BALTIMORE — Over Lamar Jackson’s eight-year career, Ravens fans have grown accustomed to highlight-reel offense from the league’s two-time MVP quarterback. Over the past month, the Ravens’ offense hasn’t looked anything like that, but the wins have come nonetheless.
On a day when the Ravens’ offense struggled get into any rhythm, Derrick Henry scored two third-quarter touchdowns, cornerback Marlon Humphrey created a huge turnover, and punter Jordan Stout tilted the field and the game in the Ravens’ direction as they pulled away for a 23-10 win against the New York Jets at M&T Bank Stadium on Nov. 23.
The win is the fifth in a row for the Ravens (6-5) after a 1-5 start, and they have drawn even with the Pittsburgh Steelers atop the AFC North with six games remaining. The Ravens’ defense, badly maligned early in the season, has held six straight opponents to fewer than 20 points.
The Ravens’ offense got virtually nothing going in the first half, and the Jets (2-9) went into halftime with a 7-3 lead. But the game swung in the third quarter on two touchdown drives finished by Henry.
Despite the sluggish start, “nobody flinched,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “We came out, and we had three straight scoring drives. We took the game over in the third quarter and into the fourth quarter.”
The Jets, who had won two of three after an 0-7 start, took a 7-0 lead on a 13-yard touchdown pass from Tyrod Taylor to John Metchie with 4:04 left in the first half. That capped a 12-play, 79-yard drive, and at that point, the Jets held an edge of 136-28 in total offense.
The Ravens’ only marginally successful drive in the first half ended with a 31-yard field goal by Tyler Loop with 1:35 left in the half.
But after totaling just 72 yards of total offense in the first half, the Ravens gained 74 on their opening drive of the second half. The drive was aided by a 34-yard pass interference penalty on a pass intended for Mark Andrews, and nine plays later, Henry powered across the goal line from 2 yards out to give the Ravens the lead for good at 10-7.
On their next possession, the Jets opted to go for a first down on fourth-and-2 from their own 40-yard line, but Tyrod Taylor’s pass in the right flat intended for Metchie fell incomplete.
Handed a short field, the Ravens capitalized, but as usual, success in the red zone was a struggle. The Ravens came into the game ranked 28th in the league in red zone efficiency, and facing first-and-goal at the Jets’ 3-yard line, the Ravens netted 1 yard in three plays.
Harbaugh kept the offense on the field on fourth down, and the offensive line opened up a massive hole on the right side. Henry waltzed in untouched for a 17-7 lead with 3:33 left in the third quarter.
That seemed a comfortable margin against a Jets team that ranked 29th in the league in total offense, 25th in scoring and had turned to Taylor, the one-time Raven, who was making his second start of the season.
But Taylor (17-for-28 for 222 yards, one touchdown, one interception) and the Jets wouldn’t go away. They were threatening to cut the Ravens’ lead to three points midway through the fourth quarter when Humphrey delivered what Harbaugh called “the lion spike,” his reference to the decisive play of the game.
A few plays after running back Breece Hall had turned a short swing pass from Taylor into a 40-yard gain, the Jets had the ball at the Ravens’ 12-yard line. Hall ran around right end, but as he neared the goal line, Humphrey ripped the ball out of his hand and Ravens safety Alohi Gilman recovered at the 2-yard line.
That proved to be the last gasp from the Jets.
Here are five quick impressions of the win, which improves the Ravens’ all-time record against the Jets in Baltimore to 7-0:
1. Lamar Jackson clearly isn’t in top form, and the Ravens are winning anyway.
Early in the game, Lamar Jackson seemed to get crossed up with Mark Andrews on a third-down pass that fell incomplete. He threw well off-target on a sideline route intended for Isaiah Likely. And then in the second half, DeAndre Hopkins got open down the left sideline, but Jackson overthrew him.
Jackson appeared to have no desire to run when the field opened up in front of him on one play, and on another, he was tripped up from behind for a 2-yard gain.
In short, the league’s two-time MVP, and the most dynamic dual-threat quarterback in league history, recently has looked very much like someone who has been dealing with hamstring, knee and ankle injuries this season.
