Baltimore Sports Post

The Ravens built up a quick 19 point lead in the first half and cruised to a blowout 29-10 victory over the hapless Oakland Raiders.  The defense was relentless, the offense was imaginative and the special teams played a big roll in what was probably the most complete game the Ravens have played in all phases so far this season. 

Cam Cameron broke out some trickery with Troy Smith lining up in the same backfield as Joe Flacco.  They ran an option type play that was successful, used some of the en vogue spread/wildcat type plays and engineered a little smoke and mirrors in pulling off a long pass from Smith to Flacco.  Ray Rice, who has been playing a larger role in the offense lately, had a very good all around game contributing both in rushing and receiving.  He also showed some dependability in converting several important first downs to keep drives alive. 

Rex Ryan had some added incentive to have a good showing against his twin brother Rob Ryan the defensive coordinator of the Raiders and his defensive players did not let him down.  They flustered young JaMarcus Russel all game long registering 4 sacks and many hurries/hits.  They even started off the games scoring in sacking Russel in the end zone for a two point safety.  Although the banged up secondary played another solid game, like Miami the previous week the Raiders were able to move the ball through the air in the second half.  The Ravens maintained their #2 overall defensive rank now allowing a measly 242 yards per game.

Next week the Ravens play the division rival Browns in Cleveland.  Cleveland has been up and down so far this season looking like world beaters one week and door-mats the next.  The Browns always get up Ravens games and the Ravens always seem to come out flat when playing in Cleveland so I expect a pretty entertaining game next week between the 4-3 Ravens and the 3-4 Browns.