Battle Red Blog
In a 17 game schedule it is easy to get carried away with any single result. All of these games mean so much and 2-3 is definitely better than 1-4. Still, it can be easy to take a 44-10 drubbing and read too much into it positively or negatively. It is what I would lovingly call a data point. It’s a fantastic data point when you are on the giving end of the 44-10 shalacking.
However, we still look at the numbers because when we start to put these numbers together we begin to see trends and a glimpse of the overall mosaic. We probably know the things that cause winning and losing and when you have a blowout like this, they are more pronounced. However, next week during the bye we will look at the season wide numbers to see what we notice.
There aren’t too many categories that the Texans did not dominate in this one. However, one of the biggest disparities that many will not notice is just the sheer number of plays. The state of play in the NFL dictates that dominant offenses will not be denied. Heck, even mediocre offenses will not be denied forever. The more plays you give them the more opportunities you give them to make something happen. Even on a day when the Ravens accomplished very little, Zay Flowers got behind Derek Stingley when Stingley stumbled and was able to scamper inside the five yard line. This just shows that every offense will make something happen if given enough opportunities.
The Texans made more of them. They did not punt until the fourth quarter and by then the issue was not in doubt. A couple of fourth down conversions kept drives going and Stroud played his cleanest game as a Texan. The 2023 tussle with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers may have been his best effort, but this one was his cleanest and obviously the kind of football Ryans envisioned when they took him second overall in the drat.
I very much believe in the idea of not reading too much into individual games. The term “any given Sunday” has a meaning. The Ravens have been one of the worst defenses in football and they lost a few key players this week. Pound for pound they might be the worst defense without those key pieces. So, as dominating as the offense was, the great category goes to a defense that is the number one scoring defense in the NFL through week five. The more you pile on games the more those common excuses start to fade away. This is a great defense....
