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The Baltimore Ravens announced they cut safety Christian Thompson after he served his four-game suspension for violating the league's substance abuse policy.

The Ravens didn't have any use for Thompson because they have depth at the safety spot. Behind starters Matt Elam and James Ihedigbo are Michael Huff, Anthony Levine and Jeromy Miles, who was signed last week after being released by the Cincinnati Bengals.

It's telling that the Ravens parted ways with Thompson because the Ravens typically don't cut draft picks a year after being selected in the first four rounds. He was the 130th pick of the 2012 draft and the sixth safety taken.

Thompson played in seven games last season before going on injured reserve with a knee injury in November. He didn't make a tackle on defense or special teams.

This marks only the second player to be let go from the 2012 draft class (wide receiver Tommy Streeter, a sixth-round pick, was the other).

A weekly examination of the Ravens’ ESPN.com Power Ranking:

Preseason: 8 | Last Week: 11 | ESPN.com Power Ranking since 2002

A week after failing to move up after beating the Houston Texans by three touchdowns, the Ravens (2-2) dropped three spots after getting upset 23-20 at Buffalo. This is the lowest ranking of the season for the defending Super Bowl champions. The last time the Ravens ranked outside the top 12 was Week 14 in 2009, when a loss at Green Bay dropped Baltimore to 6-6.

The biggest surprise for me was seeing the Tennessee Titans ranked ahead of the Ravens. The Titans have a better record at 3-1, but they lost to the Texans, a team that the Ravens routed. As one of six voters on the Power Rankings, I had the Ravens at No. 10, but the others don't see it that way. The Ravens are the eighth-ranked team in the AFC in the Power Rankings.

As far as the AFC North goes, the Cincinnati Bengals dropped five spots to No. 11, the Cleveland Browns moved up five spots to No. 20 and the winless Pittsburgh Steelers fell another spot to No. 29.

The uproar after Week 1 was how much the Baltimore Ravens missed wide receiver Anquan Boldin, and the Ravens certainly would benefit from his toughness and clutch plays. But the Ravens miss tight end Dennis Pitta much more than Boldin.

Pitta, who is on the injured reserve-designated for return list after injuring his hip in training camp, may have been the Ravens' leading receiver at this point. Now the tight end position is one of the biggest weaknesses for the defending Super Bowl champions.

The Ravens have gotten little production out of Dallas Clark, Ed Dickson and Billy Bajema. Joe Flacco has connected on a little more than half of his passes to them (20 completions on 39 targets). Compare that to last year with Pitta, who caught 65.5 percent of the passes thrown his way (61 of 93).

The Ravens' tight ends have scored no touchdowns and have produced no catches more than 20 yards. Pitta had seven touchdowns and eight receptions greater than 20 yards.

Entering the season, the Ravens looked like they were in better position to handle the loss of Pitta more than the void left by the trade of Boldin. But undrafted wide receiver Marlon Brown, who has filled Boldin's spot in the starting lineup, leads the team with three touchdowns.

The biggest disappointment for the Ravens is Dickson. He has dropped four of the nine passes thrown in his direction, according to Pro Football Focus. One pass in Buffalo went off Dickson's hands and resulted in an interception.

The Ravens are clearly losing patience with Dickson.

“Ed just needs to go catch the ball,” coach John Harbaugh said. “He needs to run fast, get open and catch the football, put it away and get up field. That’s all he needs to do. And if he’s thinking about anything besides that, he’s doing himself a disservice.”

The pressure is on Dickson, who will be a free agent after the season. Through four games, he has more drops than catches (three).

"Mentally, it seems like a bad dream," Dickson said.

The Ravens' tight ends have produced the fewest receiving yards in the AFC North. Even the Pittsburgh Steelers, who didn't have Heath Miller for two games, have gotten 230 yards out of their tight ends, which is 12 more than the Ravens. Cleveland Browns tight end Jordan Cameron has more catches, yards and touchdowns than the entire tight end group in Baltimore.

The statistics would look different if the Ravens had gotten the projected production out of Dickson. A third-round draft pick in 2010, Dickson caught 54 passes and scored five touchdowns in 2011.

