OWINGS MILLS, Md. — Coming off their best performance of the season, the Baltimore Ravens appear to have hit their stride at just the right time.
The Ravens did just about everything right Sunday in a 38-6 rout of the Miami Dolphins, who came to Baltimore with a six-game winning streak and left with an understanding of what it takes to win in December.
“We didn’t execute, and they pounced all over it. That’s what they do,” Miami Coach Adam Gase said. “There’s a reason why they’ve won divisions, they’ve won playoff games, they’ve won Super Bowls – because they understand, at this part of the season, you’ve got to be on it early because it can snowball one way or the other.”
Baltimore (7-5) scored touchdowns on its first two possessions and coasted to the finish. The Ravens have won 4 of 5 to remain tied with Pittsburgh atop the AFC North, and they hope that momentum through a difficult final stretch.
Next on the schedule: A matchup against the Patriots (10-2), whom Baltimore has defeated only once in eight regular-season meetings.
“Now we’ve got our toughest challenge,” Coach John Harbaugh said Monday. “We’re going to need to play our best football on Monday night up in New England to win that football game. We do believe we have a chance to do that, based on where we’re at right now.
Baltimore couldn’t have performed much better than it did Sunday. Joe Flacco completed a franchise-record 36 passes, four for touchdowns, as the focal point of an offense that scored 24 first-half points and finished with a season-high 496 yards.
“The credit goes to Joe and to the players, just for the way they executed,” Harbaugh said. “It was very sharp, it was very precise. … To see it consistently, from the beginning of the game to the end of the game, it was something’s that’s been in our vision here for a while.”
Flacco connected with 11 receivers and totaled 381 yards through the air. Afterward, someone asked if he considered it to be one of his memorable performances.
“Joe played just extremely well and I thought all the guys around him played extremely well, too,” Harbaugh said. “It came together. That’s one game. We’ll be looking to try and improve.”
“What a great game, team effort, all three phases,” safety Eric Weddle said.
“We played our best to date, and we’ve got to play better next week. We’ve been playing playoff football for the last four weeks, so it’s nothing new to us.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
Success. Please wait for the page to reload. If the page does not reload within 5 seconds, please refresh the page.
Enter your email and password to access comments.
Hi, to comment on stories you must . This profile is in addition to your subscription and website login.
Already have a commenting profile? .
Invalid username/password.
Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.
Only subscribers are eligible to post comments. Please subscribe or login first for digital access. Here’s why.
Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.