The Ravens are coming home from London in a much better frame of mind than the last time they made the trip. The Ravens never trailed and used six field goals from Justin Tucker and relentless defensive pressure to hold off the Tennessee Titans, 24-16, at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on Oct. 15.
The Ravens (4-2) built an 18-3 lead but then the Titans scored 10 straight points in the third quarter.
Tucker’s sixth field goal of the game gave the Ravens a 24-13 lead with 4:16 left, and the defense delivered a big red-zone stop in the final minute, keeping Tennessee to a field goal with 38 seconds left. When Ravens tight end Isaiah Likely recovered the Titans’ ensuing onside kick attempt, the Ravens could finally exhale and know they were flying back across the Atlantic with a win.
On their only other trip to play in London, in 2017, the Ravens had been embarrassed by the Jacksonville Jaguars, 44-7, in one of the worst losses of the John Harbaugh era. This time, the Ravens completely changed their approach to their European game, arriving early in the week and practicing in London rather than flying over at the end of the week to play the game.
The Ravens took an 18-3 halftime lead on the strength of four field goals from Tucker and Lamar Jackson’s 10-yard touchdown pass to rookie Zay Flowers. That was the first career touchdown for Flowers, who had five catches for a team-high 73 yards.
But the Ravens couldn’t pull away, with Tennessee (2-4) scoring all 10 points of the third quarter. All-Pro running back Derrick Henry scored on a 15-yard touchdown run that came two plays after Lamar Jackson threw his only interception of the game, and one play after Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton was ejected for a helmet-to-helmet hit on Titans receiver (and former Raven) Chris Moore.
The Ravens, though, kept the Titans out of the end zone for the remainder of the game, meaning they have allowed just three touchdowns in their past four games. Tennessee threatened in the final minute behind backup quarterback Malik Willis, who entered the game after starter Ryan Tannehill left with an ankle injury.
Here are five quick observations of the game, which moves the Ravens back into first place in the AFC North ahead of the Pittsburgh Steelers (3-2), who had a bye this week:
1. The Ravens’ relentless pressure set the tone.
The Ravens have said all season that their pressure will come from all over — off the edge, from the slot, up the middle — and that was the case in this game.
The Ravens recorded six sacks, with two each from Jadeveon Clowney and Justin Maduibuike. It was Madubuike’s hit that hobbled Tennessee quarterback Ryan Tannehill midway through the game, and Tannehill tried to play through it before leaving for X-rays and turning over the Titans’ offense to backup Malik Willis.
The Ravens overwhelmed Willis, who was sacked four times, equaling his number of completions. Willis finished 4-for-5 for 74 yards, but any designs the Titans had on a comeback win — something the Ravens yielded to Pittsburgh last week — ended under an onslaught of pressure.
That was most significant in the game’s closing minutes. With the Ravens leading 24-13, Tennessee had first-and-goal at the 3-yard line with 1:41 left. Clowney dropped Willis for a 4-yard loss. Later, the Titans had first-and-goal at the 1 after a pass interference penalty on Arthur Maulet. But a penalty pushed the Titans back to the 11, and Kyle Van Noy sacked Willis for a 9-yard loss.
To be sure, the Titans probably didn’t help themselves leaving running back Derrick Henry on the sideline on first-and-goal from the 1, but the defensive pressure, especially up front, delivered in a big way.
Madubuike was in the backfield a lot and finished with five tackles, two sacks and four quarterback hits. With the fourth-year lineman in a contract year, this London trip could prove to be extremely valuable for him.
2. The maligned special teams delivered in a big way.
It’s been a rough start of the season for the Ravens’ special teams units, which entered the game ranked last in the league in punt return yardage allowed and last week gave up a blocked punt for a safety.
Against Tennessee, though, the Ravens’ special teams delivered some of the game’s biggest plays, and that goes beyond Justin Tucker going 6-for-6 on field goals.
Midway through the second quarter, Devin Duvernay fielded a punt at the Ravens’ 13-yard line. He found a seam created by blocks by Kevon Seymour and Arthur Maulet and raced 70 yards before being chased out of bounds. That began a short drive that ended in a 23-yard field goal by Tucker for a 9-3 lead.
Then in the closing seconds of the half, the Ravens opted to punt rather than bring on Tucker for a field-goal attempt of roughly 64 yards. Jordan Stout’s punt was mishandled by Titans returner Kyle Phillips, and Del’Shawn Phillips pounced on the loose ball for the Ravens at the Titans’ 11-yard line with one second left in the half.
Tucker came on for a 29-yard field goal and an 18-3 halftime lead.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh cut his teeth as a special teams coach, and his teams have consistently been among the best in the league in these areas. That makes the lapses of the past few weeks so glaring.
Granted, there was still a hiccup this week, as the Titans blocked an extra-point attempt. But in all special-teams phases, this looked more like the unit that’s been a league standard-bearer in Harbaugh’s tenure.
3. The Ravens’ red-zone offense has quickly become a major issue.
When Justin Tucker is kicking field goals from inside 30 yards, that means the Ravens are being stopped inside the opposing 10-yard line, and that happened four times in this game. Tucker’s field goals came from 41, 28, 23, 29, 20 and 36 yards.
