Ravens-Bengals Postgame Report: Joe Flacco's Horrible Outing Leads to Loss

There's no way to sugarcoat the type of loss the Ravens suffered at the hands of the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.

It was possibly the most horrific outing by Joe Flacco in his three years with the Ravens and was equally horrific to watch if you happened to be a Ravens fan.

Baltimore won the coin toss to start the game and deferred to Cincinnati. Baltimore's defense held Carson Palmer and the Bengals to a three-and-out on their first drive, which helped to neutralize the crowd and swing momentum in favor of the Ravens.

However, Flacco and the new-look Ravens offense couldn't capitalize on the momentum change, which was the least of the problems about to come their way.

Sloppy and out of sync are two adjectives that described Flacco's day against the Bengals' defense. Flacco put up a menial 154 yards in passing while tossing four passes to the opposing team. The four interceptions were a career high for Flacco.

With Flacco suffering a hip injury late last season, one might wonder if part of his struggles lately have to do with residual effects from that injury. Baltimore tried to keep the injury under wraps last year, and head coach John Harbaugh insisted that Flacco's decline in performance during the latter part of 2009 was simply due to growing pains.

However, one can't help but notice how these "growing pains" have carried over to the start of the 2010 season.

If there was anything positive about the Ravens' performance on Sunday, it was their defense holding the high-octane Bengals to only 253 yards of total offense. Both Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens were held to under 60 yards receiving, and neither receiver came close to the end zone.

In fact, Baltimore held Cincinnati to five field goals, which makes eight straight quarters in which the Ravens have yet to allow an offensive touchdown.

Part of the blame for the lousy performance by Baltimore on offense could be attributed to player fatigue after a physical game against the Jets and the short week Baltimore had to work with. That still doesn't explain why the Ravens' offense failed to establish any rhythm whatsoever.

We need to give credit where credit is due, and Cincinnati's defense was the main reason why the Bengals came away with their first win of the season.

Ray Rice was held to 87 yards on 18 carries, which was far short of the breakout game he was supposed to have. Cincinnati managed to shut down one of the stronger offenses in the NFL, all without breaking a sweat.

Meanwhile, Flacco's inability to read coverage at this point in his career is extremely troubling. There's no excuse for delivering passes into triple coverage and failing to take care of the football in general.

A prime example of Flacco's inability to go through his progressions came early in the first quarter, when Anquan Boldin ran 50 yards downfield, completely uncovered. Flacco never located Boldin on a play that was sure to end in a touchdown because of blown coverage.

By the end of the first half, you could see Boldin's frustration on the Ravens' sideline. He was clearly unhappy with Flacco's decision-making, and that same frustration and tension was visible on the face of every receiver towards the end of the game.

While it's safe to say the Ravens have a cohesive unit on offense and there's no imminent threat of any rift in the locker room, this will be a game that Flacco and his receiving corps will quickly want to erase from memory.

Jim Zorn, Baltimore's quarterbacks coach, should be able to get Flacco back on track to having a productive season. Every quarterback is entitled to have a bad game or two. Let's just hope this isn't a lasting trend for an offense that has so many high expectations this year.

A few noteworthy facts to point out are the two blown calls that were leveled against the Ravens' defense that eventually contributed to Cincinnati field goals on both occasions.

On the first call, Ray Lewis was flagged for tripping Carson Palmer as Lewis' momentum carried him to the ground. As Lewis rolled on the ground, away from Palmer, his legs incidentally tangled with the quarterback, drawing the flag.

The second blown call game on a play where Terrell Suggs took Palmer to the ground as the ball was coming out of his hand. By all accounts, Suggs' timing was perfect, but for some reason he was flagged for roughing the passer.

John Harbaugh was livid after the blown calls, and both CBS announcers seemed to agree that the referees got it all wrong.

Both of those calls by the officiating crew are likely to get some media attention this week.

Next week, Baltimore will host the Cleveland Browns in their season opener at M&T Bank Stadium. The Ravens will use this upcoming week to reassess where they are as a football team, especially on offense.