Suggs shot the gap on the next series to trip up Foster and then batted down a pass on Schaub in the second quarter. Just before halftime, Suggs also defensed a pass in the flat to fullback James Casey, showing he could run in coverage. He was on the field for 30 plays in the game and showed that even if his fitness wasn’t where it needed to be, he could still be a factor. Teams once again would have to game plan around him. He would take on double teams and open up the game for Paul Kruger and Courtney Upshaw. You could see the impact he had even in a rout that was underway in Houston.
The rest of the day proved forgettable in every way for the Ravens. Flacco was mauled by Conner Barwin for a two-point safety early. Schaub threw a 25-yard TD strike to Kevin Walter and Flacco was picked off on a short throw to Torrey Smith that was tipped by J.J. Watt into the hands of cornerback Joseph Joseph, who sprinted into the end zone beginning an assault of 29 unanswered Houston points.
The same Texans defense that was picked apart by Aaron Rodgers a week earlier for 42 points brought Flacco and the Ravens to a halt. Flacco ended the day 21-of-43 for 147 yards and two interceptions. Rice had just nine carries for 42 yards.
The Ravens limped through a sobering 43-13 loss in Houston thoroughly getting dominated in every way. This was the ugly road team that continually seemed to appear.
“We lost to a very good Houston Texans team today,” Suggs said. “But there’s no sugar coating it. Let’s call a spade a spade. They whipped our ass!”
Ngata was struggling physically. Flacco made bad decisions. The defense couldn’t stop the run. They had no answer to stop yet another tight end, Owen Daniels, in coverage. The pass rush was inconsistent if not inexistent. The Ravens were humbled in Houston.
The only plus was getting Suggs back on the field and getting him off healthy. He felt good on Saturday night and wanted to get some snaps in after only practicing with the team for three days.
“We all know how important November and December are, and I had to go out and play against a team that brought the most,” Suggs said. “You step into the shower, you’re gonna get wet. And it rained tonight. This was the game I really wanted to come back for. I know a lot of folks thought I was rushing back, but I don’t want to be playing against our rivals later in the season rusty. I want to be all of Terrell Suggs for them.”
If there was any bright spot it would be the almost miraculous non-injury to offensive lineman Kelechi Osemele, who turned his ankle in a gruesome fashion and had an air cast placed on his foot and was carted off the turf in a hushed Reliant Stadium. Everyone in the stadium would’ve guessed that this was a broken ankle or something severe. Somehow, it was only a sprain and he came back onto the field and played in the second half.
Osemele, born June 24, 1989, played his college ball at Iowa State and was the first of the 2012 draft class to start and make an immediate impact with a true starting role from the outset at right tackle. He was playing in front of his family in his hometown of Houston, and the homecoming for him was bittersweet given the frightening “pop” sound he heard in his right knee and ankle on the play and the result on the scoreboard. Like several of his teammates, Osemele was raised almost solely by his mother, and was the youngest of the family with three older sisters in the house. His parents were natives of Nigeria and his father returned to his African homeland to start a business. His father was available on the phone and there were visits, but his mother worked two jobs to help support the family in Texas. He longed for more time with his father and considered moving to Nigeria, but his father encouraged him to stay in America and follow his dream to play football.
Osemele was playing, starting, and contributing, but this was an ugly homecoming for him. But the good news was that he wouldn’t miss a start all season. He had seen different outcomes the previous weekend with Ray Lewis and Lardarius Webb. “Nothing was broken,” he said. “I got some [pain-killing] shots in me. Once the pain went away, I finished up the game. I was pretty surprised when the X-rays came back. It was a blessing.”
The Ravens held the ball for less than 22 of the 60 minutes, while the Texans dominated the ground for 181 yards behind Arian Foster, who had 19 carries for 98 yards and scored touchdowns
Harbaugh was disturbed by what he saw, a thorough breakdown in all facets of the game, but especially in the secondary, which was torched on the backside all day by Schaub who finished 23-of-37 for 256 yards and two TD passes.
“The key is reacting, but not overreacting – understanding that there is opportunity in this whole thing, that it’s a 16-game season, that it’s a tough league, and if you get so enamored, self-centered around your own situation, then you kind of miss the forest for the trees,” Harbaugh said. “This is just part of the process of building a football team. As we’re building a football team that we hope becomes a great football team by the end of the season, these are the kinds of things that you’ve got to work through. And there [are] not too many teams, at some point in time, that don’t have these types of things to work through.”
