Ten years after they rode their defense to Super Bowl XXXV, the Ravens turned in a performance that looked straight out of that era. Unfortunately, that led to a 15-10 loss to the Bengals.
The Ravens defense held the Bengals without a touchdown and gave up just 253 total yards, but Joe Flacco had a miserable afternoon and the Ravens fell to 1-1 as a result. Flacco completed 17-of-39 passes for 154 yards and was intercepted four times by a Bengals defense that was shredded by Tom Brady last weekend.
No one is confusing Flacco for Brady, but the offseason focus on improving the receiving corps was supposed to shift the Ravens from being a defense-first team to a more balanced outfit. Two games and 20 points into 2010, it is hard to see much of a difference.
We don’t want to give the Bengals defense short shrift here because they played a fine game and deserve a great deal of credit for forcing Flacco into a nightmarish performance. They were more aggressive than they were last week and, not surprisingly, got their eight straight win against an AFC North foe as a result.
