There are times when the bad defines the good, which is as good a way as any to look at the Ravens' 28-10 victory over the Cleveland Browns at M&T Bank Stadium.
Not that the Ravens were bad. Quite the contrary. They came back from their unscheduled bye week and did all the things you have to do to trounce a division rival. Moving into sole possession of first place in the AFC North was just a bonus.
They played nasty defense. They forced turnovers. They scored points on both sides of the ball. They looked like a team that spent the past two weeks getting healthier and more confident, which should blunt any more concern about the loss of their regular bye. The postponement of last week's game against the Houston Texans didn't exactly create an optimum situation long-term, but you could make the case that the Ravens have already gotten something good out of a bad deal.
Now, let me get back to my original premise. The Ravens won in spite of the weather delay last week and also because of it. They won in spite of several rookie mistakes by young quarterback Joe Flacco, but also because he kept his poise and continued to execute Cam Cameron's offense. They won in spite of a horrifying injury to safety Dawan Landry, but also because they used it as a rallying point for their second-half defensive dominance. In short, they improved to 2-0 because they absolutely refused to let anything prevent them from winning.
"You shouldn't have to play perfect to win," coach John Harbaugh said. "If you're a good enough football team, you should be able to overcome mistakes."
It's too early to draw any grand conclusions from all this because the combined record of the two teams they have beaten so far is 0-6, but undefeated is still undefeated, especially when you're playing with a rookie quarterback and coming back from a raft of training camp injuries. The only way the Ravens could be doing better is if Hurricane Ike had blown itself out in the Atlantic and they had also pulled a minor upset against the Texans.
Can't say that wouldn't have happened, but nobody was banking on a 3-0 start three weeks ago, and nobody was sure if the defense would be healthy enough to be the big-play machine that has been the cornerstone of much of the franchise's success over the past decade. It was too soon to draw that conclusion after Week 1, because - let's be honest - it was the Bengals. The Browns are also a winless team from Ohio, but they had opened the season against the Dallas Cowboys and the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they took the Steelers down to the wire last Sunday night.
