Ravens Week 12 Recap

    The Ravens played at home against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 12. Thus far this season, the Buccaneers have been a surprising team led by their young quarterback Josh Freeman. In order to win the game and stay in first place, the Ravens needed to shut down the Buccaneers offense and limit the big plays from Josh Freeman. 
    The game started slowly, as neither team was able to crack the opposing defense. Finally in the second quarter the Ravens got on the board as a result of a 45-yard field goal by Billy Cundiff. The Ravens added two touchdowns later in the quarter to extend their lead. The first of the two touchdowns came on a 65-yard touchdown pass to Todd Heap from Joe Flacco, making the score 10-0. A few minutes later, Joe Flacco connected with Derrick Mason on a 10-yard touchdown pass. The second quarter was a good one for the Raven's offense, as they finally got things going and ended the half with a 17-3 lead over the Buccaneers. 
    In the third quarter there was no scoring once again as the defense continued their strong play. In the fourth quarter, the Buccaneers offense showed some signs of life as they added a touchdown to make it 17-10 and start what appeared to be a come back effort. Late in the game the Buccaneers had a chance to tie the game, but the Ravens defense was able to stay strong and not allow any other points to preserve the win, 17-10. 
    With this win, the Ravens record improved to 8-3 and they remained in first place in the AFC North. Also with the win, the Ravens were able to extend their home winning streak to 8 games dating back to last season.The defense played well throughout the entire game keeping the team in the game especially in the second half when the offense seemed to disappear. The offense played well in the first half, but disappeared during the second half. In the second half, the offense showed no life or urgency, which has been the case in the second half of a lot of the games thus far this season. This is something that will need to be fixed in order for the Ravens to come out with a win against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 13.

- Charlie Rachel