“The stats kind of speak for themselves that you’re alluding to,” Harbaugh said. “He’s not the same player right now that he was then, obviously.”

Joe Flacco threw the most interceptions by a Baltimore Ravens quarterback. The Ravens ran the ball the fewest times in their history. And the defense nearly allowed the most rushing yards in the franchise's existence.

Translation: the Ravens have a lot of work to do to become a playoff team, much less defend their Super Bowl title. But the Ravens acknowledged they feel fortunate that they have not played their best football and are still in first place in the AFC North.

"It’s a consolation, no doubt," coach John Harbaugh said. "Here we sit; we’re tied for the lead in our division, with a tiebreaker on Cleveland. And if I’m in Pittsburgh, I’m looking at it like, ‘We’re two games out of the lead in the division.’ They’re right there.' Whoever wins the division games is going to win the division. But, we can do our cause a whole lot of good by going down to Miami and playing our best and winning the football game. That’s going to be our objective.”

Here is your Tuesday edition of the wake-up caw ...

• The Baltimore Sun's Mike Preston believes getting back to the run going to be the key for the Ravens. The problem is the offensive line, and it is not like the Ravens can shake up the lineup. The backups are A.Q. Shipley, Jah Reid and Rick Wagner.
• Clifton Brown, of Comcast SportsNet, thinks the Ravens should throw early and run later. "Start the game trying to move the football through the air," Brown wrote. "Spread the field, force the defense to honor the pass, and perhaps that will make it easier for the Ravens to run the football as the game progresses."
• Baltimore allowed 203 rushing yards, just 24 yards short of the franchise record set last season versus the Cowboys (227 yards). "At the end of the day, we’ve got to play better,” defensive tackle Marcus Spears told the team's website. “I think it boils down to that. A lot of this game is technique, a lot of this game is scheme, but guys have to make adjustments on the run and we didn’t do that well enough today.” On the list of concerns from the Buffalo loss, run defense is not near the top. The Ravens had been playing solid run defense.
• Penalties were also a problem for the Ravens, The Baltimore Sun pointed out. The Ravens were flagged eight times for 59 yards. "We have to find a way to win the tough games, but, at the same time, not find a way to shoot ourselves in the foot with penalties," wide receiver Torrey Smith said. It should be noted that the Bills were penalized more (11 times for 99 yards).

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs became the latest player from the defending champions to bring up a conspiracy theory for the Super Bowl blackout, pointing the finger at NFL commissioner Roger Goodell for the unprecedented Super Bowl moment.

“I was like Vegas, parlor tricks, you know what I mean?," Suggs said on ESPN's "E:60." "I was like, ahh, Roger Goodell, he never stops, he always has something up his sleeve. He just couldn’t let us have this one in a landslide huh?”

Asked if he thought Goodell had turned the lights out, Suggs said, “I thought he had a hand in it. Most definitely, he had a hand in it."

Can we all agree to stop coming up with these ridiculous accusations? This makes the Ravens look more paranoid than prestigious. I could see the Ravens continually talking about this if they had lost. But the Ravens overcame that 34-minute delay and just have to let it go.

The Superdome, where the Super Bowl was held, is an old building. The company responsible for supplying power to the stadium said after the game that faulty equipment was to blame for the blackout. It does not sound like CSI New Orleans has to get involved with this one.

It is not like this is the first time the lights had gone out in an NFL game. In December 2011, I was at San Francisco's Candlestick Park when there were two power outages. I guess Goodell really wanted the 49ers to beat the Steelers that time.

This Super Bowl conspiracy theory started when linebacker Ray Lewis hinted on the "America's Game" documentary series that the power outage may have been a ploy to help the 49ers regroup. Now, Suggs thinks Goodell was involved.

My hope is we can turn the lights out on all of these crazy conspiracy theories.

Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh made two things clear in the aftermath of the 23-20 loss at the Buffalo Bills:

It was his decision to abandon the run, and he would do it again in the same situation. The Ravens' plodding running game was the hot topic at Harbaugh's news conference Monday -- eight of the 17 questions asked had something to do with the ground attack -- and he did not back down from the decision to run the ball a franchise-low nine times, including twice in the second half.

