The Ravens and Joe Flacco showed up to play in Tampa on Sunday. The Ravens were looking to get a shaky looking season back on Track. Baltimore could not have played any better to show that the whole team was all in for a better season. Flacco and the Ravens offense put on what had resembled a record setting performance in the first half. Their defense even showed up against the struggling Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Though losing a tough 48-17, the Bucs were not all terrible on the stat sheet. Besides the 1 win and 5 losses, 3 being at home. Tampa's offense wasn't awful, but no where near any good.
Flacco lead his Ravens in the first half scoring on six straight possessions. He was the first NFL quarterback to throw five touchdown passes in the first half since Tom Brady in 2009. He threw TDs to four different receivers and completed passes to 5 other Raven receivers. Torrey Smith caught the first 2 TD's in the first 6 minutes of the game. That was more than what he had in his previous 10 games combined! Kamar Aiken, Steve Smith and Michael Campanaro would follow for a lead early in the second quarter putting the score at 35-0. The Ravens running game also came to Tampa with Forsett rushing for 111 yards on 14 carries, with his longest being 52 yards. Pierce also rushed for 32 yards on 15 carries. Flacco's passing was a pretty outstanding stat on the post game sheets. However one of the more important in my eyes is the "Sacks-Yards Lost" going 0-0 on the day for the Ravens. Meaning their offensive line put a whooping on the Bucs defense. Being a retired Center myself, that always puts me in a good mood! I think it's safe to say that Flacco's arm was better Sunday than the Buccaneers Pirate Ship cannons in the North Endzone. Giving the Ravens the edge in this game.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers on the other hand were not up to the challenge on Sunday. With Cornerback Alterrraun Verner and the Bucs shaky defense gave up a staggering 48 points. You can really only describe it as sloppy play and nothing else. The Bucs offense was riddled all game as well. The same stat of Sacks-Yards Lost that the Ravens did so well in, was the downfall of the Buccaneers. Tampa Bays offensive line gave up 5 sacks for a loss of 37 yards.The Bucs quarterback Glennon was sacked or put under duress on 26 of his 49 dropbacks. YUCK. If you do the math that's 53% of his drop backs that were disrupted. That is absolutely a garbage performance by the long time struggling Buccaneers. The only good stat that I can think of is Glennons performance despite being chased more than half the time of possession. Matt Glennon threw for 2 TDs, 314 yards completing 53% of his passes and only 1 interception. That is really all I have to say about the sad looking team. The Bucs are the first team in the last 14 seasons to be outscored by at least 35 points in a half, twice in single season.
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