Minshew Mania Ran Wild Sunday as the Ravens Dropped an Overtime Nail-biter at Home

The Ravens welcomed the Colts into M&T Bank stadium Sunday with hopes of improving to 3-0 on the young season. That was not the case. Neither team entered at full strength as the Ravens were without 7 starters. This included offensive threats O.B.J. and Justice Hill as well as defensive cornerstones such as Oweh and Humphrey. The Colts were without their Rookie QB Anthony Richardson and had to rely on the veteran Gardner Minshew.

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Now the absolute Ravens fanatic in me wants to complain that the "No call" Pass interference on 4th down in overtime is what cost us the game. That's the easy way out here. The reasonable, level headed journalist knows that it's not the case. The Ravens should have never been in that situation to begin with. The Ravens have a long history of playing down to the expectations of their opponents. We had crucial drops that ended drives, we struggled with turnovers and Lamar looked uncomfortable in the pocket so his first instinct was to run the ball. Now a stat line of over 100 rushing yards and 2 TDs does not look bad, but he's a QB and that was really the only production the offense had. 

 

This ultimately came down to a game of which team wanted it less. Both teams had multiple opportunities gifted to them to win in regulation. Including (and yes, this pains me to type) a missed 61 yard game winning field goal by Justin Tucker. (I mean, he just missed. If it was a 59 yarder, I would be writing a different recap.)

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While a 22-19 loss is bad, it's not the end of the world. It's only game 3. After the Steelers win against the Raiders last night on Sunday Night Football (Sorry Mr. Mueller) we find ourselves in a 3 way tie atop the AFC North at 2-1. All that will absolutely change next week as The Ravens head to Cleveland against a Browns team coming off a dominant win against the Titans. We are going to need to practice hard this week and get some key players back from injury if we are going to improve our divisional record to 2-0 next Sunday. Should be a fun and hard played game, that's what the AFC North rival games are known for.  

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We need to see more passing and less running from Lamar and the team needs to win the turnover game and not have so many dropped balls. I think if we can put that together with traditional grinding Ravens Football, we have a good shot next week. Thanks for reading!

 

- Keehner Out-