The Ravens are currently 2-0. Here's how I can sum up the difficulty of the Kansas City Chiefs week one trip to Baltimore:
The Ravens defense scored more points in last night's game than the Chiefs have since December 21, 2008.
The final tally? Two interceptions, two touchdowns.
The picture to the left is 345 pound Haloti Ngata returning a 25 yard interception for a touchdown.
The Ravens defense was constantly in starter Mark Sanchez's face. His first pass went for a pick-six to Ngata. Ray Lewis nearly had another interception. Jameel McClain added another defensive touchdown.
That's the bad. Here's the good.
On last night's telecast, the announcers were praising Joe Flacco for having such a strong arm. However, he completed only eight of his 18 passes last night. If I'm the defense, I'm taking a 44% completion percentage from the opposing quarterback every time.
Flacco does have a big arm though. Two of his eight completions went for 94 yards. However, the other six went for a total of 26 yards.
I was hard on Flacco last year, despite the Ravens appearance in the AFC Championship game. With a 44% completion percentage, I'll probably be the same way this year.
Here are the stats to game one stats against the Redskins. Here is a link to game two stats against the Jets.
Here's how starting quarterbacks have fared against the Ravens defense so far in preseason:
- Jason Campbell: 3/6, 38 yards
- Mark Sanchez: 3/8, 43 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
After watching this defense last night, I'm getting more and more worried that Matt Cassel is in trouble. They're all playmakers and consistently put pressure on the quarterback.
Cassel had a hard time avoiding sacks in last Friday's game against the Vikings and will likely be putting those legs to good use week one at Baltimore.