BALTIMORE — For the second time in three weeks, an NFC division leader came to face the Ravens in Baltimore, and for the second time in three weeks, the Ravens blew them out of the building.
The Ravens’ defense suffocated the Seattle Seahawks from the outset, the offense got a big lift from rookie running back Keaton Mitchell and the Ravens rolled to a 37-3 win at M&T Bank Stadium on Nov. 5.
After scuffling through most of the first quarter, the Ravens’ offense found its rhythm on a pair of sustained drives, and two short touchdown runs by Gus Edwards gave the Ravens a 14-0 lead.
That proved to be plenty against a Seattle team that totaled six first downs. The Seahawks (5-3) had one 50-yard completion from quarterback Geno Smith to receiver DK Metcalf that set up a second-quarter field goal, but on their other 46 plays, the Seahawks netted 101 yards.
The Ravens’ first score came at the end of a 12-play drive that featured Lamar Jackson completing four passes and running for 24 of his 60 rushing yards. Edwards barreled in from 4 yards out for a 7-0 lead early in the second quarter.
Later in the second quarter, the Ravens turned to Mitchell, who carried four times for 37 yards as the Ravens marched 84 yards in 10 plays. Edwards again powered up the middle and over the goal line, this time from 3 yards out for a 14-0 lead.
In the third quarter, Mitchell took over himself. He found a seam off left tackle and outran everyone for a 40-yard touchdown and a 30-3 lead.
“The offensive line just gave him a little room,” Jackson said, “and he did the rest.”
The Ravens (7-2) piled up 515 yards of offense, including 298 on the ground — the fourth-highest rushing total in franchise history. Mitchell led the way with 138 yards on nine carries, including a 60-yard run in the fourth quarter.
The Ravens completed the scoring when backup quarterback Tyler Huntley lofted a 6-yard touchdown pass to Odell Beckham Jr. It’s the first touchdown as a Raven for Beckham, who was also celebrating his 31st birthday.
Here are five quick impressions of the win, the Ravens’ fourth in a row:
1. Mike Macdonald’s coaching star just continues to burn brighter.
John Harbaugh probably hopes to keep Mike Macdonald as his defensive coordinator for a while, but at this rate, the phone calls for head coaching jobs will start coming sooner rather than later.
And why wouldn’t they? Week after week, Macdonald builds a game plan that suffocates the opposition. Other than a blip in a 31-24 win at Arizona last week when the Ravens acknowledged that at times they played passively with the lead, the Ravens’ defense at all three levels has been dominant.
Since a 27-24 win against Cincinnati in Week 2, the Arizona game marks the only time the Ravens have given up more than one touchdown in a game.
Through nine games, the Ravens have allowed 10 touchdowns — and one of those was on special teams. That matches the Ravens legendary 2000 defense for the fewest allowed in franchise history over the first nine games.
In their past two home games, facing two of the teams perceived to be among the NFC’s best, and facing veteran quarterbacks who have seen a lot in their NFL careers, Macdonald’s defense completely stymied them.
The Ravens collectively beat Detroit and Seattle — both leading their divisions — 75-9, and by the end, Lions quarterback Jared Goff and Seattle quarterback Geno Smith looked like they wanted to be anywhere other than at M&T Bank Stadium.
Smith finished 13-for-28 for 157 yards, with 50 of them coming on one play. On his final pass, Smith rolled out to the right, tried to escape pressure, couldn’t find anyone open, threw the ball away and kept running right off the field. It appeared he was ready to run right onto the team bus.
Smith finished with a passer rating of 49.3, his worst as a starter since 2014.
The pass rush was considered a major question mark entering the season, yet the Ravens lead the league in sacks with 35, including four in this game. The pressure is coming from all over, with stunts and slot blitzes and to be sure, some coverage sacks as well.
