Raiders vs Ravens Week 4: Highlights, score and recap

A first defeat of the season is a tough pill to swallow for the Baltimore Ravens, especially at home. But the Oakland Raiders just about shaded things 28-27 at M&T Bank Stadium in Week 4.

Oakland Raiders quarterback Derek Carr burned a very tough Baltimore defense to throw four touchdown passes, but his counterpart was put under intense pressure all day. Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco rarely had a clean pocket and was forced into countless errant throws.

It didn’t help the Ravens took so long to get their running game going. Offensive coordinator Marc Trestman waited until the third quarter to give the game to Terrance West and work over a run defense ranked 30th in the NFL entering the game.

Still, it wasn’t Trestman’s thinking under the spotlight. The real head-scratcher came when head coach John Harbaugh accepted a penalty instead of letting the Raiders face 4th-and-6 early in the fourth quarter. Oakland wound up converting 3rd-and-16, although they need an encroachment penalty on the Baltimore D-line to move the sticks on fourth-and-short.

Carr fired a strike to Michael Crabtree for his third touchdown soon after, and the Ravens had a mountain to climb. They had made things interesting when Flacco had pushed over on 4th-and-goal, before seeing his two-point pass intercepted.

Flacco’s plunge made the score 14-12, after Carr had hit Seth Roberts and Crabtree for touchdowns. All an under-siege Flacco and the Ravens offense could muster was a pair of Justin Tucker field goals.

A deep ball to Steve Smith Sr. got the Ravens back in it at 21-19, before West gave them the lead with a three-yard run. But Carr and Crabtree weren’t done, connecting for third time from 23 yards out ahead of the final two minutes.

Flacco tried to get the Ravens into Tucker range once more, but ex-Cincinnati Bengals safety Reggie Nelson tormented his former AFC North foes by forcing an incompletion on fourth down, after a thumping hit on Kamar Aiken.

Highlights

Next: NFL Week 4: 5 best games on Sunday

Three Stars

1. Terrance West

The keys to the running game belonged to West once Justin Forsett was declared inactive on gameday. Initially, it appeared as if the third-year pro would struggle with the responsibility.

Edward Lee of the Baltimore Sun summed up how anaemic the Ravens’ rushing attack looked early on:

However, West just needed time to warm up. He was a different player once Trestman decided to lean on the run in the third. West responded with some decisive running on inside traps, hitting the gaps hard and powering through the first tackler.

Former Towson ace West also showed nifty moves, squirting between gaps more than once. West’s combination of shiftiness and power transformed Baltimore’s ground game. It was no longer an inch-at-a-time enterprise. Big plays were now a feature.

Most of all, West brought vital balance back to the Baltimore offense.

2. Steve Smith Snr.

No receiver took more advantage of the new-found balance than Smith. The 37-year-old carried the fight to the Raiders with five grabs for 51 yards, before turning the game on its head in the fourth quarter.

Smith turned back the clock to burn Oakland cornerback David Amerson on a 52-yard bomb from Flacco. It was a deep strike created by the success on the ground. The Raiders had begun crowding the line of scrimmage and rotating safeties down into the box.

But Smith is still a formidable matchup for any cornerback in one-on-one coverage, even in his 16th season. His touchdown grab also marked a worthy moment of history for one of the league’s most consistently outstanding receivers, per Lee:

Smith finished with eight catches for 111 yards, and showed up big when it mattered for an offense lacking a spark through the first three games of the season.

3. Derek Carr and Michael Crabtree

You can’t separate Carr from Crabtree in this one. The Ravens certainly had no answers for their devastating aerial rapport.

Carr was firing some strikes, but Crabtree made the throws better with his savvy routes and excellent hands. His first scoring grab was a stretching, finger-tip grab in the back corner of the end zone. His third was a physics-defying moment of toe-tapping and foot-dragging brilliance.

Carr proved his mettle by staying tough and delivering in the clutch against a stout defense on the road. Meanwhile, Crabtree showed how even with touted youngster Amari Cooper in the fold, he’s still the playmaker Carr can count on in the Raiders’ receiving corps.