BALTIMORE — The Broncos fell to the Ravens, 27-14, on Sunday. Here are the game’s best and worst: UP: Special teams blocks. The Broncos batted the football down twice. Linebacker Joe Jones blocked the Ravens’ first punt attempt deep in their own territory and Denver scored one play after recovering the football. Safety Justin Simmons joined the party in the second quarter with a field goal block when he came clean up the middle. DOWN: Vance Joseph challenges. The Broncos’ coach threw his red flag after an 8-yard Michael Crabtree reception that gave Baltimore second-and-short at the Denver 32 in the first half. Review showed Crabtree maintained possession with a knee and elbow in bounds and the call was upheld. Joseph later attempted a second challenge on the spot of a goal-line Ravens’ rush before officials notified Joseph the play in question could not be challenged. UP: Josey Jewell. The Broncos’ fourth-round rookie made his first NFL start at inside linebacker. Jewell finished with six tackles (third-most among all Broncos defenders). DOWN: Phillip Lindsay‘s emotions. Denver’s breakout rookie running was ejected late in the second quarter after being flagged for allegedly throwing a punch (unsportsmanlike conduct) in a scrum following a sack of quarterback Case Keenum. Lindsay isn’t afraid of anyone. He’s still got to keep his head cool when thrown into the fire, however. UP: Bradley Chubb. Denver’s No. 5 overall pick recorded his first full NFL sack on the Ravens’ second play from scrimmage. Chubb finished with two tackles. 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UP: Broncos uniforms. The all-whites with blue helmets is as fresh as it gets for Denver. DOWN: Keenum’s heroics. The Broncos quarterback led fourth-quarter comeback drives in the first two games but but he couldn’t muster the same magic in Baltimore down two possessions. Keenum threw a red zone interception with about 9 minutes left. He had a 67.3 passer rating.<doc-sep>Third-down fail 1. The Broncos’ defensive issues were summarized in one play. The Ravens trailed 14-10 in the second quarter and faced a third-and-2 from the Broncos’ 12. At the snap, running back Buck Allen headed to the right flat … and was covered by linebacker Von Miller. Allen caught the pass behind the line of scrimmage and beat Miller to the goal-line. A red zone third down. And Miller was in coverage instead of rushing quarterback Joe Flacco. Inexcusable. Secondary stumbles 2. Another long day for the Broncos’ cornerbacks in man coverage: Bradley Roby (6 of 9, 72 yards by Flacco), Chris Harris (4 of 6, 44 yards) and rookie Issac Yiadom (3 of 4, 59 yards). Special effort 3. It will be hard for Broncos special teams ace Joseph Jones to top what he did in the opening 90 seconds. He made the tackle on kickoff coverage that forced Baltimore to start at its 16. Following a three-and-out, Jones made another splash play. He blocked Sam Koch’s punt 2.09 seconds after the football was snapped, dusting Ravens blocker Tyus Bowser. The Broncos scored one play later for a 7-0 lead. Broncos’ TDs 4. On that touchdown run by Royce Freeman (six yards), he started left before hopping right. Tight end Jake Butt was the lead blocker, pulling from left to right, but the play was so well blocked, Butt had nobody to hit and crossed the goal-line untouched right before Freeman did. The Broncos’ second drive was capped by receiver Emmanuel Sanders’ 35-yard touchdown run (end-around). Fullback Andy Janovich wiped out safety Eric Weddle at the 4 and receiver Courtland Sutton walled off cornerback Brandon Carr at the 1 to help Sanders score. Rushing the passer 5. The Broncos rushed at least five players on 18 of Flacco’s 43 drop-backs 41.9 percent). But Baltimore’s commitment to keeping extra blockers was a direct result. On 11 of those pressures, the Ravens had six or more pass protectors. Bradley Chubb had his first solo sack of the year, bull-rushing left tackle Ronnie Stanley (3.06 seconds). Shane Ray beat left guard Alex Lewis (3.22). Protecting the passer 6. The Ravens rushed five or more players on 16 of Broncos quarterback Case Keenum’s 43 drop-backs (37.2 percent). Outside linebacker Za’Darius Smith beat right tackle Jared Veldheer (2.66 seconds), outside linebacker Terrell Suggs beat left tackle Garett Bolles (2.84) and Suggs and linebacker Matthew Judon split a sack (booked to right guard Connor McGovern and left guard Ron Leary in 3.39 seconds). Rough day at the office 7. McGovern allowed only one quarterback pressure/hit apiece in the first two games, but struggled against the Ravens. Our charting pegged him for allowing a half-sack, two hits, two pressures, and two penalties. Yikes. Third quarter blues 8. Where the game really fell apart for the Broncos. Trailing 20-14, they got possession first in the third quarter and Freeman gained 11 yards. First down: Brent Urban pass bat-down. Second down: Keenum short-hopped Sanders. Third down: Keenum extended the play for 7.45 seconds before getting hit by Weddle as he threw incomplete. The Ravens marched 77 yards on 14 plays to seize control with a touchdown. Wrapping up 9. The Broncos had a season-low three missed tackles (Harris, Chubb and Roby). They have 15 in three games. The run defense was solid with 13 “stuffs” (gain or three or fewer yards). Defensive lineman Derek Wolfe had three stuffs and linebacker Todd Davis had 2 1/2. Going out with whimper 10. The Broncos’ final offensive play was a mess. On fourth-and-goal from the 7, the Broncos used an empty backfield. Suggs rushed from Keenum’s left side and was not blocked. He got in the way enough for Keenum to throw quickly and incomplete. It continues to be amazing how teams don’t communicate better in those situations. Miller is occasionally unblocked as well.