Jacksonville has not been a kind venue for the Ravens, who had gone 3-6 there in their history, and that doesn’t count the 44-7 shellacking the Jaguars put on the Ravens as the home team in London in 2017. As the Ravens prepared to visit Jacksonville for a Week 12 showdown on Nov. 27, anyone expecting anything other than a Ravens struggle hasn’t been paying attention.
Still, the Ravens added an entirely new layer of anguish in this series as the Jaguars (4-7) roared back for a stunning 28-27 win with a go-ahead touchdown and two-point conversion with 14 seconds left. The Ravens (7-4) had a last-gasp attempt at the win, but Justin Tucker’s 67-yard field-goal try as time expired landed about a yard short.
The game, which began about 25 minutes late because of severe weather, featured five fourth-quarter scores and three lead changes in the final five minutes, with the Ravens seemingly in command after Lamar Jackson connected with backup tight end Josh Oliver on a 12-yard touchdown pass with 2:02 remaining. Mark Andrews powered across the goal line for a two-point conversion that gave the Ravens a 27-20 lead.
But then Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence (29-of-37, 321 yards) carved up the Ravens’ defense during the final two minutes, and Marvin Jones Jr.’s leaping 10-yard touchdown grab along the right sideline — upheld upon review — cut the Ravens’ lead to 27-26 with 14 seconds left.
Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson opted to play for the win and not the tie, keeping his offense on the field for a two-point conversion. Lawrence hit Zay Jones with an out route against Brandon Stephens on the left side for the two points and 28-27 lead.
Jackson connected with Oliver just past midfield with two seconds left, and the Ravens trotted out Tucker for a kick that would have been a yard longer than the 66-yarder he hit in Detroit last year that remains the longest in NFL history. Tucker’s kick was on target and traveled about 66 yards, landing just short of the crossbar.
“To have the game in our hands as a defense, we expect to win that ever time,” defensive end Calais Campbell said. “We didn’t get it done. … We’ve got to go back and watch the tape and figure out how we can improve, but this one definitely stings.”
Here are five quick observations about the game, which snaps the Ravens’ four-game winning streak and drops them into a tie for the AFC North lead with Cincinnati:
1. The Ravens have not moved past their late-game collapses.
For most of the game, the Ravens’ defense looked like the unit that had rounded into top form during that four-game winning streak, holding the Jaguars to one touchdown for the first 54 minutes. Late in the third quarter, Tyus Bowser hammered Trevor Lawrence and forced a fumble that Marcus Peters recovered, setting up the Ravens at the Jaguars 25-yard line, and it appeared as if, for the second straight week, a key defensive turnover was going to help salt away a win. Seven plays after Peters’ fumble recovery, Gus Edwards barreled over the goal line for a hard-earned 1-yard score and 19-10 lead with 13:07 left.
A two-score advantage looked big against a Jaguars offense that had mustered just 10 points in 47 minutes, but Lawrence was far from done.
The No. 1 overall pick in the draft two years ago led the Jaguars on a pair of 75-yard touchdown drives in the final six minutes that brought painful flashbacks to earlier this year, when the Ravens’ defense surrendered late scores to the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills and New York Giants in losses.
Showing better command through the air than his Baltimore counterpart, Lawrence attacked the sideline and the middle of the field, and he showed no hesitation going after Pro Bowl cornerback Marcus Peters, who was in coverage on the go-ahead score.
Jaguars receiver Zay Jones finished with 11 catches for 145 yards, including a pair on the final drive. Marvin Jones Jr. also had two catches on the final drive, including a game-saving fourth-down conversion. The Jaguars were staring at third-and-21 after Calais Campbell sacked Lawrence, but a 16-yard pass to Christian Kirk put the Jaguars in a manageable fourth-down position, and Lawrence’s 10-yard pass to Jones kept the drive — and game — alive.
“Third-and-17 or whatever it was, we’ve got to find a way to win that,” Campbell said. “If we want to go where we think we’re capable of going, that is something that has to get done.”
This was not supposed to happen again. Not after linebacker Tyus Bowser returned from injury, not after Roquan Smith was added via trade, not with Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters on the field, and not with the defense seemingly in sync with first-year defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald’s system. (Humphrey was sidelined briefly late in this game by an ankle injury that head coach John Harbaugh suggested is minor.)
Instead, the same questions from earlier this year will resurface this week.
“You’ve got to do it for four quarters, not three,” linebacker Justin Houston said, “and we didn’t do it for four quarters.”
2. Red-zone woes could become this team’s fatal flaw.
The Ravens’ only scoring in the first half came from Justin Tucker, who hit field goals from 27, 29 and 55 yards. Lamar Jackson and others have stressed for weeks that the Ravens can’t keep leaving it up to Tucker and yet that happened once again.
The Ravens entered the game ranked 20th in red-zone offense, scoring touchdowns on about 52 percent of such possessions. In this game, they methodically advanced into the red zone on their first two drives, only to bog down and leave with three points each time on short field goals by Tucker.
On the first drive, a delay of game penalty — and the Ravens were fortunate they didn’t get two in a row — pushed the Ravens into a long-yardage situation, and a third-down incompletion brought on Tucker.
On the second, the Ravens had third-and-4 from the Jaguars 12-yard line, and a sliding Demarcus Robinson couldn’t haul in a pass in the back of the end zone.
