Brown Beatdown

There's not much to say about yesterday's 34-3 win over the Cleveland Browns. The Ravens looked great on both sides of the ball against a Cleveland team that probably couldn't beat some college teams.

The Ravens got it started early, with Dominique Foxworth intercepting Browns QB Brady Quinn on the Browns first drive, which set up a Willis McGahee TD, his first of 2 TD's on the day. From then on, the Ravens drove the ball at will and treated the Browns like they were an annoying kitten.

Joe Flacco had another career game, passing for 342 yards and a touchdown. McGahee is also looking like a fantasy beast, racking up another 2 TD's and 67 rush yards. Even Ray Rice finally found the endzone for the first touchdown of his career.

On the receiving end, Derrick Mason hauled in 118 yards and a touchdown on a 72-yard pass while Kelley Washington continues to be a huge part of the passing game, with 66 yards. Mark Clayton also caught 3 balls for 35 yards, and looks like he has been passed by Washington as the #2 WR for the Ravens.

The defense was their old selves. They needed to come up big after a disappointing performace in San Diego a week ago, and they answered the call. They held the Browns to a total of 186 yards and 11 first downs. They forced 4 interceptions. The Browns only points of the game seemed to come out of spite. Down 27-0, Browns head coach Eric Mangini opted to go for a field goal, ending the shutout, instead of going for it on 4th down in the red zone.

If anything, the game was a warm-up for next week. The Ravens travel to New England to take on the 2-1 Patriots in what is shaping up to be an epic game for the Ravens. The Patriots are showing signs of slowing down despite finding ways to win and the Ravens look like a team that is just finding its stride. If they can put pressure on Tom Brady and force him to move around in the pocket, they could replicate the success the Jets had against the Patriots a week ago. The health of Patriots WR Wes Welker will also weigh heavily on this game.

Meanwhile, the Bengals knocked off the Steelers yesterday, sending the Steelers to 1-2 and the Bengals to 2-1.

The Ravens are 3-0 and are second in scoring only to the New Orleans Saints.