Macdonald, 36, was viewed as a rising star in the coaching profession when he left the Ravens and moved to Michigan as defensive coordinator for a season under Jim Harbaugh in 2021. There, Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo thrived, and then Macdonald returned to Baltimore with that coordinator experience, ready to show he could do it at the NFL level as well.
He is doing that week after week. As the wins pile up, and as one quarterback after another looks battered and defeated after facing Macdonald’s group, NFL owners and GMs are surely going to notice.
2. Kyle Van Noy and Jadeveon Clowney look re-energized in Baltimore.
In mid-August, Kyle Van Noy was working out in his yard with his son. Jadeveon Clowney was waiting for another shot after an acrimonious split with the Cleveland Browns. None of the league’s 32 teams, including the Ravens, had signed either of the 30-something edge rushers.
But with a lingering injury to Tyus Bowser and with injuries to both David Ojabo and Odafe Oweh, the Ravens came calling, first making a deal with Clowney in mid-August, and then with Van Noy about a month later. It’s fair to wonder where this defense would be without them.
They both played key roles in the Ravens’ dominant defensive effort against Seattle, with Clowney setting the tone early and Van Noy delivering a game-changing sequence late in the first half.
On Seattle’s second possession, Clowney hammered running back Kenneth Walker after a gain of 1 yard on second down, and then batted down Geno Smith’s pass on third down to force a punt.
Late in the second quarter, Odell Beckham Jr. fumbled the ball away with some careless mishandling, giving Seattle the ball at the Ravens’ 43. But Van Noy sacked Smith on back-to-back plays. On the second one, Van Noy reached a hand in and forced a fumble that was recovered by Ravens defensive lineman Broderick Washington. That led to a field goal by Justin Tucker for a 17-3 halftime lead.
“I think that’s the turning point in the game,” head coach John Harbaugh said.
Through nine games, Van Noy (5) and Clowney (3.5) have a combined total of 8.5 sacks; Van Noy is second on the team behind Justin Madubuike, who has 7.5, including another one in this game.
After signing with the Ravens, Van Noy and Clowney each said they felt they still had more to give, and something to prove, and they are doing that with the Ravens. And both appear to be having fun again, re-energized in Baltimore.
As he left the postgame news conference after the win against Seattle, Van Noy smiled and said, “Who needs training camp?”
3. Keaton Mitchell has a future in Baltimore.
Mitchell was already a great story as the second second-generation Raven; his father, Anthony, was a member of the Ravens 2000 Super Bowl team. But that would never be enough to hand the younger Mitchell a roster spot. He would need to earn that after being signed as an undrafted rookie out of East Carolina.
Despite running for more than 3,000 yards in three seasons at East Carolina, including 1,452 (and 14 touchdowns) as a junior, Mitchell never heard his name called in the draft. But when the Ravens called him after the draft ended, he weighed his other options and saw the Ravens as “the best fit.” The fact that his father had played for the team — also joining as an undrafted rookie — was a bonus.
As all undrafted rookies do, Mitchell faced long odds when training camp began. In a given year, the Ravens might sign up to 20 undrafted rookies, and only one or two typically make the 53-man roster.
And the Ravens were already returning a trio of running backs in J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill, with a running quarterback in Lamar Jackson. How could an undrafted rookie work his way onto the field in that crowd? The 5-foot-8, 191-pounder did it by showing vision, burst and an explosive second gear when he got into the open field.
That didn’t translate right away this season, because Mitchell suffered a shoulder injury late in the preseason and began the season on injured reserve. He had appeared briefly in two other games, but had not carried the ball; coming into this game, his only touch on offense had been a 9-yard jet sweep pass play.
But when his number was called in this game, all those skills were on display. He sparked the Ravens’ second touchdown drive with four runs totaling 37 yards, and then he exploded through a hole on the left side and raced 40 yards for a touchdown. He later added a 60-yard run after which he appeared to come up a bit gimpy, but he insisted after the game that he is fine.
