The Baltimore Ravens' defense is always expected to be one of the best in the league, but Monday night, the Ravens were clicking on both sides of the ball as they destroyed the Cincinnati Bengals, 44-13.
Bruce Raffel of the aptly-named Ravens blog Baltimore Beatdown described the win as "overwhelming and impressive":
The Cincinnati Bengals will probably wake with a bad case of whiplash tomorrow morning after their 44-13 lashing on Monday Night Football. The Bengals had no idea where the ball was headed all night long, as the offense spread the ball around and was led by QB Joe Flacco.
Cincinnati only mustered one touchdown on the evening, something Raffel attributed in part to a vintage performance by Ray Lewis, now 17 years removed from his college career at Miami. The 37-year-old had 11 tackles, including a forced fumble and a sack.
Early in the game, it appeared that Lewis was in on the tackle on virtually every play. He ran sideline-to-sideline making plays and even dropped into coverage on passing plays. The changes he made in his body by dropping weight to gain speed were evident as there was no way he looked like the guy people were saying was on his last legs. No question those same people would love to have this aging veteran on their team right now.
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