BALTIMORE — The Ravens’ AFC North showdown against the Cleveland Browns Nov. 12 featured the league’s top-rated defenses, and both played the part at times. Each team scored a defensive touchdown, but the Ravens’ defense wilted late, and the Browns scored the game’s final 16 points to stun the Ravens, 33-31, at M&T Bank Stadium.
The Ravens led 31-17 early in the fourth quarter, but the Browns rally was complete when kicker Dustin Hopkins nailed a 40-yard field goal on the final play of the game.
The Browns (6-3) scored a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns in a span of 41 seconds, the second coming when Greg Newsome intercepted a tipped pass from Lamar Jackson and raced 34 yards for a touchdown. Hopkins missed the extra-point kick, though, keeping the Ravens ahead 31-30 with 8:16 left.
But unlike other close games this year, the Ravens (7-3) were unable to sustain a clock-eating drive to put the game away.
The Browns got the ball back with 4:55 left, and Deshaun Watson, who had struggled mightily early in the game and battled through an injury, got the Browns downfield and into field-goal range.
Watson completed just one of his first nine passes, but he finished 20-for-34 for 213 yards. He also frequently avoided the Ravens’ pass rush and found escape lanes, rushing eight times for 37 yards.
The Ravens came inches from essentially ending the game when Watson was strip-sacked by Odafe Oweh with just under three minutes left, but Browns guard Wyatt Teller fell on the loose ball and the Browns’ drive continued.
It was an especially stunning finish since the Ravens stormed to a 14-0 lead in the first quarter and appeared well on their way to a third straight one-sided home win.
On the game’s second play, safety Kyle Hamilton deflected a pass by Watson, caught the ball in midair and ran 18 yards for a touchdown. Then on the Ravens’ first offensive possession, rookie running back Keaton Mitchell took a handoff, raced around the left and outran everyone for a 39-yard touchdown.
After that, though, the Browns’ top-rated defense played like it. Jackson and the running game had trouble getting much traction, and the Browns’ pressure led by Myles Garrett (1.5 sacks) kept Jackson from getting into any rhythm. It didn’t help that the Ravens were playing without right tackle Morgan Moses (shoulder) and lost left tackle Ronnie Stanley to a knee injury during the game.
The Ravens caught a big break when former Ravens wide receiver James Proche fumbled a punt return and Devin Duvernay recovered at the Browns’ 12-yard line. That led to a 1-yard touchdown run by Gus Edwards for a 31-17 lead with 11:34 left.
From that point on, though, the Ravens threw a pick-six interception touchdown, mustered one first down on offense and watched their vaunted defense get pushed all over the field.
“Every day isn’t going to be our day,” Jackson said. “Today, it wasn’t.”
Here are five quick observations of the game, which snaps a four-game Ravens winning streak:
1. The comparisons to the 2000 Ravens defense were premature.
This was a reckoning for a Ravens defense that had allowed the fewest points in the league and had deserved its share of headlines but was pretty much beaten at every level.
Head coach John Harbaugh and defensive lineman Justin Madubuike said the game plan was to contain quarterback Deshaun Watson, keep him in the pocket and not let him extend plays. Watson, though, was able to do precisely that far too often. When he did, he found room to run or found open receivers in the middle of the field.
Watson had missed the Week 4 matchup against the Ravens, and he was slow to get up more than once, but he still had plenty of zip on the ball.
The Browns, playing without their top three tackles, totaled 178 rushing yards and 373 yards overall, both season highs allowed by the Ravens.
“We have to learn from it, for sure,” said Madubuike, who has recorded at least a half-sack in seven straight games, a franchise record. “It’s definitely a loss that shouldn’t have happened. Every week you’re supposed to come (and) bring your best, and we didn’t do that today. So we have to get better.”
The Ravens’ defensive problems were compounded when cornerback Marlon Humphrey left with an ankle injury, and safety Marcus Williams, playing for the first time in four games, is still clearly affected by a pec injury that sidelined him early in the season.
Breakdowns in coverage led to open receivers over the middle.
“We didn’t play our specific zone coverages there, our split safety coverages, very well,” Harbaugh said.
When the Ravens needed to get a stop, they couldn’t. On the Browns’ final drive, Odafe Oweh sacked Watson and forced a fumble, but Browns guard Wyatt Teller recovered to keep possession. Facing second-and-19, Watson found Amari Cooper wide open down the middle for a gain of 17, and Ford then gained 5 of his 107 yards for the first down.
“Get ’em down, sack, fumble, and unfortunately the ball didn’t bounce our way,” Hamilton said.
“Trying to get [the defense] off the field at a critical time in the game, and we didn’t do a good job of that,” he added.
Two weeks ago, Ravens defensive players left the field in Arizona upset that they had allowed 17 late points in what proved to be a comfortable win. That was understandable in a way, as the Ravens acknowledged they played more passively with the lead. Not this time. The Ravens needed a stop, and they couldn’t get it. The challenge for defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald is to figure out why not.
2. Lamar Jackson’s deep passing game is an issue.
Early in the game, Zay Flowers had a step on his receiver down the right sideline, but Lamar Jackson overthrew him by a few yards. Later in the half, Jackson took another deep shot, but he badly underthrew Rashod Bateman and the ball was intercepted.
