Baltimore's Beltway Battle

Ravens take out the Redskins, 24-10

When the game was scheduled it was a bragging rights game for the geographically neighbor cities of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. By the time the game began Baltimore knew that Pittsburgh had won. And the Redskins knew the Eagles had won, while Dallas had lost. This made this game take an even more important place on the schedule.

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The Redskins had been playing well in October and into November but had significantly cooled off. The Ravens on the other hand have been building confidence and a little swagger as the season has progressed. The offense is much improved for one. Even when the offense is having a bad day they are giving their defense something to work with.

Yesterday was a good example of that. On paper the offense was less then impressive with a total of 281 yards of offense. The 147 yards on the ground was pretty good overall. But LeRon McClain and Willis McGahee were held to around 3 yards per carry on the day. They did have some nice runs though mixed in on the day. And Ray Rice added a nice 31 yards on just 3 carries. So again overall they ran the ball good enough.

Joe Flacco had a few nice play action passes but his day was not spectacular. But he did what he needed to do and sometimes that means more than stats.

The weather was brutal also so bad numbers were no surprise. The defense was very good against Washington however.

They held a strong rushing team to 62 yards of rushing. Keeping Clinton Portis to 29 total rushing yards is not an easy task. They kept the Redskins to 254 total yards on the night.

Ed Reed once again stole the highlight reel. He of 2 INT's and one fumble recovery scooped up and made into a touchdown Sundae. His 11 th TD of his career.

Considering the elements on the night and the implications of the game I will not panic with the offensive struggles that were seen at times. They still gave their defense 17 points to protect. For the playoffs though we may need a little more scoring from the Flacco fueled offense. We can worry about that then.

It's time to settle a score with Pittsburgh this week.

By Andy Natalie
ProFootball-fans.com Baltimore Ravens Correspondent