The Baltimore Ravens didn’t waste much time asserting themselves against the Denver Broncos Sunday afternoon. Baltimore ran up and down the field on Denver’s defense, even going over them at times in their 31-17 win.
From the kickoff, Baltimore established their offense for the day. Joe Flacco, on the team’s third offensive play, threw a bomb to rookie tight end Ed Dickson for 58 yards. Dickson was covered by safety Brian Dawkins, who didn’t have a chance at breaking up that pass. That play put the Ravens at the Denver 17.
Although the Ravens didn’t score on that possession, as they tried to score a touchdown on fourth-and-one instead of kicking a field goal, it showed Denver that the Ravens were going to do what they wanted on offense all day long.
Quickly, Baltimore’s defense got the ball back in the offense’s hands and this time, they capitalized. In nine plays, from their own 39, the Ravens marched down the field and punched it in the end zone with a Joe Flacco quarterback sneak for a 7-0 lead.
On their next possession, the Ravens again made quick work of the Denver defense, marching 72 yards on six plays for their next score. That touchdown was delivered by Ray Rice on a one-yard run for his first touchdown of the season.
Baltimore scored shortly after their drive because of a fumble by Demaryius Thomas. Thomas’ fumble was caused by a monster hit by Jason Phillips and Ken Hamlin recovered to give the Ravens another possession. The Ravens settled for a field goal to go up 17-0.
At the end of the half, Kyle Orton hit Brandon Lloyd for a 42-yard bomb to cut the lead to 17-7. Denver also got the ball to start the second half. However, Baltimore’s defense bottled up Denver and gave the ball back to the offense after four plays.
The Ravens scored two more touchdowns, putting the game away early in the fourth quarter and establishing themselves as one fo the front-runners in the AFC, if not the NFL.
Looking ahead, Flacco still needs to be more consistent. There were times Sunday that Flacco looked lost and other times when he was unstoppable.
The running game got going, gaining 233 yards against a defense that was solid for the first four games of the season. Previously, the Broncos held Chris Johnson under 100 yards.
Next week, the Ravens will face the New England Patriots. This game is a rematch of last year’s wild-card playoff game that the Ravens won. Historically, the Ravens have never beaten New England in the regular season. That could change this week, but it will be a tight, interesting game.
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