NFL players like to say no one is really 100 percent after Week 1 with all the physical punishment the game exacts on the body. Jackson missed three games with a hamstring injury — which contributed to the Ravens’ 1-5 start – and he has missed practice time the past two weeks with knee and ankle injuries.
Against the Jets, Jackson completed 13 of 23 passes for 153 yards for a passer rating of 76.9. Last week at Cleveland, he had the second-lowest passer rating of his career (47.6).
Jackson dismissed any health concerns after the Jets game, saying the offense simply needs to execute better. He said the ankle that kept him out of practice this past Wednesday felt “pretty solid,” and added, “I’m out there, so I feel like I should still be able to do what I do.”
To their credit, the Ravens have won even without Jackson at his best. The defense has had a lot to do with that, including trade deadline acquisitions Gilman and Dre’Mont Jones, who had a pair of sacks in this game.
Harbaugh said he has the “utmost confidence” that Jackson will return to his MVP form.
“Lamar is doing what he needs to do,” Harbaugh said. “He is winning football games. It’s not always pretty. I don’t know how many times in the last however many years where we’ve had wins like this where we’ve gotten up here and have said, ‘It’s not pretty, it’s not perfect, but it’s us. It’s competing and fighting.’ And that’s what Lamar is doing. The pretty games will be there. They’ll be there for Lamar Jackson, you can bet on that.”
They’ll need that too, as the competition ramps up and the stakes get higher.
2. The Ravens’ best player on offense was Pass Interference.
Coming out of halftime, the struggling Ravens faced third-and-15 from their own 21-yard line. Lamar Jackson took a snap, escaped pressure, rolled right and heaved a pass down the right sideline toward Mark Andrews. Jets defensive back Isaiah Oliver was flagged for pass interference, and the 34-yard penalty proved to be the Ravens’ biggest gain of the day.
The penalty jump-started the drive and, it seemed, the offense overall. Derrick Henry gained 7 yards on two plays. DeAndre Hopkins caught a 9-yard pass for a first down. Zay Flowers scampered for 11 yards on an end-around. For the first time all day, the Ravens were on the move.
The drive ended with Henry slamming over for a 2-yard touchdown and a 10-7 lead.
On the Ravens’ next drive, which began on the Jets’ 42-yard line after a fourth-down stop, Jackson aired out a pass to the end zone for Zay Flowers, but he was tripped up by safety Tony Adams. The 17-yard penalty gave the Ravens first-and-goal at the 3, and Henry subsequently scored for a 17-7 lead.
Jackson was far from his A-1 form, and the running game again had its share of struggles, especially between the tackles. The Ravens finished with 34 carries for 98 yards, an average of less than 3 yards per carry.
The Ravens needed to lean on something else to get the offense going. Zay Flowers helped, with five catches for 58 yards. But flags proved to be their best weapon.
3. Jordan Stout might have earned a Pro Bowl bid in this game.
The Ravens were backed up inside their own 20-yard line in the second quarter when Jordan Stout uncorked a “turnover punt” that “must have hit an air pocket,” he said, and sailed well over Jets returner Isaiah Williams. By the time Williams fielded the ball, it had traveled 74 yards, tying for the longest punt in Ravens history, and it completely flipped field position.
In a game when scoring was limited early, field position shifts like that can feel monumental. Later, with the Ravens trying to hold on to a 20-10 lead in the fourth quarter, Stout bombed a 67-yard punt that hit the ground, took a hard right turn and bounced out of bounds at the Jets’ 5-yard line.
After the play, Stout turned toward the M&T Bank Stadium crowd, raised his arms and drank in the applause. The rare punter swagger was well deserved.
“That punt at the end of the game was unbelievable,” Harbaugh said. “I think our punt team, in a lot of ways, kept us in and was the difference-maker in the game.”
Stout has been one of the Ravens’ most consistent players this season, and this game should be Exhibit A for his Pro Bowl candidacy. Stout finished with four punts for an average of 61.5 yards, the sixth-highest total in an NFL game since 1960. He didn’t allow the Jets’ return unit, one of the better ones in the league, to be a factor.
Stout ranks among the top three in the league this season in both overall punt average (51.4) and net punting average (46.2), and both would be Ravens single-season records if the season ended today.
