Friday 27 October 2017 15:51, UK
Baltimore's defence produced another dominant display as the Ravens shut out the Miami Dolphins in a 40-0 victory on Thursday night.
Despite a second-quarter concussion to starting quarterback Joe Flacco, the Ravens eased past a Dolphins outfit whose struggles on offense continued, this time under Matt Moore, starting in the absence of the injured Jay Cutler.
Flacco has yet to find his form for Baltimore in the current campaign, having featured little in the pre-season, and towards the end of the first half, the veteran QB took a nasty looking hit to the head from Miami linebacker Kiko Alonso that ended his evening early.
Ryan Mallett entered, and took up the drive to find Ben Watson for Baltimore's second touchdown of the game after one from Jeremy Maclin and a pair of Justin Tucker field goals had given them an early advantage.
The Ravens defence then took over with two touchdowns in the final quarter, including a pair of Moore interceptions to cap a miserable evening for the Dolphins QB. Those scores were sandwiched by Chris Moore's fumble recovered for another TD as the Ravens pounced on every opportunity that came their way.
Miami's troubles on offence have been evident all season but they came into the game with a 4-2 record and hope of remaining on pace with the Patriots at the top of the AFC East, but with Jay Ajayi limited to just 23 rushing yards and Moore struggling as much as Cutler, they never got going.
The Ravens stay second in the AFC North behind Pittsburgh and improve to 4-4 ahead of their trip to Tennessee next week and will look to enter their bye week the following weekend in good shape for a play-off return underpinned by what the Ravens do best - defence.
Follow the Week Eight action as it continues on Sky Sports, with Sunday's triple header underway from 4.30pm on Sky Sports Action when Buffalo host Oakland. The action continues with Dallas Cowboys' divisional clash with Washington Redskins and Pittsburgh's meeting with Detroit
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