<doc-sep>The first road game is always a great indication of what a team will look like for the rest of the season. After Sunday’s showing against the Baltimore Ravens, fans of the Denver Broncos might not want to see any more. After a 2-0 start last season, this feels like a terrible sequel. It’s not a surprise that the Broncos lost this game, but the manner in which they did so may leave fans feeling some PTSD from what they endured a year ago. Look on the bright side, Broncos Country — you could be a Minnesota Vikings fan. Winners The Ravens Baltimore looked and played like the better team. The Ravens were able to overcome a bad start, and that’s a testament to the veteran leadership and coaching. Baltimore also found what worked on both sides of the ball and continued to do it. Joe Jones After a three-and-out from the Broncos defense, Jones set the offense up with a blocked punt. It seemed like a great omen. Alas, that was not the case. But Jones showed why he is on the roster with that huge special teams play. Josey Jewell On a day in which the defense was torched by Joe Flacco, you won’t see winners. But the rookie linebacker was a bright spot and showed he should get more time on the field. Jewell finished with eight tackles and one tackle for loss. Losers Vance Joseph One of the few aspects in which a head coach has a direct impact on the game is clock management. Tied into that is the use of replay. Joseph was atrocious on Sunday. When you go against one of the best in the NFL, you have to rise to the occasion. The other area of a team that connects to coaching is penalties, preparedness and situational football. What makes matters worse, or hilarious, is Joseph, apparently, has Football 101 with his team each week. The Broncos finished with 13 penalties, seemed confused and lost most of the game, and the play-calling on both sides of the ball was, you guessed it, awful. Speaking of a 2017 redux, Joseph showed he was out of his element. Case Keenum I’ve tried to give Denver’s new starting quarterback the benefit of the doubt, but we’ve now seen three games of horrible decisions and interceptions. Keenum leads the NFL in picks and has fans thinking the version we saw with the Vikings last season was a mirage. The Frequent Flyer Zone This is the new name for the Broncos secondary. Airlines wish they could give out miles like this unit has through three games. Garett Bolles You could include Denver’s entire offensive line in this, but Bolles gets the nod for his play on Sunday (if one could even say he “played”). He was owned by whoever went against him, and when he wasn’t owned, he was costing his team big plays with holding penalties. The officials I’m not one who points the finger at officials when a team loses, and I don’t think the Broncos lost because of Ron Torbert and his crew. But they were bad. Look no further than the inconsistency in terms of holding calls. The flags on Bolles were blatant and obvious. So were the ones on Von Miller, who was held the entire game but it wasn’t called. When you’re an official, you’re job is to be consistent. You can’t say that about Torbert and his crew after Sunday’s game. There’s also the bullshit ejection of Phillip Lindsay. Though to Lindsay’s credit, he took responsibility for it. “I feel horrible, because I’m not out there with my team,” he told the media after the game. “And that’s my fault. That’s something I’m going to learn from. It’s never going to happen again.” The Broncos I should have just saved myself the trouble, but the whole team deserves to be on this list. As I said at the start, it’s not a surprise Denver lost this game, but how it did so is what’s a huge surprise. Here we go again?<doc-sep>
Though it was not picture-perfect football, the Baltimore Ravens ultimately got the end result they needed — a 27-14 win over the Denver Broncos on Sunday. If there’s one word that could characterize this game for the Ravens, it’d have to be resiliency. Things couldn’t have started out any worse for Baltimore. They were stifled by the Broncos defense on their opening drive, and a subsequent punt block set their opponents up in prime position to score the game’s first points — which they did quite easily on a six-yard touchdown scamper by Denver running back Royce Freeman. After that rather demoralizing beginning to the game, it seemed like fans were in for a long game. Those first impressions, though, were quite misleading. After the Broncos’ opening salvo to begin the game, quarterback Joe Flacco & Co. fired back with a touchdown drive of their own. From there on, the Ravens took control of the game. With linebacker Von Miller and the rest of the usually menacing Denver pass rush subdued, the Baltimore offense was largely able to move the ball with relative ease. Most of the offense flowed through Flacco, who spread the wealth and frequently connecting with new weapons like tight end Mark Andrews and wide receiver John Brown, the latter of whom hauled in an impressive 44-yard toss from Flacco down the sideline. While the offense largely relied on the aerial attack today, there were encouraging signs of life from the ground game, as starting running back Alex Collins took 18 carries for 68 yards and a score. Meanwhile, the defense did an excellent job of clamping down the Broncos’ offense. Though there were concerns about how the unit would hold up in the absence of linebacker C.J. Mosley, who was sidelined with a bone bruise, the unit held its own. While the going was a little rough in the first quarter, when the group ceded two touchdowns to the Broncos, the defense hit their stride shortly thereafter and pitched a shutout for the rest of the game. While it certainly took a group performance from the defense to stifle the Denver offense, the pass rush should be commended in particular for their efforts on the day. With a combined four sacks and 10 quarterback hits, the rush got after Broncos quarterback Case Keenum early and often. Though the Ravens probably didn’t envision getting the win like this — with special teams mishaps and all — it is still a quality win they should be proud of. In clawing back from the early deficit, Baltimore showed immense chemistry and grit — both markers that are prerequisites for any team wanting to make a run in the playoffs. With all of its challenges, this game served as a test of sorts for the Ravens, and they passed with flying colors.