5 Bad Plays: Baltimore Ravens at San Diego Chargers

by John Gennaro on Dec 19, 2011 11:00 AM PST

Since there are definitely not 5 bad stat lines for the Chargers in the box score of their victory over the Baltimore Ravens, we're changing this post to "5 bad plays" in hopes of actually being able to find 5 of them. Wish me luck.

Ryan Mathews' Fumble
Ugh. Imagine what Bolts fans would think of Mathews if he were to fumble once (or less) per season, like LaDainian Tomlinson used to, rather than roughly that many times per game. He picked himself up after the fumble, but this problem as reached "It's time for him to carry the ball with two hands" proportions.

Quentin Jammer's Hands (of Stone)
Quentin Jammer's combination of size, speed and fluid hips would've made him a very good WR in the NFL. Unfortunately, he is in a position to admire the sticky palms of Darrius Heyward-Bey. His hands are so bad that when a ball was tipped at the line and was floating right towards his stomach, he still managed to drop it. This would've been a bigger deal had Joe Flacco not thrown the next pass at Takeo Spikes' hands.

Nick Novak's Dinger
Quick stat for you, if you're yearning for them:

Novak between 9/18-9/7: 16/17 FGs, perfect on XPs
Novak between 9/8-12/19: 9/14 FGs, 17/18 on XPs

After missing 1 of his 3 attempts last night, a 37 yarder, it would appear that Nick Novak is turning back into Nick Novak. Stop that.

Joe Flacco's 3rd Down Run
QBs converting 3rd downs by running the ball has been a problem for the Chargers defense all year. It looked like it would be again, with the Ravens inexplicably abandoning the run (which was working) in the middle of a first quarter drive and doing this from the Chargers 41 (out of FG range).

1st & 10: Incomplete Pass
2nd & 10: Incomplete Pass
3rd & 10: Flacco runs for 12 yards

Four plays later, Joe Flacco threw a strike to Ed Dickson to tie the game at 7 points a piece.

Antwan Barnes' Face Mask "Penalty"
With the Chargers up by 17, the Ravens desperately needed to get on the board to keep the game close enough for Ray Rice and their running game to remain a threat to the Chargers' defense. After throwing for a couple of first downs and then getting sacked, Baltimore faced a key 3rd down (and 14 to go) on their own 38 yard line.

What happened? Antwan Barnes got to Flacco one more time, in which should've been one of five sacks on the night, but apparently a blind ref somewhere took the word of Joe Flacco (who was claiming that Barnes grabbed his face mask) and simultaneously took away the sack while awarding the Ravens 15 yards and a first down. It was a stupid, awful, terrible call that would've been much worse if Flacco didn't find a way to screw up the drive anyway (with the Spikes INT).

Tweet Comment 4 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

Spike's Penalty

for excessive celebration after his Int return moved us from the 25 to the 40. Didn’t end up mattering (we ended up scoring anyways), but it could have been a big bummer.

Like most of the bad things above, none of them ended up hurting.

by Stephen (shaynes41) on Dec 19, 2011 11:12 AM PST reply actions

I appreciate trying to find a 5th "bad play"

but the face mask was not a “stupid, awful, terrible” call. It might be a "stupid, awful, terrible rule, because the rule is that any pull on a face mask, no matter how brief, is a 15-yard penalty. They did away with the 5-yard version so officials wouldn’t have to make a judgment call on those. Since Barnes did get his fingers in the mask and gave it a slight tug downward (which the replay clearly showed), it was a correct call. The rule itself? That’s another story…

I’m more inclined to agree with the celebration after the INT as well as a 5th play.

by justincup on Dec 19, 2011 11:13 AM PST reply actions 1 recs

but

The exact same thing happened at the end of the game and they picked up the flag and said no foul. The officiating was a little one sided. Also, call the celebrating penalty but NOT a prsonal foul on the guy pounding on the charger player on the ground on the kickoff? Which rsulted in a squirmish on the field? They didn’t show the celebration on tv, so don’t know how “excessive” it was. For the most part, the rfs didn’t call many penalties.

by irishlad on Dec 19, 2011 11:46 AM PST up reply actions