Head coach John Harbaugh wasn’t exactly ready to anoint the rookie as the second coming of Walter Payton after one breakout game, but he noted that Mitchell is “a football-family kid. He’s a player’s son. … He’s been raised the right way. He’s humble. He works hard. He knows how hard it is.”
The challenge for Mitchell now, Harbaugh noted was that “now, [opponents] know who he is.”
After an impressive training camp, the Ravens were smart to retain Mitchell as one of two undrafted rookies to make the initial 53-man roster. (Linebacker Malik Hamm was the other.)
Both Dobbins and Edwards are pending free agents, so the Ravens’ running back room figures to have some turnover. True, it’s just one game, but Mitchell showed exactly how appealing his upside can be for this year, and in the future.
4. The passing weapons are important, but this team still wins on the ground.
Greg Roman and his run-first offensive system is long gone. The Ravens have brought in a stable of new receivers, giving quarterback Lamar Jackson the most versatile, potent passing game of his career. And yet, as the Ravens showed in this game, the ground game is still a winning formula for this team.
The Ravens’ offensive line manhandled a Seahawks team ranked No. 8 in the league in run defense, and that was with super-sub Patrick Mekari filling in for injured right tackle Morgan Moses. The Ravens won at the point of attack consistently. Gus Edwards barreled up the middle for two short-yardage touchdowns in the first half, then shed tackles on a 42-yard run in the third quarter to set up a field goal.
Keaton Mitchell found enough daylight to let his burst take over and leave Seahawks defenders in chase mode. On Mitchell’s 60-yard run in the fourth quarter, Tyler Linderbaum took out three different Seahawks, a couple of them 20 yards downfield.
And it all began with quarterback Lamar Jackson as a runner, or even as a threat of one. Jackson finished with 10 carries for 60 yards, including a 22-yard scramble and a few designed runs that set up the Ravens’ first score.
The Ravens finished with 298 rushing yards and averaged 7.3 yards a carry. It was an absolutely dominant effort starting up front. If there’s a concern, it’s that the Ravens again had ball security issues, with Jackson and Justice Hill botching a mesh-point exchange, not the first time that has happened.
This wasn’t supposed to be how the Ravens play any more, with Roman gone and Odell Beckham Jr., Zay Flowers and Nelson Agholor joining Mark Andrews, Rashod Bateman, Devin Duvernay and Isaiah Likely. This was supposed to be a passing attack now, right?
Some days, maybe it will need to be, and on those days, Jackson might need to be sharper on his deep ball, since he badly overthrew Bateman on two deep shots against Seattle. But those were just about his only misses; Jackson completed 80.8 percent of his passes (21-26), and he is completing passes at a 71.5 percent rate this year, easily the best of his career.
So Jackson is on target, and for the most part, on point as a passer this season. But the Ravens showed in this game that they are wise to lean on their old-school running game. It’s still what they do best.
5. AFC North teams just keep winning, making the next two weeks a critical test.
The Ravens have won four in a row, but they haven’t been able to gain much separation in the AFC North, which has an American League East flavor to it, with every team sporting a winning record.
Cincinnati (5-3) has also won four in a row, and Cleveland (5-3) and Pittsburgh (5-3) have each won three of their past four.
That raises the stakes for the next two weeks, as the Ravens return to the AFC North for back-to-back home games in a span of five days. The Ravens host Cleveland next Sunday, Nov. 12, then host Joe Burrow and the resurgent Bengals for a “Thursday Night Football” showdown on Nov. 16.
The Ravens have already beaten both teams on the road, winning 28-3 at Cleveland (without Deshaun Watson) and 27-24 at Cincinnati. Beating both at home would give them the season sweep and therefore the tiebreaker against either team. It would also give them some separation in a division where that has been hard to come by.
Of course, if the Ravens falter in one or both of those games, this four-game winning streak, and these dominant beatdowns of two NFC front-runners, will seem a distant memory. The balance of the AFC North could quickly shift.
The games all count, but the next two, at home, feel like they will count just a little bit more.
This story was updated after its original publication.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox