The Baltimore Ravens bested the New Orleans Saints on Monday, winning 34-27.
The Baltimore Ravens took down the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football, winning 34-27. Baltimore trailed the Saints heading into the second half, but a strong half of football, assisted by a bad pass or two from Saints quarterback Drew Brees, helped the Ravens to their seventh win of the season.
Justin Forsett had a big game for the Ravens, putting up 182 yards and two touchdowns. Forsett was the centerpiece of a Ravens offense that ultimately put up 216 yards on the ground, though Joe Flacco and the passing offense wasn't exactly lagging behind, thanks to a big game from wide receivers Steve Smith and Torrey Smith. They had 90 and 98 yards respectively, with Smith catching a touchdown pass.
The Ravens got the scoring started in this one. After halting the Saints on a 4th and 1 at the 1-yard line, the Ravens put together a nine-play, 97-yard drive that was capped off by a 15-yard touchdown to wide receiver Steve Smith. The drive was helped along by a 38-yard rush from Forsett.
After a couple punts back and forth, the Saints tied the game when Drew Brees hit tight end Jimmy Graham for a 10-yard touchdown. That drive was assisted by a 62-yard pass to J. Morgan, and a Baltimore penalty on what would have been an incomplete pass on an early third down. The Ravens would respond with another touchdown, a 13-yard rush from Forsett.
But New Orleans took a lead into the half after an 11-play, 78-yard field goal drive and an eight-play, 81-yard drive that ended in a 26-yard touchdown to Marques Colston.
It didn't take long for Baltimore to even things up in the third, in that they managed a 31-yard field goal on the opening possession. The drive did take a full 6:30 off the clock, however. The tie was broken relatively quickly, but not by the Saints finding the end zone, as Brees was intercepted by Will Hill, who took it 44 yards for a touchdown and a 24-17 Baltimore lead.
The two teams exchanged field goals after that, making it 27-20 in favor of the Ravens, with under seven minutes to go. Baltimore took over at that point, and set out to kill some clock. They did all that in more, as Forsett found daylight and scored his second touchdown of the day after Baltimore had moved well into New Orleans territory, leaving under three minutes on the clock.
It was a two-score game at that point, and the Saints had no chance to pull out the win.
Three things we learned:
1) Steve Smith is still pretty good at catching footballs
Plenty of people wrote off Steve Smith as past his prime this offseason, and while he may not be getting better per se, he still puts up big numbers fairly consistently. He did go a couple games without really breaking out, but he shook that on Monday, catching four passes for 89 yards and a touchdown.
He also did this:
2) Steve Smith is still pretty good at fighting with defensive backs, too
While Smith is well-known for his prolific receiving talent over the years, he's also been known as a player who's not afraid to get into a scuffle. He's been in his fair share of fights (and then some), and he got into another one on Monday. This time, he made a big catch and was immediately fighting with Saints safety Kenny Vaccaro as he was standing up. Vaccaro lost his helmet and a scuffle ensued between the two teams:
The end result of that play was a 15-yard penalty on Vaccaro, surprisingly. Seems like Smith got away with that one.
3) Justin Forsett is the real deal
This is Justin Forsett's seventh year in the NFL (the sixth in which he's actually played) since being a seventh-round pick by the Seattle Seahawks in 2008. He had some early opportunities to produce with the Seahawks, and he ran well, posting per-carry averages of 5.4 and 4.4 yards over his first two seasons. But his opportunities have been few and far between since then.
But he's getting a chance in Baltimore this year, and he's making the most of it. He came into this game with 721 yards and five touchdowns, and he added another 182 yards and two touchdowns off of 22 carries with a big game against the Saints.
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