Knee-Jerk Reactions: Ravens 41 Broncos 10

The Ravens defeated the Denver Broncos 41-10 in Week 9.

RSR staff react to the win here.

Chris Schisler

The Ravens defense got a little lucky in the first half. Bo Nix missed a fourth down throw that was wide open. John Harbaugh won a challenge for a nice change of pace for another fourth down stop. It was as close as it could be though. The Ravens used the luck to build a lead. The halftime lead felt good but the defensive concerns hung over it like a cloud. The second half was a breath of fresh air. The defense was nearly dominant in the second half and it became an absolute beat down of the Broncos. Perhaps they can use it as a building block. That could be the meaningful outcome we take from this game.

The offense was spectacular against the second best defense in the NFL. Lamar Jackson was amazing. He only missed on three passes and had almost 300 yards in the air. He had a full command of the offense and big plays were plentiful against a defense that has been historically stingy.

Zay Flowers was fun to watch as he racked up several of those big plays. Derrick Henry had a classic showing and his first touchdown displayed his legendary contact balance. It’s a phenomenal day for the Ravens who absolutely rolled over their opponent. The big win is that the defense didn’t allow the Broncos to make it a game.

Derek Arnold

The Broncos clearly came into this game with a “field goals (or punts) won’t beat the Ravens” mentality, which made things interesting early, as they kept going for it on fourth downs. One of them resulted in a Philly Special TD where Bo Nix Mossed Marcus Williams, making the score 10-7 and giving us, really, our last tense moment of this game. The ball was bouncing the Ravens’ way early, with Ar’Darius Washington pulling in an early pick and John Harbaugh winning a challenge on a spot by inches.

After that, the Ravens offense took over, and the defense, while still showing some warts, toughened up at the right times to allow Lamar & Co. to pull away.

Lamar Jackson was awesome. Derrick Henry was a beast. Zay Flowers was insane. The OL got pushed around a bit early, but picked things up as the game went on. Denver wanted to take away the running game, and the succeeded early on. It didn’t matter; the Ravens just threw to build a huge lead.

On defense, the pass rush remains a huge concern that we all hope is addressed before Tuesday afternoon. Tavius Robinson gets the game ball on that side. Roquan Smith…is making me very sad.

Now, the Ravens need to take advantage of the gift the NFL scheduling gods presented them with: two straight division games with the advantage. First, a home Thursday night game against Cincy. Then a mini-bye before going to Pittsburgh.

(Also, MAN…Tony Romo is insufferable. Hard to believe we all once collectively fawned over him.)

Ben Dackiw

We have never been more back. Lamar Jackson is going to win his third MVP award and Derrick Henry is going to AT LEAST receive votes for OPOY. This offense is Super Bowl ready. Lamar is in total control of the offense. The receivers are getting open when Lamar sits back in the pocket. That’s huge.

It feels weird to be concerned about the defense after they only allowed 10 points, but the pass rush needs to be addressed. I’m not expecting a “break the bank” acquisition, but Bo Nix having all day to throw just can’t happen. It won’t be Bo Nix in January. The defense was better today, but they need more.

Concerns about the defense aside, this was big boy football. Denver wanted nothing to do with Derrick Henry in the second half, but I feel like we’re missing something here: Lamar Jackson only ran the ball three times, and I think only one of them was a designed run. Lamar, and by extension the run game, were hobbled today, and the Ravens still had the Broncos pulling their hair out.

That’s scary.

Darin McCann

You know how you never wanted to be that team that played New England after they had an embarrassing loss? Or, now, you feel that way with Kansas City?

Denver got a taste of that today from the Ravens.

A dominant offensive performance coupled with a kind-of-sort-of a-little-bit-dominant second-half performance combined to push a decisive Ravens win, and putting a different taste in everybody’s mouth after last week’s Stinkfest in Cleveland.

Lamar = brilliant today. Monken = brilliant today. Defense = good enough to make this team a contender today. That’s good enough for me.

Brennan Stewart

Although Bo Nix’s mobility looked like it was going to present a problem early in the game, Baltimore silenced all of its doubters through four quarters of football, and showed no signs of a fourth quarter collapse this time around by not hurting themselves. While Zay Flowers, Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson were the most valuable players on offense, Tavius Robinson and Isaiah Likely were unsung heroes in this game, and they deserve their flowers, too. Even Trenton Simpson stepped up big today for the defense, and the secondary had an interception to disrupt the stigma about not being able to catch the ball.

This was a statement game after last week’s loss to Cleveland, and the statement has been made. This was a great tune-up game for the Ravens as they move on to face AFC North opponents Cincinnati and Pittsburgh in the next two weeks.

Chad Racine

Quite a nice bounce-back game after last week’s disappointment.  The offense returned to looking dominant while the defense made improvements.  I was pretty concerned with the interior defensive depth but Josh Tupou and Chris Wormley proved to be serviceable. As long as the defense continues to improve, this team can be dangerous late in the season.

Rob Shields

I didn’t see this one coming. Denver hadn’t given up more than 26 points in any game this year and that was back in Week 1.

Baltimore completely dominated this game and, perhaps just as importantly, the Ravens were able to rest some guys in the fourth quarter with the short week ahead.

The defense played better, with at least ¼ of the yards coming in garbage time. The run defense was just OK, but with all the injuries up front, that’s not entirely surprising.

Good win with all phases playing well and if seems like you came out of it healthy. Now, let’s get the win against Cincinnati and enjoy the mini bye.

Jared Pinder

I’ll keep this short. The Ravens will go where they want to go if they just stay out of their own way. The defense wasn’t that good again in the first but they kind of turned into bend but don’t break unit in the second. This offense is historically awesome all they need is support from the defense and to stop dropping balls thrown their way.

Tanner George

What a way to bounce back for the Ravens.

After dropping a bad loss last week in Cleveland, Harbaugh’s crew responded with a resounding 31-point lead against the upstart Broncos, finding a way to put up 41 on a top-three Denver scoring defense.

Todd Monken was cooking with gas today. Lamar Jackson looked as cool as ever and certainly appears to be on the way to his third league MVP. Derrick Henry went over a hundred for the game and a thousand for the year, including a pair of scores. Zay Flowers had arguably the best game of his career and looks like the WR1 the Ravens have been searching for all these years. A lot to get excited about on that side of the ball, for sure.

Defensively, Baltimore gave up some easy yards in the first half and in garbage time but was able to stop Sean Payton’s offense when it mattered most. Zach Orr showed significant improvement over last week, especially in the third quarter, to shut out the Broncos in the second half. Ar’Darius Washington finally got his a hands around a pick and Marcus Williams exhibited growth. Especially in the third and fourth, the pass rush was able to get a lot of pressure on Nix and forced him to scramble around nearly every play. That unit certainly isn’t all the way yet, but it’s getting closer.

Now, the Ravens are forced to quickly turn around and get ready for a huge divisional game against Cincinnati on Thursday. If today’s any proof, I think they’re up for the task.

Nick Polinsky

Today was a much prettier display than what we saw a week ago.

The offense played nearly flawless football with no turnovers and just three incompletions. Lamar Jackson continues to show pinpoint accuracy and he simply doesn’t miss throws. Derrick Henry had 100+ on the ground once again and the mix in the offensive attack was perfect.

The defense took a step up today but if the Broncos made a few more somewhat easy passes it could have turned into another mediocre defensive showing.

Regardless, it feels good to get out with a win with the Bengals creeping up on Thursday night.

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