"That's my call all the way," Harbaugh said. "I just felt like we weren't running the ball well enough to win the game running the ball. Looking back on it, I feel the same way. After watching the tape, I feel we did exactly the right thing to try to win that game. No second-guessing myself on that. That was my decision. That's the way we went with it. If you feel like we should have run the ball more in the second half, I definitely respect that opinion. But it didn't look that way to me. So, that's what we did."

I do not fault Harbaugh's decision because the run game was going nowhere (the team was averaging 2.6 yards per carry). The Ravens also were 15 yards away from kicking the potential game-tying field goal late in the fourth quarter, so the pass-heavy attack put Baltimore in position to pull off the comeback.

Where I differ with Harbaugh is the Ravens' ability to turn this ground game around. The Ravens are averaging 64 yards rushing per game, which ranks 28th in the NFL. There have been no signs of life from the Ravens' running game and that includes Sunday's game against the second-worst run defense in the NFL.

It's a strange turn of events for the Ravens because this is essentially the same offensive line that helped the Ravens average 134.8 yards rushing in the playoffs. The Ravens have not cracked 100 yards rushing as a team this season.

The only change on the offensive line has been second-year center Gino Gradkowski replacing 15-year veteran Matt Birk.

"He's done a good job physically," Harbaugh said of Gradkowski. "It hasn't been too often where Gino has been pushed around. He's done a good of job of holding the point. I talk to him all the time, I think he can come off the ball better. I think sometimes he's a little tentative with his footwork and wants to stay in front of people. Go ahead and come off the ball and move people a little bit. He's capable of doing that."

Harbaugh added, "It's a difference between Gino and Matt with the calls. I think we're feeling that in there right now. Gino is a really smart guy but Matt had been at it a lot of years. So, that's something that we're working through."

The other big change was adding Juan Castillo, the former offensive line coach and defensive coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles, to be the Ravens' run game coordinator. Harbaugh, though, said the Ravens aren't doing much different blocking-wise with Castillo.

"It's the same offense," Harbaugh said. "We still run the same plays. We still have the same philosophy. There's always a few wrinkles and that's why I brought Juan in because I was excited about things I knew he was going to bring to the table and bring into our program. And those things are part of what we're doing. We're not the same team we were two months ago, and we're going to be a different team two months from now. I'm most interested in what kind of team we are six days from now when we go down to Miami."

Harbaugh dismissed the notion that the health of running back Ray Rice, who returned after missing one game with a hip injury, was a factor in the Ravens struggling to run the ball against the Bills.

"The issue is what it always is. We just got to get better," he said. "We have to go to work and improve the things we can improve and make good decisions on what we choose to do and how we choose to scheme it. So, yes, we can game plan better and we can set formations up better to put our guys in position. I think our running backs can do a better job of running to the right sopt and trusting the offensive line."

Harbaugh added, "But the bottom line is it has nothing to do with style or technique. It's finding what our guys can do well with this group and doing it well. I'm very confident in every one of our coaches. We'll find a way to work it out. It's a process. It's going to be a year-long process."

Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Jacoby Jones will return to practice this week after missing the past three games with a knee sprain.

This is an encouraging sign for the Ravens as they try to mend a banged-up wide receiver group. Jones was injured in the season opener when his own teammate, rookie Brynden Trawick, ran into him on a punt return. Jones had been projected to miss four to six weeks.

Coach John Harbaugh wouldn't indicate whether Jones' return to practice means he'll play Sunday at the Miami Dolphins.

"We'll see how well he does with [practice]," Harbaugh said Monday.

Of the six wide receivers on the roster, four are dealing with injuries: Jones (knee), Marlon Brown (hamstring), Brandon Stokley (groin) and Deonte Thompson (concussion). Torrey Smith and Tandon Doss are the only healthy receivers.

According to Harbaugh, Brown is doing well and Thompson is not showing any significant side effects from a concussion. Stokley injured his groin Friday, and he was ruled inactive Sunday after the injury tightened up on him in pre-game warmups.

But, outside of Jones, all should be available for Sunday's game.

"It's hard on us, there's no question," Harbaugh said. "We're down legs on that side of the ball. It's hard to work on the things you want to work on. But you have to do it. Everybody faces that. It'll be good to get those guys back."

