Throughout the first quarter at Tampa Bay, the Ravens bore little resemblance to a team on a four-game winning streak. The Buccaneers scored on their first two possessions, and the Ravens’ lone drive of the period ended with back-to-back sacks.
But after going into the second quarter with a deficit for the first time all season, the Ravens (5-2) roared back to score 34 straight points in the middle two quarters and outlasted the Buccaneers, 41-31, at Raymond James Stadium on Oct. 21.
Lamar Jackson tied his career high and the Ravens’ team record with five touchdown passes, and Derrick Henry ran for 169 yards and caught a touchdown pass as the Ravens built a 41-18 lead midway through the fourth quarter.
The game turned on a pair of second-quarter interceptions by Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who left the game with a knee injury sustained on the second one.
With the Bucs inside the Ravens’ 5-yard line and leading 10-7, Humphrey intercepted Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield in the end zone with 6:10 left in the first half. Jackson then hit Rashod Bateman on a 59-yard pass play, and two plays later, Justice Hill took a screen pass and raced 18 yards for a touchdown to give the Ravens the lead for good.
Humphrey picked off Mayfield again on the Bucs’ next possession, tying the Ravens’ team record with his second interception of the game. The Ravens then used nearly all the remaining time of the half to drive down the field, and Justin Tucker’s 28-yard field goal gave the Ravens a 17-10 halftime lead.
The Ravens extended the lead to 27-10 midway through the third quarter on Jackson’s best pass of the day, a 49-yard touchdown throw to Bateman, and then Jackson added a touchdown pass to tight end Mark Andrews — the tight end’s second of the game — for a 34-10 lead late in the third quarter.
Tampa Bay scored 21 fourth-quarter points, thanks in part to the second successful onside kick against the Ravens this season, but it was a costly loss for the Buccaneers (4-3); wide receiver Mike Evans, who caught the Bucs’ first touchdown for a quick 7-0 lead, left the game with a hamstring injury, and receiver Chris Godwin was carted off in the game’s final minute with an apparent serious leg injury.
Mayfield finished 31-for-45 for 370 yards, with three touchdowns and two interceptions, but the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft couldn’t keep up with his counterpart from the 2018 draft who was taken with the final pick in that first round. With the win, Jackson improved to 23-1 against the NFC.
Here are five quick impressions of the win, the fifth in a row for the Ravens after an 0-2 start:
1. Operating like this, Lamar Jackson is unstoppable.
Lamar Jackson threw as many touchdowns as incompletions, finishing 17-for-22 for 281 yards and five touchdowns. He also ran nine times for 52 yards, and even threw a key downfield block on a long run by Derrick Henry in the second half.
Jackson played with poise, showing no ill effect after being sacked on back-to-back plays on the Ravens only drive of the first quarter or after the Ravens fell behind 10-0. In the second quarter, he wiggled away from another Tampa Bay blitz and found Rashod Bateman downfield for a 59-yard pass play that set up a Ravens touchdown.
Jackson connected with Mark Andrews for a pair of touchdown passes and threw touchdown passes to running backs Henry and Justice Hill. Andrews’ first touchdown, which cut Tampa Bay’s early 10-0 lead to 10-7 early in the second quarter, was the 42nd of his career, breaking the Ravens’ franchise record previously held by tight end Todd Heap.
Jackson has been criticized throughout his career for his inconsistency throwing the deep ball, but his 49-yard touchdown pass to Bateman couldn’t have been thrown any more perfectly, dropped right into Bateman’s arms in the end zone.
Jackson is a perfectionist, and he will stew over a few misses; a botched swing pass to Zay Flowers didn’t go as an incompletion because it proved to be a lateral and a fumble, which was recovered by Tampa Bay and led to one of the Bucs’ fourth-quarter touchdowns.
But with Henry or Hill behind or beside him in the backfield, and with his arsenal of tight ends and wide receivers spread from sideline to sideline, Jackson is operating with the kind of efficiency he displayed in winning his first MVP award in 2019. The Ravens scored on all six of their possessions in the second and third quarters to essentially put the game away.
Thus far this season, Jackson has 15 touchdowns and two interceptions, and his passer rating of 118.0 tops that of his 2019 season (113.3). There’s a lot of football left, but this is Jackson at his best, when it seems the only thing that could beat him is himself. And that’s just not happening.
2. With this defense, Lamar Jackson needs to be nearly perfect.
Defensive coordinator Zach Orr just shook his head and fumed after Tampa Bay running back Rachaad White caught a pass over the middle with no Ravens within five yards of him and waltzed in for a 23-yard touchdown. As it has been so often against the Ravens’ defense this year, it was just too easy.
Granted, the touchdown only trimmed the Ravens lead to 41-31, but this marks the second time in three weeks that the Ravens won despite giving up more than 30 points; they rallied to beat Cincinnati in overtime, 41-38, in Week 5.
For an organization steeped in defense, this has been a shocking look, with the Ravens’ secondary looking confused or out of sorts and giving up chunks of yardage and chunks of points.
