‘Monday Night Football’ schedule and results: Cardinals hold off Ravens 26-18

In the weekly officiating video distributed to the league, Blandino said that referee Ronald Torbert is to blame for an illegal formation penalty that cost the Ravens a penalty on a pass to offensive lineman John Urschel.

“Confluence of events here where the referee is correcting a number from a foul on the previous play,” Blandino explained via Pro Football Talk. “He’s looking up and he’s making that announcement, and he doesn’t recognize [Urschel reporting as an eligible receiver]. This is on us. We have to recognize this. We have to recognize this, and we want the player to get some acknowledgement from the referee. But again, the player’s doing what he’s supposed to do. We have to recognize it. We’ll make the adjustment and it won’t happen again.”

“We lost our phones,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said after the game, via the team’s official website. “[Offensive coordinator] Marc [Trestman] had to yell. We couldn’t get the personnel groups, so guys had to run the personnel group on and off. All of those kinds of things are really challenging.”

The interception sealed the 26-18 win for Arizona.

“You expect [the referees] to be consistent and fair. That’s what you ask for,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said, via the Baltimore Sun. “Our guys are just going to have to overcome it. It’s not the first time this year, but that’s OK. We’ve got to be good enough to overcome those things. That’s how we look at it.”

The Ravens were angry about many calls, but there were a few in particular that had them especially perturbed.

Steve Smith has never been one to pull his punches, and Monday night was no different.

Something tells me Steve Smith is pretty harsh with his Yelp reviews regardless, but two stars is still pretty low. It’s unclear how that 2-star review translates to Smith’s other reviews, like his previous thoughts on the Cincinnati Bengals’ secondary which included trash, a f***boy and other bad things.

And thus, the Cardinals held on for a 26-18 win.

In conclusion: Joe Flacco may or may not be elite.

The Ravens held brief leads twice, first with a field goal to open the game’s scoring in the first quarter and again with a touchdown to take a 10-7 lead near the end of the second. The second drive went 84 yards, Baltimore’s best of the night. After that, the Ravens punted on five consecutive drives, never gaining more than 29 yards on any one series.

Quarterback Joe Flacco finished with 252 yards passing, but couldn’t connect on anything deep. The Cardinals’ defense was lock-tight downfield throughout the game. It didn’t help that Flacco was often operating under pressure. Flacco was sacked three times and hurried much of the night.

Chris Johnson has had an up and down career, but he wasn’t down here.

It’s pretty clear Brandon Williams assumed the referees would rule Johnson’s forward progress stopped, but since there was no whistle Johnson got up and took off. He wasn’t quite off to the races, but a 62-yard carry is nothing to sneeze at! Unfortunately for Cardinals fans, the drive would only end in a field goal.

But the play was called back due to illegal formation. John Harbaugh was furious:

He had reason to be. Everything about the formation was perfectly legal:

Pittsburgh became the first team to slow down Arizona’s offense, forcing three turnovers and holding the Cardinals to 55 yards rushing -- the first time they had been under 100 all season. The Ravens might be able to do half of that -- they came into the week ranked seventh in the league in yards per rush allowed, but just 30th with four turnovers allowed.

When: 8:35 p.m. ET

There are some concerns, the biggest of which is the fact that the two losses came against the two teams that are obviously the best they’ve faced this season, while teams like the Lions, 49ers and Bears appear to be in the running for the worst team in the league at this stage.

While Arizona has a 4-2 record, the Ravens have won just one game, and are coming off a loss to the aforementioned 49ers. The one thing going for the Ravens right now is they own a win over the Steelers, who beat the Cardinals last week. The Ravens will need to look closely at what they did to beat the Steelers and at what the Steelers did to beat the Cardinals.

Still, experts around the Internet aren’t exactly lining up to pick the Ravens to win this one. Over at CBS Sports, all eight of the experts picking are going with the Cardinals, and all 13 experts with ESPN agree. The shutout is complete here at SB Nation, where all seven experts, along with the OddsShark computer, also picked the Cardinals.

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