Click here to see all recaps on a single page
| Other Week 7 Game Recaps | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAL at MIA | CLE at WAS | DAL at STL | DEN at NE | DET at HOU | IND at GB | MIN at CHI | NO at CAR |
| NYJ at OAK | PIT at CIN | SD at BUF | SEA at TB | SF at NYG | TEN at KC | ||
Week 7 Game Recap: Baltimore Ravens 27, Miami Dolphins 13
What you need to know
| Baltimore Ravens |
QB Joe Flacco halted his downward spiral of poor performances with perhaps his best of the year. While neither his yardage nor TD totals lit the world on fire, he was efficient and smart in his distribution of the ball.
RB Willis McGahee notched his first 100+ yard game of the season as he shouldered over half of the Ravens' carries on the ground and regularly gashed the Miami defense for solid gains and a TD.
WR Derrick Mason had his best day of the season thus far as he made the most of being QB Joe Flacco's favorite target. He was regularly able to get separation and convert short passes into long gains, even adding a TD as the cherry on top of his Sunday.
| Miami Dolphins |
QB Chad Pennington was forced to do air it out for his Dolphins. Even given his acknowledged arm-strength deficiencies, Pennington was still able to generate drives and rack up almost 300 yards passing and a passing TD.
RB Ronnie Brown was bottled up all day and was unable to gain consistent yards against the Ravens' defense. Even the direct snap plays from the "Wildcat" formation failed to generate any opportunities.
WR Greg Camarillo solidified his emergence as Pennington's favorite target in the passing game as he saw three passes thrown his way in each one of the game's four quarters. Unfortunately, he was only able to corral half of them, limiting him to only an average day for an NFL starting WR.
What you ought to know
| QB Joe Flacco, Pass: 17 - 23 - 232 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 2 - 3 - 0 |
After a steady regression over the last few weeks that saw Flacco making a number of extraordinarily bad decisions, the Joe Flacco that impressed so many in his first game seemed to return to the field. With a completion percentage of almost 75% and a YPA of just a hair over ten, Flacco was the vision of efficiency. This was a result of a number of factors including the coaching staff largely limiting him to short throws, better offensive line protection and a commanding lead in the second half that had Miami focused on stopping the run. That being said, Flacco deserves some of the credit, too. He seemed calmer in the pocket, less intimidated by the pass rush, and was able to not only find his receivers, but find receivers that had gained separation so that they could convert his short passes into additional yards after the catch. In fact, every single Raven that caught a pass received at least one that went for ten yards or more. Most satisfying for Flacco (and his owners) was likely his TD toss to Derrick Mason in the second quarter. While the throw was not challenging, Flacco seemed able to read the defense, identify the best receiver and get it to him quickly. Of course, not everything went perfectly, as he did miss some wide open receivers (including what would have been an easy third quarter throw to TE Todd Heap in the end zone) and displayed some continued difficulty holding onto the ball. While he didn't lose any of his fumbles (the one that he would have lost was nullified by a Miami penalty), Flacco still put the ball on the ground more than once.
| RB Willis McGahee, Rush: 19 - 105 - 1, Rec: 2 - 47 - 0 (2 targets) |
If this week was any indication, McGahee may finally be back to the form that many who made him an early round draft pick expected. From the opening gun McGahee ran hard, hit the holes fast and broke tackles to generate a consistent ground attack. It's probably no coincidence that rookie QB Joe Flacco had perhaps his best game of the year with McGahee keeping the Dolphins' defense honest. A pair of 14 yard runs on consecutive plays in the third quarter were emblematic of McGahee's day. In each case he rushed up the middle through open holes for the first seven or so yards and then used shifty moves and a dose of power to get the next seven. On his sole TD, McGahee, starting at the Miami five yard line, ran into a log-jam in the middle of the line, spun outside and stretched out his arm to get the ball into the end-zone as he was falling down. The sole low-light of the game for McGahee came in the fourth quarter when he took a screen pass to right side of the field, rumbled 35 yards to the Miami 12 yard line and then lost control of the ball as he was being tackled from behind. Miami recovered it at their five.
| RB Ray Rice, Rush: 7 - 13 - 0, Rec: 2 - 46 - 0 (2 targets) |
After accounting for the lions' share of Baltimore offense last week, the rookie Rice saw his action curtailed somewhat this week. On the ground he saw only seven carries, and was unable to do much of anything with them. On the other hand, in the passing game he showed a flash of the speed and elusiveness that had so many excited about his prospects in the pre-season. On the Ravens' second play of the fourth quarter, Rice took a screen pass on the right side of the field and then exploded along the sideline, taking advantage of his blockers and hurdling a defender before being brought down after a gain of 40 yards.
