Ravens have a Reception Problem in 49-27 loss to Broncos…

You can point at a lot of blunders committed by the Ravens in their secondary coverage and in their linebacker defense as Peyton Manning shredded the Ravens for 7 TD passes. Strong safety Michael Huff looked absolutely lost at times. But the fact is, the Ravens were actually in the game and keeping it close well into the 3rd quarter.

What sealed their doom (besides an obvious special teams blunder and a huge Wes Welker ground-ball play that went unchallenged because Harbaugh and his staff never got a clean look at it) was simply the fact of horrible pass reception skills displayed by their tight ends.

Drops…ricochets…late breaks on routes… to me, it was apparent…and difficult to watch.

Missing Dennis Pitta? I know Joe Flacco is…

 The TE's feel pretty bad about it themselves today.

“It’s frustrating,” Dallas Clark said. “It’s disappointing. Your first game you want to come out and play well and we just didn’t make enough plays to give us a chance.”

Clark and Ed Dickson had their struggles Thursday night, as they both dropped passes and did not appear to be in sync with Flacco at times.

“A lot of things didn’t go right,” Dickson said. “I’m more critical of myself than anything, and I feel like I didn’t put myself in position. It seemed like I was a step behind the ball all night.”

Thursday was Dickson’s first game since the Super Bowl, as he tore his hamstring during training camp and missed the entire preseason. He showed no lingering signs of the injury, but said he still needs to develop a rhythm with Flacco.

Dickson finished the night with one catch for 13 yards, but he was targeted with four other passes. Dickson got his hands on all of those attempts, but was not able to reel them in the catches. He took big hits on two of the incompletions, but stressed that he needs to make those tough grabs.

“If I’m going up the seams and I get hit, I have to catch the ball,” Dickson said.

Clark had a much better night statistically, finishing with seven catches for 87 yards. Clark was targeted a team-high 12 times, and he also had passes bounce off his hands. Clark took a big hit over the middle of the field on one target, which led to an incompletion, and he also had the dropped TD right before halftime.

He’s a veteran known for having reliable hands, and he wanted to avoid those miscues during his first game as a Raven. “It’s disappointing and you just have to get the next one,” Clark said.

Maybe it's cruel of me to say so, but Clark has slowed down a lot— and it's not so much his hands as the issue but he's not getting to his mark soon enough so that he can turn his hips and shoulders to look the ball all the way into his hands.

Anyway, nothing good is going to come of the current two-TE set if the Ravens don't get somebody in a groove at that position who can catch a Flacco pass to the hands or the back-shoulder.

Everything spiraled out of control for the Ravens in the second half. After Harbaugh didn't challenge a Wes Welker drop — the coach said the Ravens never saw a replay — the Ravens gave up three touchdown passes in less than six minutes in the third quarter. Jimmy Smith got burned by Andre Caldwell for a 28-yard touchdown. Corey Graham couldn't stay with Welker for a five-yard touchdown. And Graham and Lardarius Webb both covered Demaryius Thomas and left Welker wide open for a two-yard touchdown.

This certainly raises a red flag when a defense, which allowed 15 touchdown passes all of last season, gets lit up for almost half that amount in one game. Graham, who picked off Manning twice in last season's playoff game, had a hand in three touchdowns.

"It was one of those games where everything they did went right, and everything we did went wrong," Graham said. "It's a rough one, and for me personally. It's probably one of the worst games I've ever played in my life."

Wide receiver Jacoby Jones was knocked out of the game with a sprained knee after his teammate, rookie Brynden Trawick, ran into him on a punt return. Later in the second quarter, right tackle Michael Oher left the game with a sprained ankle after guard Marshal Yanda rolled into him on Ray Rice's one-yard touchdown.

Harbaugh didn't provide an update on the injuries. If they're serious, the Ravens would rely on two rookies, wide receiver Marlon Brown and right tackle Rick Wagner, to replace them.

"We've all been through this before and we've gotten beaten like this," said Flacco, who was 34-of-62 for 362 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. "So, I don't think we overreact. John is an experienced head coach and we've got enough guys who are experienced with this type of thing. We'll know how to handle it. Overreacting sometimes isn't a bad thing. There's a lot of mistakes and guys tend to react well to it."