If you ignored the score of Sunday’s game against the Cowboys, it would be hard to look at many of the details of the game and predict that the Ravens came out on top.
They were outgained by 165 yards, had the ball for less that 20 minutes and lost three key defensive players -- cornerback Lardarius Webb, linebacker Ray Lewis and defensive tackle Haloti Ngata -- to injury for large portions of the game. They got a big special teams play from Jacoby Jones and took advantage of some big Cowboys mistakes to hold on for a 31-29 win that upped their record to 5-1.
Quarterback Joe Flacco was more focused on the process than the outcome during a postgame interview with Jeff Darlington of the NFL Network. Flacco said that he wasn’t sure that the team gave everything possible over the course of the game and that he realizes they were fortunate to wind up on the right side of the final score.
“I’ve never been a part of a game like that. I don’t know if we deserved to win it, but we did it,” Flacco said.
The Ravens have nothing to apologize for after Sunday. They avoided shooting themselves in the foot the way the Cowboys did and the rest of their team was able to do enough to cover for a run defense that got ripped to shreds most of the day. Under such circumstances, all you can do is take the win and work on being better the next time out. With a trip to Houston next week and an ailing defense, the second half of that will be essential.