Final: Seattle 35, Baltimore 6
It was a dominating performance on Sunday as the Seattle Seahawks continued to steamroll the competition by becoming the first team all year to blow out the scrappy Ravens. Russell Wilson continues to play like a man on fire as he tied his own franchise record that he set just two weeks ago with five passing touchdowns in this game. He has been provided much better protection and the offensive gameplan has been a lot better over the last month for the ‘Hawks.
Offensively, Seattle is a team to be reckoned with. Doug Baldwin has scored eight touchdowns in three games for the Seahawks, and at tailback it doesn’t seem to matter much who lines up because they are finding nice holes to run through now that the O-line is coming into its own. Thomas Rawls, a stud rookie, exited the game in the first quarter with a fractured ankle and is now out for the season. DuJuan Harris and Fred Jackson stepped in and did a nice job holding down the fort.
The Ravens, on the other hand, have had injuries to deal with all season,
and had to send Jimmy Claussen out at quarterback. He wasn’t atrocious but was inaccurate on a number of his throws. Kamar Aiken had a solid game, nabbing a couple of passes down the field before getting injured in the fourth quarter. The running game was not great for the home team either as the offense just sputtered for the entire afternoon. As a fun fact, Jimmy Claussen in twenty drives against the Seattle defense this year (as he played them while a member of the Bears in Week 3) managed to lead his team to just two field goals.
Russell Wilson will get a lot of the credit for this recent offensive explosion for the Seahawks, as he should, but a great majority of those accolades should be soaked up by both the offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell and the offensive line. The play calls have been much simpler and Wilson has gotten the ball out of his hands quickly, which has really helped this line that had struggled earlier in the year. They are now starting to find their bearings and are transforming into the most improved unit across the entire NFL this season.
Clearly Seattle is on a role here and its mainly because their offense has matched what the defense has brought to the table. Michael Bennett had an outstanding game as he was by far the most impressive lineman out there in the game getting a few pressures, a sack, and two tackles for a loss. The Ravens didn’t flash very much in this game. As stated above, the only player who had a decent game had to be Kamar Aiken who made five catches for 90 yards on a couple of routes that he popped open on.
Seattle will host Cleveland next week, and their only issue is that they don’t have a solid running back to get behind. DuJuan Harris played fine in this game, but he’s not the guy you want to hang your hat on for any length of time. Meanwhile, the Ravens won’t catch a break as they play host to the equally red hot Chiefs, who have won seven straight games. Final takeaways from this one are that the injuries have made this an unrecognizable Ravens team while the offensive line has returned Seattle back into an elite team in the league.
The Skinny:
- In this game, Russell Wilson tied a franchise record he set two weeks ago with five passing touchdowns
- Wilson is also the first quarterback since the merger to post a 133.5 QBR in four straight games
- Thomas Rawls exited the game with a broken ankle and will miss the rest of the season
- Seattle eclipsed 100 yards rushing for the 24th straight game
- Jimmy Claussen did not look comfortable or confident as he missed a lot of throws and did not handle pressure well
- Doug Baldwin has scored eight touchdowns over the past three weeks
- Marc Trestman and the Ravens offense continues to look handicapped with no solid leaders or play-makers at this point in the year
Football Frenzy 