In other injury news, Harbaugh also didn't seem too concerned about cornerback Lardarius Webb's hamstring injury.

An examination of four hot issues from the Baltimore Ravens' 23-20 loss to the Buffalo Bills:

Beating yourself: The Ravens ran the ball nine times, the fewest rush attempts in the team's 18-year history. It was three fewer attempts than any other game in their existence. Abandoning the running game spelled the Ravens' doom. Since the start of 2008, teams that don't rush on more than 20 percent of their plays are a combined 1-56, according to ESPN Stats & Information. That's right -- a record of 1-56. The Ravens weren't even close to that. Baltimore ran the ball on 14 percent of its plays for the game and only six percent in the second half. To put this in perspective, quarterback Joe Flacco threw as many interceptions (five) as running back Ray Rice had carries.

Record to forget: Flacco threw a career-worst five interceptions, which were also the most in a single game in Ravens history. This is the same quarterback who wasn't picked off in his final six games last season, a streak of 195 passes. Now, Flacco has seven interceptions in 169 passes in 2013. That's an average of one every 24 passes. Where Flacco struggled the most was on the shorter passes. His four interceptions on passes thrown less than 15 yards downfield is the most in a game by any quarterback since Matt Ryan threw five in Week 11 of last season, according to ESPN Stats & Information. Flacco just isn't the same quarterback away from Baltimore. He has thrown three or more interceptions five times, all of which have come on the road. Not surprisingly, the Ravens are 0-5 in those games.

Run-down defense: The Ravens' improved run defense took a step backward in Buffalo. Baltimore, which hadn't given up more than 94 yards on the ground in its first three games, allowed 116 yards in the first half to the Bills. It wasn't dreadful when you consider the Bills only averaged 3.7 yards per carry and didn't break a run of more than 16 yards. But it's hard to downplay the fact that the Ravens allowed 203 yards rushing. The Ravens had only allowed 224 yards rushing in their first three games. This is the third time in the past 16 regular-season games that the Ravens have given up more than 200 yards rushing.

Wrong side of history: The Ravens became the first defending Super Bowl champion to lose to a rookie quarterback in the month of September, according to ESPN Stats & Information. But it wasn't like EJ Manuel really beat the Ravens. He posted a 9.8 Total QBR, which was actually worse than Flacco's (14.5). Manuel completed 10 passes and was picked off twice. This continues a strange trend for the Ravens. Look at the QBR for the two other rookie starting quarterbacks who have beaten the Ravens in the John Harbaugh era: Robert Griffin III (53.0) and Blaine Gabbert (4.5). Not exactly Peyton Manning-type numbers. The Ravens fell to 5-3 against rookie quarterbacks under Harbaugh.

Grading the Baltimore Ravens in their 23-20 loss at the Buffalo Bills:

Quarterback: As I wrote Sunday, you can't put all of the blame on Joe Flacco. But Flacco was bad. He threw a career-worst five interceptions, and three of them were his fault. Flacco didn't see the defender on two, and he underthrew Torrey Smith in the end zone on another one. Why was he throwing to the shortest player on the field (Ray Rice) in the end zone in the fourth quarter? His vision and decision-making were awful at times. Grade: F.

Running backs: The Bills took Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce out of the game in the first half, and offensive coordinator Jim Caldwell did so in the second half. The Ravens ran the ball just twice after halftime. Rice averaged 3.4 yards per carry, and his longest run was seven yards. Pierce gained seven yards on four attempts. You could give the running backs a 'D' for disappeared but that would be too kind. Grade: F.

Wide receivers/tight ends: Smith was the one offensive player who showed up in Western New York. He caught five passes for 166 yards, a 33.2-yard average. Marlon Brown made a tough catch in the end zone, and Deonte Thompson showed the ability to stretch the field. But Ed Dickson and Tandon Doss can't catch. One interception was the result of a pass bouncing off Dickson's hands. Dallas Clark had trouble getting open. Grade: C-minus.