The Ravens were held to another short field goal in the third quarter despite having first-and-goal from the 7-yard line. Jackson, who led the Ravens with 14 carries for 89 yards, was dropped for a 1-yard loss, and then Justice Hill gained 3 yards on his only carry. On third down, Jackson was sacked. Here came Tucker, again.
“You go down there and kick, what, four field goals? That’s tough,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “Those are big trips down there, and obviously touchdowns are what you’re looking for. It’s something we have to improve on going forward.”
The Ravens couldn’t beat the Jaguars with short field goals, so there is no reason to think they can do it against any high-octane offenses that they hope to see in the postseason. And if they don’t get this red-zone problem figured out, there might not be any postseason.
3. Lamar Jackson’s accuracy is an issue that can’t be ignored.
It appeared that one of the defining plays of this game was going to be a 62-yard bomb from Jackson to DeSean Jackson that set up Josh Oliver’s go-ahead score. To be sure, it was a gorgeous throw and catch and showed the big-play potential the Ravens see in the veteran receiver, who was playing in just his second game since being signed by the Ravens.
But the Ravens can’t ignore the misfires from Lamar Jackson, who overshot open receivers on deep balls at least three times. Jackson finished 16-for-32 for 254 yards, and his completion percentage, which had been ranked 24th coming into the game (63.4), has slipped to 62.1 percent.
To be sure, his targets didn’t help him today; Mark Andrews, Kenyan Drake, Demarcus Robinson and Devin Duvernay all dropped catchable balls. Jackson played one game without Andrews, and he is missing his presumed No. 1 receiver in Rashod Bateman, sidelined for the rest of the season by a foot injury.
The bigger issue, though, was Jackson missing on what could have been home run throws, including overthrowing a wide-open Robinson by several yards on the second play of the game. Jackson also overshot Andrews deep down the right sideline, and lofted a pass down the seam just past a leaping Josh Oliver. A deep pass for Duvernay also landed incomplete.
When the Ravens offense scuffles, offensive coordinator Greg Roman faces the lion’s share of the criticism. But several times in this game, the scheme and the play design had receivers running free, but Jackson overthrew them. That’s on Jackson, not Roman.
Jackson showed perfect touch on the bomb to DeSean Jackson, and the Ravens surely need more of that. Until the Ravens can show that those passes can be completed consistently, teams will be able to play closer to the line of scrimmage and better defend the Ravens’ run game. And with the Ravens’ mounting trouble in the red zone, they need all the home-run shots they can get.
4. Josh Oliver has been an unsung star and deserves the headlines.
When the Ravens set their initial 53-man roster, the inclusion of Josh Oliver was viewed as one of the biggest surprises. The backup tight end figured to be well down the depth chart behind All-Pro Mark Andrews, veteran Nick Boyle and emerging rookie Isaiah Likely. (Rookie fourth-round pick Charlie Kolar was destined for injured reserve.)
Instead, Oliver seized a roster spot with an impressive summer, and supplanted Boyle as the team’s top blocking tight end. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman said last week that Oliver’s blocking had improved “probably as much as any player I’ve ever worked with over one year’s time.”
Blocking tight ends rarely get accolades, staying under the radar but playing a critical role in the Ravens run-game success. Over the first 10 games, Oliver had just seven catches for 54 yards.
He nearly equaled that with a career-long 40-yard catch on the Ravens’ first play of the third quarter, and he gave the Ravens the lead with a 12-yard touchdown catch with 2:02 left, just the second touchdown of his 29-game career.
Filling the No. 2 tight end role against Jacksonville with Likely sidelined by an ankle injury, Oliver finished with four catches — tied with Andrews for the team lead — for 76 yards. Oliver had not topped 70 yards in any of his four NFL seasons before this game.
Oliver was orginally drafted by Jacksonville in the third round in 2019, but the Jaguars essentially gave up on him and dealt him to the Ravens after two seasons defined by injuries. Despite the loss, Oliver had to feel good about his performance against his old team, and he deserves a few headlines for the all the grunt work he’s been putting in.
“It was a big game for me coming back to Jacksonville, obviously,” Oliver said, “but there is no say whether I was going to get the ball more or not. [It] just happened that way.”
5. The Ravens still control their destiny, but they sure don’t make it easy on themselves.
The Ravens have slipped back into a tie with the surging Cincinnati Bengals (7-4), who have won five of their past six games, including a 20-16 win against AFC South front-runner Tennessee today. But the schedule still lines up favorably for the Ravens; no opponent they face the rest of the season has a winning record until they visit the Bengals in a regular-season finale that could decide the division.
The players will talk all the time — especially after a loss like this — about controlling what they can control, and the Ravens fully control their fate. If they win the games they will be favored to win, they could secure the division title before they even face the Bengals in Week 18.
Even if Ravens and Bengals are tied entering the regular-season finale — or the Bengals have a one-game lead — the Ravens could secure the division title by winning in Cincinnati and earning a sweep of the season series. (The Ravens won 19-17 in Week 5.) Cleveland (4-7) still hopes to make some noise when they get embattled and suspended quarterback Deshaun Watson back beginning next week, but the Browns have dug a sizeable hole.
For the Ravens to remain in control, though, they need to address and fix these recurring flaws. They need to find the end zone when they get close, to hold late leads and to play 60 minutes like a playoff team. That has not happened nearly often enough this season, which is why they find themselves where they do as they prepare to host Denver (3-8) next week.
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