Last week, Jackson took two deep shots for Rashod Bateman and badly overthrew him both times. That didn’t matter a whole lot in a 37-3 rout, but Jackson and the Ravens need to be able to connect on that vertical passing game more than it’s happening now.
Jackson finished 13-for-23 for 223 yards, and his longest pass play was a slant to Odell Beckham Jr. that turned into a 40-yard catch-and-run touchdown that gave the Ravens a 24-9 lead early in the third quarter. Other than that, no wide receiver had a catch of 20 yards.
To be sure, the Ravens were facing one of the league’s best pass rush units led by Myles Garrett, and once Ronnie Stanley went out with a knee injury, the Ravens were down to two backups at tackles since Morgan Moses (shoulder) didn’t play. Jackson didn’t always have a lot of time to let the deep passing routes develop. But when he did, and when he took shots, they missed.
That’s been one of the few flaws this year for Jackson, whose completion percentage this year (70.3) is the best of his career.
Head coach John Harbaugh earlier this week had said that the Ravens “chase [the deep passing game] all the time. … We’re hitting them in practice regularly. Sometimes things come up. I think sometimes you make a decision maybe just to throw it away. Other times, you might be a step or two farther than you want or shorter than you want, but all in all, I’m very confident in our deep passing game. I’m very certain that we’re going to make those plays in the coming weeks.”
3. The special teams mistakes just don’t stop.
The Ravens’ special teams unit has been so crisp for so many years that it is surprising to see mistakes. Yet this year, a critical mistake is a weekly occurrence.
Against the Browns, that came in the form of a blocked field-goal attempt midway through the second quarter. A Ravens drive deep into Cleveland territory was scuttled when Keaton Mitchell lost 7 yards on a double reverse and then Lamar Jackson was sacked at the Cleveland 37-yard line. Justin Tucker came on for a 55-yard field-goal try, but Browns defensive lineman Jordan Elliott blocked it.
Instead of building their lead to 20-6, the Ravens gave up the ball and Dustin Hopkins kicked his third field goal to trim the Ravens’ halftime lead to 17-9.
The Ravens this season have already had an extra-point kick, a punt and a field goal blocked, and the latter two proved to be critical plays in losses; Pittsburgh scored a safety after blocking a punt out of the end zone in a game the Steelers rallied to win, 17-10.
Granted, the Ravens registered a big special teams play against the Browns as well, with Devin Duvernay recovering a fumble by former teammate James Proche on a punt return that set up a Ravens touchdown.
But the special teams miscues have happened way too often this year. Every coach will tell you that all three phases of the game matter, and John Harbaugh, who spent several years as the Philadelphia Eagles’ special teams coach, knows that as well as anyone.
These weekly lapses must be especially infuriating.
4. Keaton Mitchell went missing for some reason.
On his first carry of the game, rookie running back Keaton Mitchell won the race to the left sideline and outran everyone for a 39-yard touchdown run. Later, Mitchell took a bubble screen for 37 yards, setting up a field goal.
Those proved to be two of the Ravens’ longest plays of the game — and curiously, they were two of just four touches for Mitchell, who wasn’t dealing with a known injury. Mitchell carried on a slow-developing double reverse that proved disastrous and lost 7 yards, and he had one third-quarter run for 2 yards, but that was it. Granted, Mitchell was targeted on a wheel route in the second quarter and what could have been a 30-yard touchdown slipped through his hands.
John Harbaugh said after the game that Mitchell’s lack of involvement was “just kind of the way it went as far as the play calling.”
The Ravens at times put running back Justice Hill on the field for his strong ability in pass protection, as he helped chip against the Browns’ ferocious edge rushers. And when the Ravens got near the goal line after the fumbled punt return by James Proche, they wisely turned to Gus Edwards, who ran for his seventh touchdown in the past four games.
Still, the Ravens were struggling to move the ball against the league’s top-rated defense. They were dealing with backups at both tackle spots. Mitchell is averaging nearly 14 yards every time he touches the ball. That kind of production can’t continue, but he has shown that he can be a dangerous new weapon for this offense, and it’s fair to wonder why he was essentially kept under lock and key in the second half.
5. Hang on for a four-horse race to the finish in the AFC North.
The battle is joined in the AFC North, and the Browns with Deshaun Watson showed that they aren’t going away. With the loss, the Ravens also lost their chance to sweep the Browns, and if they lose to the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday night, their division lead will be gone altogether by next Sunday.
Cincinnati (5-4) lost to the Houston Texans, so they will remain behind the Ravens, but both the Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3), who beat Green Bay, 23-19, have moved to within a half-game of the top. Those two meet in Cleveland next Sunday.
The Browns have a much more forgiving schedule than the Ravens do during the final two months, with games against the Denver Broncos (3-5), Los Angeles Rams (3-6) and Chicago Bears (3-7) still to come.
The Ravens can regain their footing and maintain the division lead with a win over Cincinnati in a highly anticipated “Thursday Night Football” matchup at M&T Bank Stadium in four days. If they falter again, though, they let the Bengals right back in the race as well, and open the door for the winner of next Sunday’s Browns-Steelers game to take over the top spot.
It’s clear that the AFC North is the best in football this year; all four teams began Week 9 at least two games above .500, and over their previous four games each, the division has gone 14-2. With the Browns’ win at Baltimore, this is shaping up as a wild, four-horse race to the finish.
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