Offensive line: Once again, the line couldn't open any holes for the running backs. This group got smacked in the face physically. The surprising part was the terrible pass protection, which had been decent this season. Flacco got hit 12 times and sacked four times. The line also was flagged four times. It's hard to believe the Ravens won a Super Bowl with essentially this same line. Grade: F.

Defensive line: Arthur Jones got penetration to disrupt some running plays early, and Chris Canty stripped rookie quarterback EJ Manuel. It's tough to remember those moments when the Bills run for 203 yards (3.7-yard average per carry) against the Ravens and do it in between the tackles. The Ravens also allowed their first rushing touchdown of the season. Did Haloti Ngata even play? The stat sheet says he made four tackles, but I can't think of one. Grade: D.

Linebackers: Terrell Suggs was dominant with 17 tackles, one sack and three quarterback hits. Outside of Daryl Smith picking off a deflected pass, this group was awful. Josh Bynes can't cover, and his offside penalty (he leapt over the line before the ball was snapped) was ridiculous. And, just like Ngata, where was Elvis Dumervil? Grade: C-minus.

Secondary: Cornerback Jimmy Smith had a strong game against Steve Johnson (one catch for minus-1 yard), and safety Matt Elam was aggressive in run support early. But losing Lardarius Webb to a thigh injury hurt, and Webb wasn't playing a great game before he was injured. Corey Graham replaced Webb and quickly allowed his fourth touchdown of the season. There were too many times when a receiver was left uncovered, and a more experienced quarterback would have made the Ravens pay. The Ravens have to do better on crossing routes as well. Still, in the end, Manuel completed just 10 passes. Grade: C-minus.

Special teams: Sam Koch averaged 47.3 yards on seven punts, netting more than 52 yards and pinning the Bills inside the 20-yard line twice. Justin Tucker made both of his field goals, from 35 and 24 yards. Thompson had a 34-yard kickoff return, and Doss had a 17-yard punt return. Grade: B.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- No one would have been surprised if you told them that the Baltimore Ravens were tied with the Cincinnati Bengals at the end of September. But few would have believed the Ravens would be tied with the Cleveland Browns as well.

That's what happens when the Ravens end September without a winning record, the first time that's happened in coach John Harbaugh's six seasons in Baltimore. The Ravens (2-2) have the same record as the Bengals and Browns, who have won two straight since trading running back Trent Richardson and making Brian Hoyer their starting quarterback.

The only other division that doesn't have a team with a winning record is the NFC East, where the Dallas Cowboys (2-2) sit in first place. And what about the other team in the AFC North? The Pittsburgh Steelers (0-4) are one of four winless teams in the NFL.

Here's your Monday morning wake-up caw ...

• The Baltimore Sun's Mike Preston argues that the loss at Buffalo wasn't the case of bad timing. "Some will say this was a trap game because the Ravens were due for an emotional letdown after the Texans game," Preston wrote. "Sorry, there are no excuses. Right now, they are as inconsistent as every other team in the NFL."

• John Eisenberg, of the team's official website, believes the offensive line is the biggest problem for the struggling running game.

• The throw that Joe Flacco should regret the most is his last one, according to Clifton Brown of Comcast SportsNet. He threw an interception when the Ravens somehow trailed by only three points. "This is where the big-time quarterbacks make their money," Brown wrote. "But Flacco made another turnover, trying to hit Dallas Clark who was tightly covered, and the end result was a tipped pass, and Kiko Alonso’s final interception."

• If you really need some good news, running back Ray Rice didn't aggravate his hip injury. "Nobody plays the game 100 percent, this is the NFL," Rice said, via The Baltimore Sun. "Everybody plays a little banged-up and beat up. I came out of the game healthy and I'm looking forward to next week."

• Don't expect cornerback Lardarius Webb to be sidelined long, according to The Baltimore Sun. Despite being held out the entire second half with a thigh injury, he was able to run and backpedal on the sideline. "They just kept me out," Webb said. "I'm feeling OK."

Remember you can always follow me on Facebook and on Twitter.

The Baltimore Ravens didn't resemble defending Super Bowl champions in a 23-20 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday.

Joe Flacco threw five interceptions. The Ravens totaled 24 yards rushing. And their defense gave up 203 yards on the ground.

