Three observations from the Broncos loss to the Ravens in Week 4

The Denver Broncos got a reality check in Week 4 against the Baltimore Ravens. With a 3-0 record entering Sunday, the Broncos barely put up a fight and lost to the Ravens by a score of 23-7. It was a big win for the Ravens, and they could have put up even more points as the Broncos struggled on both sides of the ball.

After the game, Broncos head coach Vic Fangio revealed his short (but sweet?) message to his team after their first loss.

“We’re on to the next game. We can’t have a hangover from this game and just get our focus back starting tomorrow on Pittsburgh,” Fangio said.

Here are the top-three observations from the Broncos v Ravens game.

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Ever Heard of Timeouts?

Fangio has had a problem calling timeouts during his coaching career with the Broncos. Against the Ravens, this issue came up again right before halftime. The saying goes, “Scared money don’t make money” and that could describe the Broncos on Sunday.

With the two-minute warning having passed in the second quarter, the Broncos stuffed the Ravens on third down and could have called a timeout. The Ravens deferred the toss at the beginning of the game and were set to receive the opening kickoff in the second half. Saving time would have helped the Broncos get into scoring position before the half.

The Ravens, without the Broncos calling timeout, came to the line of scrimmage quickly to get the Broncos to jump offsides. With the ball around the midfield mark, it would have been foolish for the Ravens to go for it – and they knew that. They were not going to snap the ball, but used all the time on the play clock to rob the Broncos of about 30 seconds of time.

After the game, nobody in the media asked Fangio about why he didn’t call a timeout. That’s typical for a media that is quite team friendly. Perhaps at Monday’s press conference someone will ask a tough question.

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Go For It

The Ravens were toying with the Broncos for most of the game. The Broncos did hold the Ravens rushing attack in check, but an important record was matched on the final play of the game.

With time winding down, Jackson used his legs to pick up five yards and tie an NFL rushing record for consecutive games with 100 yards rushing as a team. By going over the century mark, the Ravens tied the Pittsburgh Steelers (1974-77) with 43 consecutive games over 100 yards. In fact, since Lamar Jackson started for the Ravens in November of 2018, they have always had over 100 yards on the ground each week – largely due to Jackson’s rushing ability.

After the game, several Broncos players seemed ticked off about the move by the Ravens to go for the record. In the locker room during his postgame interview, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh cleared things up.

“Oh yeah, 100 percent my call. That’s one of those things that’s meaningful. As a head coach, you have to be mindful of your team and your players and what it means to them. It’s a very, very tough record to accomplish and it’s a long-term record,” Harbaugh said.

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Sorry, Ms. Jackson

Before this game, I wondered if the Broncos had an answer for Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson. I didn’t think they did, but a banged-up Jackson missed two days of practice and I thought perhaps there could be a way.

That wasn’t the case. Even though they limited Jackson as a runner (seven carries, 28 yards), the Broncos could not stop him as a passer. Jackson finished the game with 316 passing yards, one passing touchdown on 22-of-37 passing. That yardage total was the second-most he’s passed for in the regular season (324). Many times, Jackson was just sitting in the pocket with little to no pressure in his face.

The Broncos dared Jackson to beat them as a passer and he did. They had few answers for the deep speed of players like Sammy Watkins and Marquise Brown. Plus, the Broncos answer for covering Pro Bowl tight end Mark Andrews did not work. Jackson was able to slice up the Broncos defense like a Thanksgiving turkey on Sunday.

“We obviously wanted to limit his opportunities to carry it and scramble. We did that but they were able to complete the long passes which negated that,” Fangio said.

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