Just when it looked like the Ravens were beginning to find their mojo on offense, it disappeared on them again. The same old story was told again—a stuttering offense, and a defense that was pretty good receiving almost zero margin of error.
Baltimore fans are restless, and going into the Bye week are calling for a regime change.
“You can’t play too much worse than we’ve been playing,” QB Joe Flacco said.
Baltimore is heading to its bye at 4-5 and falling out of the playoff race because of its stagnant offense. The Ravens have scored a total of five offensive touchdowns in their five losses.
How bad has it gotten? The biggest play for the Ravens on Sunday was a fake punt. Baltimore got 31 yards on a 16-yard pass from punter Sam Koch and an additional 15 yards for a face mask penalty.
“We need some spark plays,” wide receiver Mike Wallace said. “It’s going to be hard to win a game just chipping the way the whole time. You have to make big plays to win a football game 90 percent of the time. We’re not getting them. We have too many players on our team for us not to be moving the ball. Whatever we got to do to fix it, we got to do.”
“We just got to do more in the first half,” coach John Harbaugh said. “We’re not doing two things. We’re not sustaining drives so we’re not giving ourselves a chance to make enough opportunities to make plays and we’re not making plays downfield.”
Overall, the Ravens are averaging 15.2 points in losses this season.
“We’re not going to get everything corrected overnight,” Flacco said. “But we are making progress. You got a lot of guys who want to do it. We just have to keep our heads down and have faith that we’re going to come out of this thing. We got players who want to be good and want to do the right things. When you have that, you always have a shot.”
The Ravens are running out of time and confidence.
Marcus Mariota threw for 218 yards and two touchdowns, and the Tennessee Titans beat the Baltimore Ravens 23-20 Sunday for their third straight victory.
Derrick Henry ran for a 1-yard TD. Safety Kevin Byard also intercepted two passes , giving the second-year pro five picks over his past two games.
The Titans (5-3) also sacked Joe Flacco twice and scored 13 points off Byard’s first interception and a shanked punt to stay atop the AFC South.
The Ravens (4-5) have lost three of four going into their bye despite outgaining Tennessee 341-257.
Flacco tried to rally the Ravens with two TD passes in the final 8:56, the last a 1-yard pass to Mike Wallace with 46 seconds left pulling Baltimore within 23-20.
But Justin Tucker‘s onside kick attempt didn’t travel 10 yards, skittering almost sideways off the tee before being recovered by Titans linebacker Daren Bates.
Eric Weddle started the rally by picking off Mariota’s overthrown pass for a Baltimore defense that came in with an NFL-best 12 interceptions. Flacco hit Javorius Allen with a 3-yard TD pass with 8:56 left to pull the Ravens within 16-13.
The Titans answered with a 75-yard drive Mariota capped with an 11-yard TD pass to Eric Decker with 3:58 left for the winning TD.
The Titans had their best opening quarter of the season and led 10-3. Mariota threw his first TD pass inside an opponent’s 20 of the season, and it also was the Titans’ first TD in the first quarter since the season opener. The Titans finished with touchdowns on all three drives inside the Ravens 20.
INJURIES
Titans running back DeMarco Murray finally got off the injury report this week, but he hurt a knee in the second quarter. He returned and finished with 19 yards on nine carries.
Ravens left tackle Ronnie Stanley hurt a shoulder at 8:17 of the third quarter, and he was replaced by left guard James Hurst. Luke Bowanko took over at left guard. Stanley returned in the fourth quarter, but he threw up with 51 seconds left was he walked to the line of scrimmage. He went to the sideline.
Final:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BAL | 3 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 20 |
| TEN | 10 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 23 |
| Matchup |  |
 |
|---|---|---|
| 1st Downs | 24 | 14 |
| Passing 1st downs | 19 | 10 |
| Rushing 1st downs | 4 | 3 |
| 1st downs from penalties | 1 | 1 |
| 3rd down efficiency | 6-16 | 3-11 |
| 4th down efficiency | 3-4 | 0-0 |
| Total Plays | 77 | 52 |
| Total Yards | 341 | 257 |
| Total Drives | 11 | 12 |
| Yards per Play | 4.4 | 4.9 |
| Passing | 268 | 186 |
| Comp-Att | 35-53 | 19-28 |
| Yards per pass | 4.9 | 6.0 |
| Interceptions thrown | 2 | 1 |
| Sacks-Yards Lost | 2-9 | 3-32 |
| Rushing | 73 | 71 |
| Rushing Attempts | 22 | 21 |
| Yards per rush | 3.3 | 3.4 |
| Red Zone (Made-Att) | 2-4 | 3-3 |
| Penalties | 6-39 | 3-39 |
| Turnovers | 2 | 1 |
| Fumbles lost | 0 | 0 |
| Possession | 32:22 | 27:38 |
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