The tone of Sunday's game was set when Steve Smith gathered a tipped pass off Owen Daniels' hands and ran it in for a 61-yard touchdown. From that point forward, we knew it wasn't going to be Carolina's day. The Panthers responded with a touchdown, but the Baltimore Ravens then reeled off 21 straight points before the Panthers could make another dent in the scoreboard. Smith made good on his promise to leave blood and guts on the field, turning in the MVP performance of the Ravens' 38-10 win.
Panthers vs. Ravens final score: 3 things we learned from Baltimore’s blowout win
Steve Smith and the Ravens dismantled the Panthers, leaving Carolina with a lot of questions coming off a promising 2013 season.
Larry French
Smith finished with seven catches for 139 yards and two touchdowns. Both scores and 122 yards came in a dominant first half. His second touchdown score was made with a Carolina defender draped all over him.
You'd be hard-pressed to single out a Ravens player who didn't have a big game. Joe Flacco broke out of a slump, throwing three touchdowns to no interceptions. Justin Forsett and Lorenzo Taliaferro combined for 124 yards rushing on 29 carries. The defense held Carolina to 315 total yards, and constantly harassed Cam Newton, who finished 14-for-25 passing for 197 yards and a score before being replaced by Derek Anderson in the fourth quarter.
To add to the insult on the scoreboard, the Panthers lost DeAngelo Williams to an ankle injury, leaving a decimated running back corps, uh ... extra-decimated.
Both teams entered the game at 2-1, both with unclear long-term hopes for the season. The Ravens will go home full of hope that they can compete with anybody in the league. The Panthers will have to pick up their broken pieces.
What we learned:
1) DON’T TELL STEVE SMITH HE CAN’T DO THINGS
Seriously, just don’t. Nobody can be so good for so long without some sort of neurosis. You give Steve Smith the respect he deserves, or else seven catches for 139 yards and two touchdowns may be the least of your worries. He’ll smash your mailbox, kick over your sand castle and pop your souffle. He will absolutely make your life miserable, because when you’re no longer the best athlete on the field, you need something else to thrive. Smith has staked his twilight years on pure vindictiveness.
2) The Panthers can’t function in the red zone
The Panthers entered Sunday’s game dead last in the NFL allowing opponents to score touchdowns on 85.71 percent of their red zone opportunities, and scoring 42.86 percent of their own opportunities (ranking 24th). Those problems persisted in the blowout loss. The Ravens scored two touchdowns and a field goal on their three trips inside the Panthers’ 20-yard line -- Justin Forsett had an 11-yard touchdown run in the second quarter, and Lorenzo Taliaferro had a 1-yard end zone plunge in the fourth.
Meanwhile, Cam Newton proved Steve Smith sage when the veteran wideout said prior to kickoff that Newton can't think fast enough to succeed near the end zone. Newton took the Panthers into the red zone three times on the day, and had a fumble (recovered), a completed 7-yard pass that was called back on an offensive pass interference call and a 12-yard loss on a sack. The Panthers managed just a field goal on their three trips.
3) Good Joe Flacco is back
Flacco takes a lot of flak (heh) for his play relative to his monster contract, and admittedly he has been pretty bad this season. But he did something right to earn that big payday, and on Sunday he proved he has the capability to be a (get ready for it) ELITE quarterback in the NFL.
Flacco won’t live up to that capability on a regular basis. We know that because he never has. And admittedly, he was playing what appears to be a bad Carolina secondary. When Flacco is at his best, however, the Ravens are potentially one of the best teams in the league. We learned that during the the 2013 Super Bowl, and we were reminded once again on Sunday.
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