The Ravens took to social media to let fans know how disappointed they were in their performance:

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Running back Ray Rice said no one should push the panic button on the Baltimore Ravens' struggling ground attack. He's wrong. It's time to sound the alarm after the Ravens' disappointing 23-20 loss at the Buffalo Bills.

There was nothing wrong about the Ravens not being overly concerned when they could not run the ball against Denver, Cleveland and Houston. But the Ravens cannot say "it's going to get better" after failing to run the ball against the Bills.

Buffalo has the third-worst run defense in the league. The Bills have given up more yards rushing than any other team in the league since 2009. In other words, the Bills stink at stopping the run. The Ravens, though, showed they stink worse at running the ball.

Once known for a physical running game, Baltimore gained an embarrassing 24 yards on the ground. That's 131 yards less than the Bills defense's average in the first three games. New York Jets running back Bilal Powell, not exactly a Hall of Famer, ran for 149 yards against the Bills just seven days ago. Rice couldn't break a run longer than seven yards.

The most telling part about all of this is no one complained that the Ravens only ran the ball twice in the second half. The Ravens finished with nine rushing attempts. That's the fewest in the 18-year history of the Baltimore Ravens. No Ravens team had ran the ball fewer than 12 times in a game before, and that includes the pass-happy Brian Billick.

"When you get behind, it's hard to pound the rock," said Rice, who indicated his hip injury wasn't a factor in the performance.

It's not like the Ravens were behind by four touchdowns. The Ravens never trailed by more than two scores in the second half. By no one calling for the Ravens to run the ball more, it says to me that no one has confidence in the running game right now. It's like everyone agreed that the Ravens should throw the ball 31 times after halftime because they knew the running game was done.

"We're not running the ball well. We've got to run the ball better," coach John Harbaugh said. "You saw the difference in the first half with (Buffalo). They're running the ball for four, five yards at a time and putting themselves in manageable third downs, and we're not doing that. That's tough on everybody. That's tough on the passing game, on our quarterback. We've got to get to the point where we can execute in the running game.

Last week, Harbaugh said it's more complicated that the Ravens drive defenders off the ball. Still, on Sunday, the offensive line couldn't budge the Bills. It doesn't matter if you have Rice or Jamal Lewis in the backfield. You're not going to consistently gain yards if there is no where to run.

"We maybe have to become a little more physical," quarterback Joe Flacco said. "We’re just not good enough right now. That’s probably as simple as I can make it."

The Ravens have been held under three yards per carry in each of their first four games. They're averaging 64 yards rushing per game.

It's time to hit the panic button. But, as everyone saw Sunday, hitting isn't exactly a strength for the Ravens offense right now.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Baltimore Ravens coach John Harbaugh isn't second-guessing his decision to go for a field goal instead of the go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter in a 23-20 loss at the Buffalo Bills.

Trailing 23-17 with 4 minutes, 8 seconds remaining, the Ravens faced a fourth-and-five from the Bills' 6-yard line. Harbaugh went for the field goal, which got the Ravens to within three points.

"If you have that much time left and the distance is that far, the chances of making it are not as high, I think you definitely kick the field goal there," Harbaugh said after the game. "We have two time outs and we have a lot of time and we feel like we’re going to get a stop and that’s what happens. If we had been fourth-and-one there, it might have been a different thought. If there had been less time on the clock, it would have been a different thought. I feel like we did the right thing there."

It worked out as Harbaugh had planned. The Ravens' defense forced a three-and-out, and their offense got the ball back at the Baltimore 37 with 2:20 left in the game. But the Ravens never got within field-goal range to tie the game, and Joe Flacco's fifth interception dropped the Ravens to 2-2.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco threw a career-worst five interceptions in the 23-20 loss at the Buffalo Bills. He was the reason why the Ravens flopped at Ralph Wilson Stadium, right?

Flacco signed a $120.6 million contract six months ago. He should be throwing five touchdown passes, not five passes to the other team. But Flacco is hardly the problem.