| RB LeRon McClain, Rush: 6 - 17 - 0, Rec: 3 - 10 - 0 (3 targets) |
While he was involved in the Ravens' offense more this week than last, McClain still has not returned to the level of involvement that he saw as recently as two weeks ago. Despite receiving six rush attempts, he was largely ineffective on the ground, with the exception of one play where he bounced to the left of the Baltimore line and powered through tacklers (deploying a nasty stiff-arm) for an eight yard gain. Similarly, while he received three targets in the passing game, and caught all three, they went for only a total of ten yards -- and all of those came on one reception.
| WR Derrick Mason, Rec: 6 - 87 - 1 (8 targets) |
Despite QB Joe Flacco dropping back to pass only 23 times on the day, Mason was targeted on over a third of those attempts, hauled in six and put up his best performance of the season. From his opening reception in the first quarter through the remainder of the contest, Mason was able to gain separation, make the catches, and elude defenders. As a result, passes that had been going for five or ten yards earlier in the season, started going for 15 to 20 against the Dolphins. On his TD reception, Mason was able to find the hole in the defense and plant himself just inside the goal line for the easy score.
| WR Mark Clayton, Rec: 1 - 13 - 0 (2 targets) |
Clayton was only targeted twice in the entire game, and both came in the second quarter. While he was unable to haul in the first toss his way, he was able to convert the second; turning it into a decent thirteen yard gain.
| WR Demetrius Williams (2 targets) |
Targeted only twice (both in the first half), and unable to convert either into a reception, Williams ended the day having virtually no effect on the stat sheet. It should be noted, however, that one of the targets was a deep throw into the end zone that not only ended in an incompletion but saw Williams tapped for an offensive pass interference penalty.
| TE Todd Heap, Rec: 3 - 29 - 0 (5 targets) |
Heap, who has struggled to make his presence felt in the Ravens' passing attack all year, had an above average day for him, which almost included a third quarter TD. Unfortunately, QB Joe Flacco missed the wide-open Heap on that pass. During the rest of the game, while Heap was able to shake free for a few receptions ten to fifteen yards down-field, he still didn't look like the TE that has been a fantasy staple in recent years as he continued his inability to rack up yards after the catch.
| PK Matt Stover 2 - 2 FG, 3 - 3 XP, 9 points |
Stover was called upon to kick two field goals on the day, and converted both. His first was notable as it was from 47 yards out and thus likely right on the edge of his range.
| BAL Rush Defense |
The Ravens' rush defense was at its best, and no wild Dolphins Wildcat formation was going to make them look foolish as it has a number of other teams this year. The Baltimore defensive line regularly clogged the middle while the Ravens LBs regularly displayed their speed in getting to the corners to prevent long runs outside. As the game wore on, it helped that Miami was forced to go to the pass to try and make up their deficit on the scoreboard and the Ravens ended the day allowing only 71 yards rushing on 22 Miami attempts.
| BAL Pass Defense |
Though they only succeeded in sacking Miami QB Chad Pennington once during the game, the Ravens' pass rush was able to flush him from the pocket on a regular basis. Unfortunately, the Ravens' DBs were unable to provide similar coverage, and while they did not give up any excessively long completions, they did allow a slew of 10-25 yard completions. Even the one interception on the day was a result of the defensive line's pass rush and linebacker Terrell Suggs' nose for the ball as opposed to any play that a Baltimore DB had anything to do with. Even so, the day's performance was very much bend but don't break, and when it mattered the pass defense made the plays it had to in order to prevent the Dolphins from getting in the end zone.
| QB Chad Pennington, Pass: 24 - 35 - 295 - 1 TD / 1 INT, Rush: 4 - 25 - 0 |
This game was an excellent example of just what Pennington provides to Miami at this point in his career. He was efficient on the day, but limited in his ability to get the ball down the field. As a result, while he was able to complete a handful of 20+ yard passes, Pennington didn't seem comfortable doing so. In most cases these passes were slow in getting to his receivers and those receivers often had to hold up a step to make the reception. On the flip-side, when Pennington was looking short, he was able to deliver the ball with some decisiveness and zip and allow his receivers to do the rest. On his sole TD strike of the day, Pennington was able to display the patience of a veteran before rifling a seven yard pass across the middle to WR Davone Bess for six points. Pennington could have had a second TD earlier at the end of Miami's first drive, but he overthrew TE Anthony Fasano on a short pass into the end zone. While Pennington only threw one INT in the game, it was a bad one. With a blitzing Ravens defense closing in on him, Pennington attempted to dump a pass off to RB Patrick Cobbs. Unfortunately he didn't notice Baltimore LB Terrell Suggs was also in the area. Suggs easily snagged Pennington's pass and didn't stop running until he was in the end zone. Pennington could have had a second interception in the first quarter when he overthrew his receiver in the end zone, but the play was called back due to defensive holding.
