Despite the choppy efforts, 6-2 at the mid point and staring at Oakland before the roughest stretch in the season provided the Ravens with a nice cushion for the back-to-back road games in Pittsburgh and San Diego later in the month. And Harbaugh thought with Suggs returning and the team’s track record of improving later in the season that they’d be ready to compete in January with their strongest effort and deepest roster.
“If you play in the AFC North, you play in outdoor stadiums – you have to be built for that,” Harbaugh said. “That’s something that we try to take into account when we draft players, when we build our schemes in, and it’s going to be important moving forward.”
The Ravens made one fundamental change during the bye week that they employed in Cleveland. Defensive coordinator Dean Pees moved from the field into the press box to get a better view of the action.
“We plan on doing that going forward,” Harbaugh said after the Cleveland win. “That was Dean’s idea. That’s something Dean talked about after the game down in Houston. He’d actually brought it up with me a few weeks before that, thinking maybe he’d be a little more comfortable doing it that way. There are a lot of different ways to do it, but I think he feels good up there where he has a little better view on everything. He can see what’s going on and make some corrections and make some adjustments without having to have it communicated. We’ve got some other guys who have been on the field. [Inside linebackers coach] Don Martindale has been on the field a lot of times in his career, so he went down on the field and did a good job of relaying the signals in. Of course, [secondary coach Teryl Austin] ‘T.A.’ and [linebackers coach] Ted [Monachino] have always been down there. So, it worked really well yesterday. The communication was very good.”
The Raiders always bring a rich sense of football history with them to Baltimore. In 1977, Oakland came to Baltimore with head coach John Madden to play the Colts in an unforgettable double overtime game that broke the Charm City’s heart on Christmas Eve. Prior, the Colts had beaten the Raiders in the AFC Championship Game in 1970 at Memorial Stadium en route to a Super Bowl V win over the Cowboys. In 1996, at the dawn of the Ravens’ existence, Al Davis brought the silver and black to Memorial Stadium for the first game in franchise history and also the first game for a rookie, first-round draft choice named Ray Lewis. The Ravens also beat the Raiders in the 2001 AFC Championship Game at “The Black Hole” in Oakland to advance to Super Bowl XXXV.
The Ravens were delighted that the team that arrived in Baltimore from Oakland on Sunday, November 11, 2012 was a far cry from any of the legendary Raiders teams of their “Commitment to Excellence” past.
This was the day the Ravens had been searching for when everything clicked and it all came together for the offense. Having a huge day throwing the ball, Flacco and the Ravens whipped the Raiders, 55-20, scoring in every way imaginable.
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Working in the no huddle offense, Flacco finished the day 21-of-33 for 341 yards and 3 TDs, a pair thrown to Torrey Smith. The defense was on the field a lot because the offense scored so quickly and with such precision. The Ravens’ big lead much of the day forced Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer to mainly throw once they got behind. He was intercepted once by Paul Kruger and sacked three other times, reminding him of his Bengals days as a signal caller in the AFC North.
The special teams continued its mighty contributions as Jacoby Jones took another deep kickoff out the end zone and 105 yards down the field for a touchdown. He also unleashed his third touchdown dance, following the “Choppa City Juke” from Philadelphia and the “Primetime Shuffle” against Dallas with a version of the old-school “Cabbage Patch.” Asked how many dances he had rehearsed, Jones said, “I got plenty. I keep them in my back pocket. I’m trying to get on Dancing With The Stars.” After running the length of the field, Jones had flipped the ball up to his mother in the stands and started doing the familiar dance right in front of his family.
It was a day for smiles and celebration, a rare NFL laugher and the Ravens needed that. It was a resounding win at home even if it was over the pathetic Raiders. Harbaugh acknowledged the improvement. “We haven’t played our best, and we are getting better,” he said. “That’s what we’re excited about. We believe that we’ll keep improving; that’s our history. We’ve improved – we’re better at the end of the year than we are at the beginning. A team is a living, breathing organism, and it changes week to week, and even day to day. We might be seeing more changes this season, because we are playing a lot of young players who can get better with almost every snap.”
Corey Graham was playing great in the secondary and youngster Chykie Brown and imported safety James Ihedigbo, who had played for Bill Belichick in New England and for Rex Ryan in New York before that, were providing depth in the secondary on nickel and dime situations. Kruger and Arthur Jones were getting up the field better with Suggs somehow back in the lineup taking on double teams. Other teams had to game plan around No. 55 and be concerned about him getting to the quarterback. Dannell Ellerbe, Jameel McClain, and Albert McClellan shored up the middle of the defense and made tackles against the Raiders. Rookie Courtney Upshaw was learning the game and becoming more of a factor when he was on the field, earning more playing time. In general, there were many new players who were getting more reps and live bullets, giving the coaches hope that the loss of Ray Lewis and Lardarius Webb wouldn’t doom the team in January.