"Joe Flacco is not to blame; I'm going to put that out there," running back Ray Rice said. "He's our guy. Without him, we don't get down the field. Guys need to make plays. Joe is our leader. We've been down this road before. We don't point fingers around here, but the last person I'm worried about is Joe Flacco. He's a Super Bowl MVP. He's a Super Bowl quarterback. As long as Joe goes, we go. You saw it for yourself. As bad as we played, Joe Flacco still led us [to] march down the field and we were that close."

The Ravens still can't run the ball. Their longest run was 7 yards against the second-worst run defense in the NFL.

The Ravens couldn't stop the run. The Bills ran it up the gut of the Ravens' defense. The Ravens were outgained 203-24 on the ground, which underscores how both sides of Baltimore's lines got their tails whupped.

The Ravens couldn't protect Flacco. The Bills hit Flacco a dozen times, and a lot of those drove him into the turf.

And, on those instances when Flacco had time to pass, whom should he target? Ed Dickson and Tandon Doss cannot catch. One interception went right off Dickson's hands. Tight end Dallas Clark has trouble getting consistently open. Marlon Brown (thigh) and Deonte Thompson (concussion) left the game after getting hurt, joining Jacoby Jones (knee) and Brandon Stokley (groin) on the growing injury list.

It's not a stretch to say Bills linebacker Kiko Alonso, who had two interceptions, showed better hands than many of the Ravens receivers. The only receiver Flacco can have any confidence in is Torrey Smith, who will likely draw triple-teams from now on.

Flacco needs to play better, especially when the other team had three starting defensive backs inactive because of injuries. But it's not like Flacco is throwing the ball to Pro Bowl receivers or even experienced ones. Just look at his four top wide receivers Sunday. Two are undrafted (Brown and Thompson) and another was not on the team in the season opener because he was cut (Doss).

No one should take this as absolving Flacco from accountability. If he had been smarter with the ball, the Ravens probably would have won, or at least gone to overtime. His vision and decision-making were as poor as I've seen them.

If Flacco hadn't been picked off in the end zone in the third quarter (he underthrew Smith), the Ravens could have hit a 36-yard field goal, which would've been huge in a game decided by a field goal. And if Flacco hadn't been intercepted on his final pass (it came on third down), the Ravens would've had one more shot to go 15 yards to get into field goal range. In total, the Bills converted 13 points off Flacco's mistakes.

"We are definitely going to get better. We have to get better," Flacco said. "A lot of that falls on me today ... throwing the ball to the wrong team. If we don't do that, this game probably goes a little different."

It's easy to put all of the blame on Flacco. The Ravens have lost their past 12 games when he throws multiple interceptions.

"I believe we have a quarterback that can keep you in any game at any time," coach John Harbaugh said.

The problem is Flacco doesn't have the supporting cast right now to come back on the road this season. He could not in Denver. He could not in Buffalo.

If you really want to fault Flacco for something, it is the fact that the NFL's third-highest paid quarterback could not carry his team when everything else was falling apart around him.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. -- Observed in the locker room after the Baltimore Ravens' 23-20 loss at the Buffalo Bills:

Taking accountability: Coach John Harbaugh was the first of many to shoulder the blame for the upset loss. "We didn't play well. We didn't play well at all," Harbaugh said. "I will take responsibility for that. It was a poor performance." But Harbaugh added this: "The team we’re going to be two months from now is not the team we are right now." He was shocked by the team's play, especially after a good week of practice.

Taking accountability, Part II: Joe Flacco also put much of the loss on him after he threw a career-worst five interceptions. He was visibly disappointed in his play but he wasn't beating himself up over the mistakes. "We're definitely going to get better but a lot of that falls on me today ... just throwing the ball to the wrong team," he said. "If we don't do that, this game looks a little different."

Abandoning the run: The Ravens only ran the ball twice in the second half despite never trailing by more than two scores. But there was no one griping about the pass-heavy game plan. "We got behind," said running back Ray Rice, who indicated he came out of the game healthy. "When you get behind, you can't pound the rock. You can't do it. We had to find a way to score quick."

Injury report: Cornerback Lardarius Webb (thigh) left in the second quarter and didn't return. Already without two receivers -- Jacoby Jones (knee) and Brandon Stokley (groin) -- the Ravens had two more get banged up. Marlon Brown has a thigh injury and Deonte Thompson has a concussion.