“I feel like that’s a lot of time, a lot of hard work just finally paying off,” said Stout, with a game ball resting in his locker behind him. He acknowledged the pressure early in his career following in the footsteps of Sam Koch, who has appeared in more games than anyone in franchise history. Stout also credits Koch, who remained on the staff early in Stout’s career, with helping him.
Stout said he doesn’t have any specific yards-per-punt goals before the season, because field position can dictate so much about a punter’s body of work; a 42-yard punt is better than a 52-yard punt if it’s kicked from midfield. But he said he didn’t think he played well over the final five games last season, and he focused this summer on coming back better, stronger and more consistent.
Stout also knows it’s a contract year, as his rookie deal expires after this season. With games like this one, Stout is playing himself into a nice payday and possibly his first Pro Bowl honor.
4. Takeaways have been a big part of the Ravens’ winning streak.
The Ravens once again showed the importance of takeaways, as Marlon Humphey’s forced fumble near the goal line effectively choked off any last chance the Jets had to pull the upset.
Until then, the pesky Jets weren’t going away, and they were threatening to cut the Ravens’ lead to 20-17 late in the fourth quarter. That’s when Humphrey ripped the ball from the arm of Jets running back Breece Hall, and safety Alohi Gilman recovered at the Jets’ 2-yard line.
Humphrey missed the game in Cleveland last week after undergoing a surgical procedure on his left hand, but he was back on the field and delivered one of the biggest plays of the game for a defense that has made takeaways a key tenet of its operation.
“I don’t know how he did it,” Harbaugh said. “We were reeling a little bit. They had us on our heels. They were running the ball, they had made some plays, and we’d missed some tackles. And then … he comes up just huge. To me, that’s the lion spike right there.”
Gilman, who had missed a tackle on what proved to be a 40-yard pass play earlier in the drive, described Humphrey as “a baller, one-handed. That was the play of the game in my opinion. It just flipped the momentum back.”
During their 1-5 start, the Ravens had a total of three takeaways. In their five-game winning streak they have had nine. T.J. Tampa got in the act with his first career interception on a desperation heave from Jets quarterback Tyrod Taylor.
The Jets, for their part, also show the importance of takeaways, or lack thereof; they are 2-9 in part because they have manufactured virtually no sudden-change plays. The Jets have yet to record an interception all season, and for all the Ravens’ offensive struggles in this game, the Jets never took the ball away, something that probably had to happen to spring the upset.
“We know that turnovers win games,” linebacker Roquan Smith said, “so [we] just have to continue to keep getting the ball in the offense’s hands.”
5. The next three weeks will shape the division race.
The next three weeks will go a long way toward determining whether the Ravens can officially overcome their disastrous 1-5 start, as they play three straight games in the AFC North. They host the Cincinnati Bengals on Thanksgiving night and host the Pittsburgh Steelers on Dec. 7 before visiting Cincinnati on Dec. 14.
The Bengals, 3-8 after a 26-20 loss to the New England Patriots this week, are all but finished as a postseason contender. Yet Joe Burrow is expected to return at quarterback on Thanksgiving against the Ravens after missing most of the season with a turf toe injury. Burrow is an elite competitor in the midst of an otherwise lost season, and it’s a safe bet that he and the Bengals would like nothing more than to beat the Ravens on a nationally-televised stage and deal a blow to the Ravens’ playoff hopes.
The Steelers (6-5) took control of the division during the Ravens’ 1-5 start, but over the past six weeks, they have stumbled, including a 31-28 loss to the Chicago Bears this week. Before coming to Baltimore, the Steelers next week host the Buffalo Bills (7-4), another team surprisingly fighting for a wild-card spot.
A win against the Steelers on Dec. 7 could give the Ravens the outright division lead for the first time this season. The teams will meet again in Pittsburgh on the final weekend of the season, and for the Ravens, a tough stretch precedes that with home games against Drake Maye and the surprising New England Patriots (10-2) and a trip to Lambeau Field to face the Green Bay Packers (7-3-1).
Fasten those seat belts. It’s going to be quite the race down the homestretch. It really shouldn’t be any other way.
“We play the Steelers twice, and we play the Bengals twice in the next few weeks,” Harbaugh said. “That’s going to be it right there. And it’s starting Thursday night, we have no time, really, to rest.”
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox