Fairly early in the Ravens’ game against the Denver Broncos at M&T Bank Stadium on Nov. 3, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said he radioed up to his coaches in the booth upstairs with a simple observation: “Lamar’s on fire. He’s on fire throwing the ball.”
Lamar Jackson never cooled down, either. Jackson completed 16 of 19 passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns, compiling the fourth perfect passer rating of his career as the Ravens routed the Broncos, 41-10.
The Broncos (5-4) had come to Baltimore with the third-stingiest defense in the league, allowing 15.0 points a game. But the Ravens (6-3) had 24 by halftime and scored on seven straight possessions as they rebounded from a discouraging loss to last-place Cleveland a week earlier.
“Guys were ready to play, and we played our best, [most] complete game of the season so far,” Harbaugh said.
The Ravens never trailed after Derrick Henry barreled up the middle for a 7-yard touchdown run with 2:18 left in the first quarter.
With the Ravens ahead 10-0, Denver cut the gap to 10-7 when wide receiver Courtland Sutton threw a fourth-down touchdown pass to quarterback Bo Nix on a “Philly Special” play from the Ravens’ 2-yard line. Marcus Williams, who returned to the lineup after a high-profile benching last week, had good coverage, but Nix caught the ball right at the goal line and fell into the end zone.
The Ravens quickly answered, though, as Jackson engineered a seven-play, 63-yard touchdown drive. Jackson hit Zay Flowers with his first of two touchdowns on a 7-yard pass play for a 17-7 Ravens lead.
Then after the Broncos had trimmed the Ravens lead to 17-10, Jackson threw a 53-yard touchdown to Flowers with 16 seconds left in the half to give the Ravens a 24-10 halftime lead.
The Ravens essentially put the game away on their opening drive of the third quarter, running over and through a Broncos defense that had been ranked No. 3 overall entering the game.
An 11-play, 70-yard drive ended with Henry bouncing around left end for a 6-yard touchdown and a 31-10 Ravens lead with 9:36 left in the third quarter.
The lopsided win had an added benefit: Several top starters, including Jackson, watched much of the fourth quarter from the sideline, earning valuable rest with another big game coming in just four days against the Cincinnati Bengals on “Thursday Night Football.”
Here are five quick impressions of the game, which improves Harbaugh’s record to 20-2 against rookie quarterbacks at M&T Bank Stadium:
1. The rest seemed to do Lamar Jackson well.
Lamar Jackson had made headlines this week when he missed practice both Wednesday and Thursday. Head coach John Harbaugh described his absence Wednesday as a “rest” day, but then Jackson showed up on the injury report with back and knee injuries and missed practice again the next day.
Jackson was back at practice on Friday, smiling and saying afterward, “I was just resting my body. It’s a long season, that’s all.”
Jackson said he spent the week doing all the necessary classroom and film work preparing for the Broncos, and that certainly looked apparent. As Harbaugh noticed and conveyed to his coaches upstairs, Jackson’s touch throughout the game was superb.
He floated a pass to Justice Hill on a wheel route that covered 24 yards and was perfectly placed beyond Broncos linebacker Jonah Elliss. Three plays later, Jackson rolled right, read the field and threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Zay Flowers, who was working across the back of the end zone. Early in the third quarter, Jackson rolled right, stopped, and threw across the field, perfectly placing the ball for Mark Andrews.
“He’s dangerous with his arm, and I think he showed that today,” running back Derrick Henry said. “If you want to take away him running the ball, [he’ll] go over your head and throw it. If he has to run it, he’ll do that as well. … He’s an engine that makes this thing go — ‘MV3.'”
Jackson’s poised, polished play stood in contrast to Denver rookie Bo Nix, who finished 19-for-33 for 223 yards but missed open receivers several times, including at least twice in the end zone.
The list of games in which Jackson has looked sharper as a passer is short. He finished with the fourth perfect passer rating (158.3) of his career, tying Ben Roethlisberger for the most such games in NFL history.
Harbaugh said this week that he would consider giving Jackson rest days later in the season as well as he tries to keep his reigning MVP fresh for a 17-game season. After seeing Jackson play as he did against Denver, who could blame him?
2. Derrick Henry might be the league’s best offseason signing.
When Derrick Henry signed as a free agent with the Ravens this offseason, he was entering his age-30 season, and his yardage-per-carry had slipped in his final two seasons in Tennessee. Asked at his introductory news conference what he would say to those who might suggest his career was on the downturn, Henry said he’d tell them “to keep watching.”
What they have seen, if they are watching, is a player who after nine games has already topped 1,000 rushing yards — for the sixth time in the past seven seasons — and leads the league in rushing by more than 200 yards. They have also seen a player who set a Ravens franchise record by scoring a touchdown in nine straight games.
Against Denver, Henry ran 23 times for 106 yards and a pair of touchdowns and added a 27-yard catch.
In part because teams have to focus so much energy on the threat of Jackson as a runner, and in part because of the Ravens’ improving offensive line, Henry is averaging 6.3 yards a carry, basically a 50 percent spike, or a full 2 yards a carry better than either of his past two seasons.
At age 30, with the physical toll of more than 2,100 carries on his body, it isn’t supposed to be like that.
“Derrick Henry is different,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “He is adding a dimension we have not had before.”
Henry recorded his 100th and 101st career rushing touchdowns to pass Shaun Alexander and Hall of Famers Marshall Faulk and Barry Sanders and move into eighth place in NFL history.
Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta unsuccessfully tried to acquire Henry at the trade deadline last year before signing him to a two-year, $16 million deal in a market that had soured on running backs.
