The Baltimore Ravens, in a must win situation this past Sunday, dominated the Denver Broncos in all aspects, with the final score resulting of a 30-7. From the first defensive stand, to the kickoff return to begin the second half, along with punching it in the final quarter with the running game, the purple and black showed that they wanted it more.
 
Joe Flacco played very well against the leagues best defense, passing for 175 yards, one touchdown, and completed 20 of his 25 pass attempts.

 Flacco had most of his success down the middle of the field, finding Kelley Washington, along with Derrick Mason in the endzone.       
 
The running game for the Ravens did something the Broncos haven’t done all year: give 100+ yards on the ground. Ray Rice led the campaign with 84 yards on 23 carries, and 1 touchdown. Leron McClain had only three carries, but one of them was a crucial 20 yard run up the middle to the ice the game for the Ravens.
 
Rookie Lardarius Webb provided an extra spark to begin the 2nd half, returning a kick 95 yards for the touchdown.
 
And who could forget the great performance given by the Ravens defense of old. Ranked 19th in total defense heading into the day, the group certainly quieted the doubters, holding Denver to exactley 200 yards of offense.
 
The running game was no factor for Denver, who came upon a defense that surrendered two striaght 100 yard rushers. The passing game was also held to a minimum for a majority of the game, with the secondary doing a great job of containing Brandon Marshall and Eddie Royal.
 
Overall, this victory was a turning point in the Ravens season. Besides ending the undefeated season of the Broncos, Baltimore showed they wanted the game more, outperforming a tough Denver team in every part of the game.
 
With the next two games on the road against division rivals, the Ravens can easily get back into the division hunt, and have increased their chances of returning to the playoffs for the 2nd striaght season.
 

Matt Miselis is a writer for BleacherReport.com. Follow him on twitter: www.twitter.com/MattMiselis . Feel free to shoot him an email at mmiselis@fanhuddle.com 

This entry was posted on Monday, November 2nd, 2009 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.