Ravens shine light on what could be undoing of Broncos

BALTIMORE -- NFL games can sometimes be tough to evaluate. Take the Baltimore Ravens' dominating 30-7 victory over the Denver Broncos Sunday.

Was that final score the result of a desperate team, coming in with three consecutive losses, being put into a have-to-win mode and playing like it in front of the home crowd? Or were the previously undefeated Broncos, the surprise of the early part of this season, somewhat exposed?

Here's the way I see it: It was a little of both.

The Ravens did play like their season was on the line to get to 4-3, but the Broncos also might have offered a peek into what they really are, which is a limited offensive team that plays it safe to go along with a darn-good defense.

Those Denver-style teams can find ways to win games, but this much I know: It isn't a formula that can win a Super Bowl -- unless lightning strikes like it did when the Ravens won it all in 2001 with that very same formula.

Those are rarities. The Broncos have raved all season about how their quarterback Kyle Orton had only one interception, how he took care of the ball. He was, as they like to say, managing the game.

He did it again against the Ravens. No interceptions. Time to celebrate, right? Not when he completed 23 passes for just 152 yards. His longest was 23 yards, and that was to a tight end. The Broncos didn't even challenge down the field, which was shocking since the Ravens were 23rd in pass defense coming into the game and they had given up 22 pass plays of 20 yards or longer, six for 40 or more.

"They don't throw it down the field," Ravens cornerback Fabian Washington said. "They don't take a lot of chances. We've taken a lot of abuse around here for the way we've played on the corners, and I can accept it because we haven't played well. But they didn't even try and throw it down the field. With that No. 15, you'd think they'd just throw it up once in a while."

That No. 15 is Brandon Marshall. He had four catches for 24 yards, most of those on little short crossing routes, which the Ravens kept bottled up after the catch. The one time the Broncos tried Marshall down the field, he drew a pass interference penalty to help set up Denver's only touchdown.

"They try to play to their strengths, which is that defense," Ravens cornerback Domonique Foxworth said.

Asked about the lack of attack, Orton said, "They played their safeties deep and we're always looking for things to take our shots."

They looked and looked. And looked some more.

But guess what? The safeties weren't deep the entire game. Foxworth said the Ravens blitzed a lot more than they have this season. The result was pressure all day, including two sacks, one on Denver's first play.

For most of the past decade, the Ravens have used a similar style to what Denver employs. But the Ravens are moving away from it. Yes, their defense has played so-so this season, which is part of the reason, but there's a more important factor.

Quarterback Joe Flacco.

Orton might be Mr. Efficient, but Flacco, in his second season, can now put a team on his back and win a game. He didn't have to do it against Denver because of his team's defensive effort, but he can do it.

Flacco finished this game 20 of 25 for 175 yards -- he didn't take many shots either -- but he hit his last 14 passes for 156 yards and a touchdown pass to Derrick Mason. The Ravens, who don't have a receiver of Marshall's talents, went to a no-huddle offense in the second half to help open things up.

Denver kept on playing its offense as if there was an electric fence at 20 yards beyond their line of scrimmage that would shock its players to death if they ran through it.

Josh McDaniels' Broncos need to challenge defenses vertically if they want a trip to Miami in February. (AP)

"I thought they stuck to their plan really well," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "I think they have a nice way they win. Their method is very effective, and they stuck to it throughout the game."

Their method to get to 6-0 was to run the ball, take care of it in their passing game and play great defense. The Broncos entered as the top-ranked defense, giving up 11 points per game. Their third-down defense was tops in the league at 27 percent. Coming into Sunday, the Broncos hadn't allowed a third-down conversion in the second half of the past four games.

Baltimore was 6 of 8 on third down in the second half and 11 of 18 for the game. That will win you a lot of football games. Denver, by contrast, was 3 of 13 on third down. That won't win many games.

"The key to anything offensively is third-down conversions," Harbaugh said.

The Ravens were also helped by a 95-yard kickoff return for a touchdown by rookie Lardarius Webb to start the second half and give them a 13-0 lead. The way the Baltimore defense was playing, the game was basically over there.

The Ravens took the field as the "other" defense Sunday, something different for them. They've been a dominant unit for some time, seemingly since Ray Lewis and the gang started feasting on offenses.

Up until Sunday, their unit was being questioned. They had allowed leads to evaporate in the fourth quarter of the past two games. The pass defense was questionable and the corners had struggled. It didn't look like a Ravens defense.

Could they turn it around? Would they save their season?

"It hadn't been good around here for us," Washington said. "There was no hiding from it."

It's funny what one victory can do. Now the Ravens head to Cincinnati next Sunday with confidence to face the first-place Bengals, a team that beat them here three weeks ago. The Broncos go home to play the Super Bowl-champion Pittsburgh Steelers with their first loss and a peek into what might be their undoing the rest of the way, which is their inability to challenge a defense vertically.

They walked into a tough situation, and the Ravens made them pay, but they left with us wondering if their fast start might not be what we thought it was.

Exposed might be a tough word, but it does get you thinking.