Too Much Colts or Not Enough Ravens?

Whenever you have the bye week in the playoffs you often enter the game with a distinct advantage. However it does not always equal victory. And the Ravens are well aware of winning as a Wild Card. But that didn't happen on Saturday.

The Colts were clearly the better team on Saturday. They outplayed the Ravens from the start. They dictated to the Ravens how the game would go also. Which leads us to the not enough Ravens point.

When the Ravens throw 35 times and run 19, they aren't going to win. For one you need to keep the Colts offense off the field. Now it is interesting that the Ravens defense did okay against the Colts for much of the game. They held Indy to 42 yards rushing and 233 yards passing. The problem was the Colts ran 71 plays and held the ball for 33:58.

So while they were not piling up yards was too much time for them to figure out a way to score. The worst part however was the 4 turnovers! 2 fumbles and 2 INT's! That proved to be devastating to the Ravens. And it didn't help that the offense went into a coma. Oh yeah and you had 7 penalties, 3 of which gave Indy first downs.

While Joe Flacco has made strides in becoming a solid NFL QB, he is not freakin' Tom Brady. And Candid Cam Cameron tries to call a game like he is at times. Honestly there was no reason too panic and throw that much. You have a big time offensive line you should have worn down the Colts defense with physical leading with your power rushing game.

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You were down 20 to 3 by half yes, but you had 2 entire quarters to establish control. I see this so much nowadays in the NFL, teams thinking that they have to catch up in 3 minutes or the game is over. No, you need to take over the game. You can run and still have a sense of urgency; especially with a guy like Ray Rice. And like I said Joe Flacco is not the type of QB that is going to take over like that. In fact he is so much better when there is play action.

I will admit that the Colts defense has vastly improved over the years but I still believe that the Ravens have the personnel to attack the line of scrimmage against anybody. But we will never know that now. At least until next season.

• Flacco 20 for 35 and a sad 189 yards. 2 INT's!

• Ravens 19 carries for 87 yards. A 4.6 yards per carry average by the way.

• Ray Rice had 13 carries for 67 yards and a 5.2 yards per carry average

• Sometimes it is hard to have patience and urgency at the same time. Even when you have to team and players to do it.

• Again it is disheartening when you consider that the Ravens defense didn't exactly roll over.

• Manning was 30 for 44 and 246 yards. That's only 5.6 yards per attempt!

• They held the Colts to 6 for 15 on third down, which is not too bad.

• Held Colts to 42 yards rushing on 25 carries. 1.7 yards per carry.

Clearly the biggest problem was the Colts ran too many plays because they had the ball too long. Turnovers and bad offense tend to do that. And 3 penalties for first downs as we mentioned, are gifts you can't give the Colts.

Oh well back to the drawing board.

By: Andy Natalie
ProFootball-fans.com Baltimore Ravens Correspondent