DeCosta has often said that with Lamar Jackson’s hefty contract on the books, the team has to find value-laden deals to build the roster. Well, Henry has proved to be one of best: According to Spotrac.com, which tracks player contracts, Henry’s 2024 cap hit of roughly $5.1 million ranks 324th among all NFL players this season.
As Harbaugh spoke at his postgame news conference, Henry and Jackson sat side by side in a corner of the media room talking quietly and laughing. Henry’s having a lot of fun in Baltimore, and DeCosta, no doubt, is smiling as well thinking about this deal.
3. Zay Flowers is mesmerizing after the catch.
Flowers is a hard-nosed, precise route runner, and he and Lamar Jackson joke about their South Florida connection, but for Flowers, so often the fun begins after he makes the catch.
Flowers showed off his dazzling elusiveness once again when he turned a 20-yard pass into a 53-yard touchdown that might have broken the spirit of the Broncos just before halftime. (The Ravens also received the ball to begin the second half, they marched right down for another touchdown and the game was essentially over.)
After the Broncos had cut the Ravens lead to 17-10 on a 37-yard field goal by Wil Lutz, the Ravens took over with 54 seconds left in the half. Two plays later, Jackson lofted a pass down the middle of the field to Flowers, who had gotten open at the Denver 30-yard line.
As he has done so often, Flowers started one way, then stopped on a dime and juked away from Denver safety Devon Key. Flowers shifted right to squirt away from another defender, and soon had four Broncos chasing after him. Rashod Bateman made a nice downfield block to shield Flowers from the posse in pursuit, and Flowers waltzed in for a 53-yard touchdown.
Asked about Flowers’ elusiveness, Jackson just smiled, shook his head and said, “God gave him the ability to make people miss.”
Flowers has established himself as a bona fide No. 1 receiver. He had five catches for 127 yards and two scores, and now has 100 yards or more in four of his past five games. He’s on pace for 1,235 yards, which would be the second-highest total in franchise history.
There’s no guarantee he gets there. Jackson has described the Ravens as a “pick-your-poison” offense, and if a team commits to stopping Flowers, then Isaiah Likely or Mark Andrews or Rashod Bateman might have a huge game. Or the Ravens might just unleash a relentless ground attack led by Jackson and Derrick Henry.
But to be sure, the ball is going to find its way to Flowers’ hands, and that’s when the real magic happens.
4. The Ravens’ maligned defense stepped up big in the red zone.
The Ravens’ defense has been a punching bag for criticism this season. The team ranks last in the league in pass defense, has dropped a slew of interceptions and gave up a game-winning touchdown pass to lowly Cleveland in the final minute last week.
Cornerback Arthur Maulet said that this week, once again, the defense was “challenged” to step it up, and they did that against the Broncos, especially in the red zone.
The Broncos had four possessions inside the Ravens’ 10-yard line and came away with just 10 points. They were held to a field goal despite having first-and-goal at the 1-yard line, and on the Broncos’ final two possessions, they turned the ball over on downs despite having second-and-goal from the 1 on one series and second-and-goal from the 3 on the other.
It was fitting that the Broncos’ final play was a slant pass to Courtland Sutton, and Nate Wiggins and Ar’Darius Washington stuffed Sutton short of the goal line on fourth-and-goal.
“We are kind of scarred by our past right now,” safety Kyle Hamilton said, “and we’re not trying to give up anything at this point. So everybody had that mindset today. We did it for the most part.”
Washington, it’s worth noting, intercepted Bo Nix’s first pass of the day on a deflection, so it appears extra work on the JUGS guns by the Ravens’ defensive players this week paid off.
Granted, it wasn’t perfect, and the Ravens were fortunate that Nix didn’t exhibit anything close to the touch that Jackson did. On the first play of the second quarter, the Broncos opted to play for the first down on fourth-and-4 from the Ravens’ 33, and Nix overthrew receiver Troy Franklin, who had a step on Maulet in the end zone. On a later series, Nix also threw too high for an open receiver in the back of the end zone.
But the Ravens’ defense stepped up as well. Broderick Washington stuffed running back Javonte Williams short of the goal line on first-and-goal at the 2, and two plays later, Trenton Simpson sacked Nix back at the 14-yard line.
“I thought the red zone defense was amazing,” Harbaugh said. “I thought they did a great job in coverage. I thought our coverage did a great job the whole game.”
5. There’s no time to savor this with a huge AFC North stretch on deck.
Within minutes of this win, both John Harbaugh and Derrick Henry pointed out that the Ravens are already “locked in” on Cincinnati, the Ravens’ opponent in a big “Thursday Night Football” showdown at M&T Bank Stadium. (For that game, incidentally, the Ravens will unveil their new, alternate purple helmets.)
After facing the Bengals, the Ravens travel to Pittsburgh to face the first-place Steelers (6-2) on Nov. 17.
A win against the Bengals (4-5) would all but eliminate the Bengals from the AFC North race. The Ravens would be three games ahead of the Bengals with a season sweep over them, including a 41-38, overtime win in Cincinnati in October. If the Bengals win, though, they will be just a game behind the Ravens, and they would send the Ravens limping into Pittsburgh with two AFC North losses in their past three games.
And the Steelers and head coach Mike Tomlin have gotten the better of the Ravens and Harbaugh recently. Pittsburgh has won seven of the past eight meetings, and Lamar Jackson’s passer rating against Pittsburgh (66.8) is his lowest against any team.
The Ravens were eager to put the taste of the Browns loss behind them, and they did that with a complete rout of Denver. But as they look at the calendar, they realize there’s no time to bask in anything, and a lot of work to be done over the next two weeks.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox