat. What has surprised me the most is that the Ravens have now comeback twice, late in games. Granted, both teams they did that to (Cleveland San Diego) made late game mistakes. But the Ravens are playing well enough that teams cannot afford mistakes.
It seems clear to me, though, that the Ravens are not yet good enough to beat teams that don’t make mistakes. They really should have lost to Cleveland, and probably to San Diego. It would be nice if the Ravens Offense was playing better so that margin of error for the Ravens was higher, but to this point, they have passed the test.