Just three weeks ago, the Ravens went 4-for-4 in the red zone in Cleveland against the league’s top-rated defense in a 28-3 win. Todd Monken’s offense appeared to be as efficient as the Ravens 2019 team that finished 14-2.
Where did that go?
At Pittsburgh last week, the Ravens’ three red-zone trips turned into one touchdown, one field goal and one interception. This week, the Ravens had six red-zone trips and came away with just one touchdown (though technically, one “drive” was the field goal on the final play of the half).
Maybe the most troubling aspect of this is that the Ravens aren’t getting to the end zone when they get really close. They had first-and-goal twice in this game, ran the ball six times in those two series and couldn’t score a touchdown.
On the first series, with first-and-goal from the 6, Gus Edwards gained 3 yards, and then Edwards carried again for 2. With third-and-goal from the 1, Jackson ran right and was dropped for a 4-yard loss. On came Tucker.
Later, the Ravens had first-and-goal from the 9. Jackson carried up the middle for 5 yards, and then Edwards ran for 1. On third down, Jackson kept again, this time going left, and was chased down a yard short of the end zone. On came Tucker.
To be sure, Tucker kicking a field goal is a better outcome than Jackson throwing an interception on a fade pattern, as he did last week.
But the Ravens aren’t finding the end zone nearly as much as they could or should given the situations. Edwards finished with 16 carries for 41 yards, but this season he hasn’t been the surefire, battering ram who plows ahead 2 to 3 yards every time he touches the ball.
Odell Beckham, signed to be a $15 million target, has yet to catch a touchdown pass. Same with Rashod Bateman, who dropped a pass in the end zone last week and looked oddly out of sync on Jackson’s only interception of the day against the Titans. Bateman didn’t even offer at a pass over his head on the right sideline, only to watch Tennessee cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting intercept it.
The Ravens got away with short field goals in this game, and as long as their defense continues to be as stingy as it’s been, they might continue to get away with it. But when the stakes are highest against the best teams, kicking short field goals is often a recipe for failure.
4. Lamar Jackson’s strong start was critical.
The Ravens were dealing with the ghosts of their past London trip, but only a handful of players are still on the roster from that miserable afternoon. But they were also dealing with the ghosts of an absolute giveaway at Pittsburgh last week, and coming off that loss, it felt as if a strong start against Tennessee would be especially important.
Lamar Jackson came out sharp, with poise and in rhythm. He hit Nelson Agholor with a quick strike for 21 yards on his second pass, and then threw a perfectly placed out route to Zay Flowers for a gain of 14. Jackson went 7-for-7 to start the game, and his dual-threat ability created problems for the Tennessee defense all day.
To be fair, the Titans contained Jackson at times, most notably near the goal line, and he finished with 13 carries for a team-high 62 yards. As a passer, Jackson went 21-for-30 for 221 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Those numbers don’t jump off the page, but Jackson was in command throughout.
After the Titans seized momentum with 10 third-quarter points — fueled in part by Jackson’s interception — he engineered a pair of long scoring drives. He ran five times, including a couple of dazzling scramble escapes, on a 13-play drive that ended with a field goal. He later led an 11-play scoring drive that included a 38-yard pass he floated to Mark Andrews, the team’s longest pass play of the day.
Maybe most important, Jackson didn’t fumble, something that’s happened too often this season, and he was available, something that hasn’t been the case for a lot of quarterbacks against the Ravens this year, including Ryan Tannehill in the latter stages of this game.
5. Geno Stone is quickly becoming one of the team’s unsung stars.
This summer, the Ravens’ secondary was viewed as a strength of the team in part because of starting safeties Marcus Williams and Kyle Hamilton and Pro Bowl cornerback Marlon Humphrey. Geno Stone was perceived to be a role player who could fill in for three-safety looks.
Yet Stone has quickly become one of the Ravens’ most important defensive players, and he’s turned in some of their most important plays. With Williams going out because of a torn pec, Stone was thrust into the starting lineup at Cincinnati in Week 2 and responded with a huge goal-line interception in the Ravens’ 27-24 win against the defending AFC North champs.
In this game, Stone made a big interception after Hamilton had been ejected for unnecessary roughness on a helmet-to-helmet hit on receiver Chris Moore. With the Titans driving and trailing 18-13 late in the third quarter, on third-and-1 Ryan Tannehill tried to catch the Ravens off guard with a deep pass down the right sideline. Stone made the interception, and his 24-yard return set up a drive that ended with Justin Tucker’s fifth field goal of the game.
It’s debatable whether the Titans should have just pounded the ball to running back Derrick Henry on third-and-1, but it’s also possible they planned to do that on fourth-and-1 from the Ravens’ 48 if the third-down play didn’t work. Stone made sure they never got the chance.
It’s been quite a career path for Stone, who was drafted by the Ravens in the seventh round of the 2020 draft, but then was let go late that season. He briefly joined the Houston Texans, then returned to Baltimore the next spring.
Williams left the Titans game with an apparent hamstring injury, putting Stone in line for another big role going forward. He’s proved time and again this year that he’s up to the task.
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