Surging Ravens hit their groove in time for playoff push

On a cool day in Charm City.

If Gase isn’t fretting about the playoff race, he should be anxious about weaknesses exposed by the Ravens, who shredded Miami’s pass defense and intercepted Ryan Tannehill three times after the lopsided score forced the Dolphins to abandon the ground game that’s their strength.

Yes the Ravens might have one of the best defenses but that’s no reason for Miami to get blown out the way they did.

Rookie left tackle Ronnie Stanley returned from a foot injury that knocked him out of four games, which were not coincidentally all losses. “We’ll get past this, and we’ll start a new streak”. The interesting thing about this game is not what happened during it, its what happened before it.

The Dolphins’ pass rush, the most reliable aspect of the defense, didn’t register a sack as Flacco peppered them with quick-hitting passes on the soft underbelly of the defense. But they’re back in the thick of the playoff race and tied with the Ravens atop the AFC North with a 7-5 record. Joe Flacco had 381 yards and four touchdowns.

The offense was held to one touchdown and produced a season-low 62 yards rushing. Since then, there has been a six-game win streak to prove that Adam Gase has a pretty good handle on this thing. We’re used to winning, but it’s OK. The Ravens put together a full 60-minute game for the first time this season. And now that he knows where the end zone is again, he’s even more risky. “You just keep grinding it out and just try to be relevant at the end of the regular season and get into the playoffs”.

First-half frenzy: Flacco was 27-of-34 for 258 yards, three touchdowns and an interception before halftime.

The Ravens were impressive offensively.

The drive was extended by Kenneth Dixon’s 10-yard run on a fourth-and-1. How many times did they allow tight end Dennis Pitta to get off the line of scrimmage cleanly without holding him up? He said the fans were loud enough to lead to a few Miami Dolphins offensive penalties.

PASSING OFFENSE: A-minus – It was yet another top-notch performance from Ben Roethlisberger in a home game at Heinz Field. “He’s the rangy free safety type that we need in this defense to make plays, to erase plays in the back end, and he’s really coming into his own”, Weddle said. We just have to reset and correct our mistakes.

“That helps a ton with our continuity and just the way we communicate with each other and know how each other works on different blocks”, said Stanley, Baltimore’s first-round pick. Our offensive line did that.

“I feel like the guys are playing hard and guys are doing well. We’ll be looking to try and improve”.

Dolphins: Miami was limited to 62 yards rushing, its lowest output since gaining 51 in a loss to Tennessee on October 9 – its last loss.

Ravens: The Ravens split the handoffs. Dixon set a season-high with 56 yards on six carries.

Special teams also joined in on the misery when kicker Andrew Franks missed a 46-yard field goal attempt wide left.

“I’m not even going to worry about it because you hear that every year and usually everybody is wrong”, he said. After the timeout, Tucker duplicated the feat.

The Miami Dolphins were beaten and exposed by Baltimore 38-6, and now the Dolphins, who had their six-game winning streak snapped, must deal with the aftermath of a loss for the first time in almost two months. The Dolphins have won three straight in the series after losing the first eight.

Now here comes the good news, and it might be better than you think. But their toughest challenge awaits them next.