BALTIMORE _ Ninety minutes before kickoff Sunday, the Ravens announced the news they had been hoping to avoid hearing all week. Linebacker C.J. Mosley was out. Defensive tackle Michael Pierce was out. A defense that had been shredded through much of its first loss of the season was missing two of its top players, not to mention the already suspended Jimmy Smith at cornerback.
Not even two minutes after kickoff Sunday, the Ravens were down a touchdown. An offense that had come alive late in that Week 2 setback against the Cincinnati Bengals had stalled out, and the team's normally reliable special teams had been put on a highlight reel.
And yet, as the clock ticked down at M&T Bank Stadium, the Ravens were breathing easy. A nightmarish beginning was the prelude to a comfortable end, a 27-14 win over the Denver Broncos in their grasp, their sights set on a crucial Week 4 showdown next week against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Quarterback Joe Flacco finished 25-for-40 for 277 yards and a touchdown, spreading the wealth to three receivers who finished with at least 50 yards (John Brown, Michael Crabree and Mark Andrews), and the defense held the potent Denver offense to 293 total yards. It was not as comfortable a rain-game win as the Ravens' season-opening blowout of the Buffalo Bills, but it was a comforting balm nonetheless.
The Broncos came into Baltimore with two wins but not the profile of a dominant team. Victories over the Seattle Seahawks and then the Oakland Raiders had required fourth-quarter comebacks. So in one sense Sunday, they had the Ravens right where they wanted them: leading 27-14 at the end of the third quarter.
The Ravens refused to play the part of sucker. At the end of Denver's first impressive drive of the second half, quarterback Case Keenum was chasing an interception he'd just thrown. He was fortunate to have Ravens linebacker Patrick Onwuasor's 89-yard pick-six early in the fourth quarter called back because of a questionable illegal-blocking penalty on Onwuasor's lead blocker, linebacker Matthew Judon, but that was seemingly the extent of his good fortune all game long.
On a gotta-have-it fourth-down throw with three minutes left deep in Ravens territory, he threw an incomplete pass to tight end Jake Butt. Keenum finished the game with 192, 83 below his season average (275. per game), and an interception. If Keenum had expected to leave the game marveling anew at his teammates' pass rush, he was in for a surprise.
The second half lacked much of the first half's pyrotechnics. After a 24-point first quarter, the third quarter had just one score. Even that Ravens touchdown drive was more methodical than anything: a 14-play, 82-yard slog highlighted a 29-yard seam pass to tight end Mark Andrews and finished off three plays later with a 1-yard run by Buck Allen.
Harbaugh could not have scripted a worse start. The offense's first play from scrimmage went for 3 yards. Everything afterward seemed to go in reverse. On Flacco's first drop-back, Broncos rookie outside linebacker Bradley Chubb shed left tackle Ronnie Stanley like a water-logged sweater for an easy sack.
Two plays later, Ravens outside linebacker Tyus Bowser whiffed on a block of Denver's Joseph Jones, who had a clear path to Sam Koch. For only the fifth time in his career, the Ravens punter had a punt blocked. The Broncos recovered the ball at the Ravens' 6-yard line, and running back Royce Freeman all but jogged into the end zone on their first play.
The game had all the early makings of a one-sided laugher. It never got close to that. Helped by a pair of 15-yard penalties on Denver, the Ravens responded with a 48-yard drive to tie the game, Alex Collins following tight end Maxx Williams into the end zone as comfortably as Freeman had gotten there minutes earlier.
Ten days after Mosley's absence proved a mortal wound to the Ravens' chances of a comeback against the Cincinnati Bengals, the defense slowly but surely got used to life without its leader. On the Broncos' second drive, outside linebacker Terrell Suggs lost containment on wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders' 35-yard end-around to the end zone, but the Ravens held Denver scoreless for the half's final 22-plus minutes. Of Denver's six drives after its opening score, four lasted four plays or fewer.
Which is not to say the Broncos were boring. Far from it. After Justin Tucker's 52-yard field goal and Buck Allen's 12-yard receiving score put the Ravens ahead for the first time midway through the first quarter, 17-14, the game got punchy.
With Justin Tucker looking to extend his streak of consecutive field goals made to 24, Broncos safety Justin Simmons leapt over long snapper Morgan Cox and center Matt Skura before smothering a second kick. NFL rules prohibit "running forward and leaping across the line of scrimmage in an obvious attempt to block a field goal," but the officials either deemed it legal or missed the infraction altogether.
The Broncos returned the ensuing fumble for a touchdown, but an illegal block in the back on the run-back negated the go-ahead score. With Denver on the march toward the Ravens' red zone, outside linebacker Terrell Suggs, largely missing in action from their first two games, burst loose for a strip-sack of Keenum. The Broncos won possession of the ball in the ensuing scramble but lost something just as important: star rookie running back Phillip Lindsay, who was ejected for throwing a punch in the pile.
Ultimately, nothing else came of Denver's potential 10-point swing, and the Ravens entered halftime with a 20-14 lead after another 52-yard field goal from Tucker.
