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By Jerry McDonald

BALTIMORE -- The Raiders went beyond mere defeat Sunday with a loss of
historical proportions.

Scoring nearly every way possible, the Baltimore Ravens beat the Raiders
55-20 before 71,339 fans at M&T Bank Stadium, most of whom were enjoying
it so much they were still around to see their team score the most
points in its history.

On the other end, when Jacoby Jones raced 105 yards with a kickoff
return for a touchdown early in the fourth quarter, it tied the record
for the most points ever given up by a Raiders team.

It's the first real crisis of the Dennis Allen regime, with the Raiders
having given up 97 points in back-to-back games. The loss came one week
after a 42-32 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

You have go back to the pre-Al Davis era of 1961, when the Raiders gave
up 99 points in their first two games of the season, to find eight
quarters of football where they gave up more points.

The Ravens, 7-2, won their 15th straight home game with quarterback Joe
Flacco completing 21 of 33 passes for 341 yards, three touchdowns and
one interception. Flacco also scored on a 1-yard run before giving way
to backup Tyrod Taylor with 7:31 remaining.

Flacco threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dennis Pitta and had
scoring strikes of 47 and 20 yards to Torrey Smith.

The Raiders, 3-6 and with resurgent New Orleans coming into town with
quarterback Drew Brees, were little more than idle bystanders as the
Ravens piled it on.

The ultimate indignity came before the Jones kickoff return, when holder
Sam Koch ran 7 yards for a touchdown on a fake field goal attempt to
make it 48-17.

The last real spark for the Raiders came with 1:37 left in the first
half when quarterback Carson Palmer hit Darrius Heyward-Bey with a
55-yard touchdown pass to close within 20-10.

Heyward-Bey bounced off a tackle attempt by future Hall of Fame safety
Ed Reed and then ran the remaining 35 yards for the score as Oakland
scored within the final two minutes of the first half for the ninth
straight game.

The Raiders defense, however, gave it right back.

Flacco completed five of six passes for 73 yards and set up a 7-yard
touchdown run by Ray Rice with 24 seconds left and a 27-10 Ravens lead.

Baltimore outscored the Raiders 21-7 in the third quarter _ a period
where Oakland has been outscored 109-31 this season.

Palmer had one other touchdown pass, a 30-yard strike to Denarius Moore
on the Raiders first series of the second half. He finished 29 of 45 for
368 yards, but also had an interception and a lost fumble. Raiders punt
return specialist Phillip Adams also lost a fumble following a rare
Oakland three-and-out to set up a Baltimore score.

Rather than play Palmer to the bitter end, as Allen did earlier this
season in a one-sided loss to Denver, Matt Leinart came in to play with
5:59 to play.

It was Oakland's sixth straight defeat in an Eastern time zone and 11th
in the last 13 cross-country games.

can't blame  AL for it----------Pathetic !!--
Phil