| RB Ronnie Brown, Rush: 13 - 27 - 0, Rec: 1 - 1 - 0 (1 targets) |
Brown never got on track against the Ravens' stifling run defense, and even the direct-snap, Wildcat trickeration that has become a staple of the Dolphins offense couldn't help him shake free. It also didn't help that Miami fell behind early and therefore was forced to resort to the passing game more and more as the game wore on. This shift in focus limited Brown to only three carries in the second half. One of those, however, was Brown's longest of the day as he burst through the center of the line for 13 yards early in the fourth quarter. That one run would end up accounting for just shy of half his total on the day.
| RB Patrick Cobbs, Rush: 1 - 3 - 0, Rec: 5 - 64 - 0 (7 targets) |
After his breakout game a week ago, many expected Cobbs to return to obscurity against the Ravens. That ended up not being the case as apparently the Miami coaching staff wants to continue to keep him involved in the offense. While he was only given one opportunity to run the ball all day, Cobbs regularly lined up as a slot receiver or released out of the backfield leading to his ending up as QB Chad Pennington's second favorite receiving target. While it might be tempting to attribute this to the fact that Miami fell behind and had to resort to the passing game throughout much of the second half, such a dismissal would be a mistake. Even early in the game, when the result was still very much in doubt, Cobbs was heavily involved in the offense and actually accumulated more targets, catches and yards before the intermission than after.
| RB Ricky Williams, Rush: 4 - 16 - 0 |
Coming into this game Williams was already the clear number two option at RB for the Dolphins which meant his opportunities to excel would be sparse. Once the Dolphins fell behind, the situation was made even worse. As a result Williams ended the day with a paltry four rushes, and really had no impact on the game.
| WR Greg Camarillo, Rec: 6 - 74 - 0 (12 targets) |
Far and away QB Chad Pennington's favorite target on the day, Camarillo was involved in every aspect of the Dolphins aerial attack. He was used on short, medium and long routes, and his twelve targets were evenly spread over all four quarters (literally -- he saw three in each). Unfortunately, Camarillo was only able to haul in half of those passes, and thus what could have easily been a 100+ yard day with at least one TD ended up at only 74. The fault for the 50% reception rate lies evenly with a couple of bad passes from Pennington, a pair of miscues by Camarillo, and some nice plays by the Ravens' defense -- including on a second quarter pass into the end zone that could have easily ended in a score.
| WR Ted Ginn, Rec: 4 - 48 - 0 (6 targets) |
Early in the contest as Miami limited the passing attack to shorter routes, Ginn was a non-factor. As the game wore on, however, and the Dolphins continued to need quick points as the clock wore down, Ginn became more involved. Four of his targets, three of his receptions and almost all of his yards came in the final quarter as QB Chad Pennington was forced almost exclusively to the air.
| TE David Martin, Rec: 4 - 71 - 0 (4 targets) |
While he saw only four targets on the day, Martin made the most of them, catching every ball tossed his way for a total of 71 yards. He was regularly used downfield, and while his first reception went for only four yards, his next three went for 28, 21 and 18 respectively as he overmatched the LBs and/or DBs assigned to cover him.
| TE Anthony Fasano, Rec: 2 - 25 - 0 (3 targets) |
Early in the contest as Miami limited the passing attack to shorter routes, Ginn was a non-factor. As the game wore on, however, and the Dolphins continued to need quick points as the clock wore down, Ginn became more involved. Four of his targets, three of his receptions and almost all of his yards came in the final quarter as QB Chad Pennington was forced almost exclusively to the air.
| PK Dan Carpenter 2 - 2 FG, 1 - 1 XP, 7 points |
Carpenter was called upon to make two field goal attempts. As both were under 30 yards, he converted both easily.
| MIA Rush Defense |
The Miami rush defense had difficulty containing the run against Baltimore, particularly as it came to Willis McGahee. The Ravens were regularly able to open holes in the Miami defensive line, and the linebackers often had difficulty making the tackle on first contact. Much of this, particularly in the second half, may be attributable to the fact that they spent a lot of time on the field, making fatigue a factor. In the end they gave up 140 yards on 35 Raven rushes, including a 105 yards for the aforementioned McGahee.
| MIA Pass Defense |
The Miami defense was able to maintain a decent pass rush all day long, often causing the pocket to collapse around the Ravens' rookie QB Joe Flacco. While in the past this had forced Flacco into ill-advised passes, the rookie was much more composed today. Part of this composure was a willingness to hold onto the ball when he got into trouble, and as a result, the Dolphins were able to record three sacks. Further downfield the pass defense was not as strong as the Miami DBs seemed to have difficulty keeping WR Derrick Mason covered.