The Ravens entered this game with the league’s 31st-ranked pass defense, allowing 275.7 yards a game, and Tampa Bay quarterback Baker Mayfield threw for nearly 400. Granted, the Bucs were in pass mode throughout the second half after falling behind big, but recurring issues are recurring issues.
The Ravens have proved susceptible over the middle, they have lost running backs such as White coming out of the backfield — his 18-yard catch-and-run on third-and-3 led to Tampa Bay’s first touchdown — and they have dropped a handful of would-be interceptions, including one that went through safety Ar’Darius Washington’s hands in this game.
To his credit, Marlon Humphrey did record two interceptions that completely changed the complexion of the game, but he left with a knee injury, and any extended absence for Humphrey would further compromise this group.
Throughout the summer, the secondary seemed to be the strength of the team, but that has not translated to the regular season. Instead, they have essentially demanded that Lamar Jackson and the offense operate at peak efficiency for the Ravens to win. Over time, and especially come the postseason, that kind of charitable defense is just not a winning formula.
3. A healthy Rashod Bateman changes the offense’s potential.
Lamar Jackson loves his tight ends and his shifty, jitterbug wide receiver Zay Flowers, but no one on this Ravens roster can blow the top off defenses like Rashod Bateman, and he and Lamar Jackson are in sync as never before.
Bateman had the Ravens’ two biggest pass plays of the game, a 59-yarder that set up a touchdown pass to Justice Hill, and then a gorgeous 49-yard touchdown catch down the right sideline that gave the Ravens a 27-10 lead midway through the third quarter.
Bateman finished with four catches for a career-best 121 yards and is averaging 18.8 yards a catch this season.
Bateman has taken his share of public criticism throughout the years. The 2021 draft pick had not delivered on his first-round draft position. Entering this year, he had never topped 515 yards in three NFL seasons, with a total of four touchdown catches.
He and Jackson had never seemed in sync, and injuries surely played a role. Bateman missed much of his rookie training camp, sidelined by a groin injury just as Jackson returned from a bout with COVID. This dance went on more than once, with Bateman returning as Jackson was sidelined, or vice versa.
Now Bateman is healthy, Jackson is on the field with him, and the two are delivering on the potential that the team has envisioned for the past few years. General manager Eric DeCosta has frequently come to Bateman’s public defense amid the criticism, and he rewarded him with a contract extension this past offseason. Jackson has always championed Bateman’s potential.
Now that these two are connecting as the Ravens had long hoped, it gives opposing defenses one more thing to worry about.
4. The Ravens have figured out how to run a screen pass.
For multiple years across multiple coordinators, the Ravens might as well have taken the screen pass chapter of the playbook and tossed it into the lake next to the team’s practice fields. Linemen were out of position, or the timing was off, and a first-and-10 screen pass too often led to second-and-14, which is not really the idea.
In Todd Monken’s second year as coordinator, though, the screen game is not only working, it’s probably the most improved aspect of the Ravens’ offense. On the Ravens’ opening series against Tampa Bay, Jackson threw a wide receiver screen to Zay Flowers, and with tackle Ronnie Stanley getting out into space to open up a hole, Flowers picked up 11 yards. A similar play on the opening series last week against Washington went for 44 yards.
Then in the second quarter against Tampa Bay, Jackson dumped a screen pass to Justice Hill, who followed a wall of Stanley, guard Patrick Mekari, center Tyler Linderbaum and guard Daniel Faalele en route to an 18-yard touchdown that put the Ravens ahead for good at 14-10.
Hill continues to be an underrated part of this offense. He finished with three catches for 44 yards, including an 18-yard catch on third-and-25 that salvaged a drive and set up a 52-yard field goal by Justin Tucker for a 20-10 Ravens lead.
The Ravens’ offensive line deserves credit for getting this screen game in order, and so do the tight ends and wide receivers whose perimeter blocking has been consistently strong this year. Monken deserves credit too, because he’s finally gotten the screen game to be a viable part of this Ravens offense.
Add one more thing for defenses to worry about.
5. A crucial AFC North stretch awaits.
With the win, the Ravens remain atop the AFC North with the Pittsburgh Steelers (5-2), and the next month will begin to bring this divisional race into focus. The Ravens will play three AFC North games in the next four weeks, beginning with this coming Sunday (Oct. 27) at Cleveland, which will be turning to a new quarterback after Deshaun Watson suffered a torn Achilles this past weekend.
Then after hosting the Denver Broncos, the Ravens host Cincinnati (3-4) before visiting the Steelers in a battle that could be for first place heading into Thanksgiving. Having already beaten Cincinnati once, 41-38 in overtime in Week 5, the Ravens at home will have a chance to do serious damage to the Bengals’ hopes if they manage to achieve the season sweep.
The Ravens and Steelers have played so many big games over so many years, and nearly halfway through this season, it appears they are primed for two more. The first comes at Pittsburgh’s Acrisure Stadium on Nov. 17, and then the teams meet in Baltimore on Dec. 21.
Players and coaches like to say it’s a week to week league, but the next four weeks will carry more weight than some others.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox