BALTIMORE — Game-changing plays have been few and far between for the Ravens’ defense this year, but despite being gashed all night by Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, the embattled defense turned in two of the biggest plays of the game as the Ravens outlasted the Bengals, 35-34, in a big AFC North showdown at M&T Bank Stadium on Nov. 7.
Marlon Humphrey forced a third-quarter fumble that gave the Ravens’ offense a badly needed spark, and Lamar Jackson and company responded with 21 straight points to erase their biggest deficit of the season.
Then after Chase caught his third touchdown pass in the game’s final minute, safety Ar’Darius Washington broke up a two-point conversion as the Bengals played for the win rather than overtime.
Chase caught 11 passes for a whopping 264 yards and three scores for the Bengals (4-6), who were without receiver Tee Higgins (quad). Quarterback Joe Burrow threw for 428 yards and four touchdowns.
Yet the Ravens’ offense led by Lamar Jackson was able to trade blows with Burrow and the Bengals, and they needed to, given the state of the Ravens’ defense.
Unveiling their new alternate purple helmets for the “Thursday Night Football” showdown, the Ravens’ offense didn’t match the luster of the uniform early. The Ravens’ top-ranked offense was held to a season-low seven points and 102 yards in the first half.
The Ravens (7-3) had fallen behind 21-7 early in the third quarter — their largest deficit in more than two years — and looked so disjointed offensively that fans rained boos down as the offense left the field.
But then on the Bengals’ next possession, Humphrey ripped the ball from Bengals running back Chase Brown, and Roquan Smith recovered at the Bengals’ 31-yard line.
“That kind of woke us up,” Jackson said. “I feel like we were asleep that whole first half.”
Indeed, that sparked the Ravens to 28 points in a span of 17 minutes, which included a couple of dazzling plays along the sideline.
Four plays after Smith recovered the fumble, Jackson took a snap on second-and-9 from the Bengals’ 11-yard line. He was pressured and retreated all the way to the 30-yard line looking for a passing option. When one wasn’t available, he kept the ball and weaved along the sideline, dodging attempts to push him out of bounds, before being tackled at the 1.
NFL’s NextGen Stats determined that Jackson had run a total of 58 yards on the play.
“It felt like that play lasted about 30 seconds,” tight end Mark Andrews said. “Everyone is just scrambling around, and then of course, [Jackson] gets a huge gain. … Man, he’s incredible.”
On the next play, Derrick Henry powered in from the 1-yard line to cut Cincinnati’s lead to 21-14.
After the Ravens forced a punt — the Bengals opted against a 57-yard field-goal attempt — they took over at their own 8-yard line. Three plays later, Jackson dumped a pass to the left flat for little used receiver Tylan Wallace, who tight-roped up the left sideline. He dodged attempts from two Bengals to push him out of bounds, then avoided his former teammate Geno Stone and raced 84 yards for a touchdown.
Justin Tucker missed the ensuing extra-point, though, so the Bengals retained the lead at 21-20.
After getting a turnover on downs, the Ravens took over and Jackson led the Ravens to a go-ahead score when he hit Andrews on an 18-yard score. Jackson’s two-point conversion gave the Ravens their first lead at 28-21 with 5:50 left.
Fans hadn’t even sat down after celebrating that score when Chase blew past Brandon Stephens and Burrow hit him in stride for a 70-yard touchdown that tied the game again.
The Ravens methodically drove for the go-ahead score again, which came when Jackson threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Rashod Bateman with 1:49 left.
That felt like a lot of time for Burrow, Chase and the Bengals, and it was. The Ravens offered an assist with 35 yards in penalties on the drive, but with 38 seconds left, Burrow found Chase running across the back of the end zone for the receiver’s third touchdown of the day.
The Bengals opted to keep the offense on the field and play for the win, but this time, the Ravens’ defense delivered, as Washington broke up a pass intended for Hudson.
“Good, tight coverage,” Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said. “He’s square, he’s in front, he’s getting his hands on people, he’s not backing up, not opening the gate. You’re down there in that low red zone area; you can’t give up a goal line. You just can’t do it. … That was good coverage.”
Here are five quick impressions of the game, which improves the Ravens to 9-0 at home under Harbaugh on “Thursday Night Football:”
1. The offense continues to have no margin for error, and that’s not sustainable.
It’s a good thing Lamar Jackson continues to play at an MVP level, because the Ravens need every bit of it to stay afloat with the way the defense is playing.
Jackson, as he has done so often in his career, simply dazzles. He’s a potential highlight-reel play every time he touches the ball, and sure enough, his slalom weave, tiptoe down the right sideline — probably the most electric 10-yard run in the league this season — is a play nobody else in the league would even consider.
Jackson said he was mad he didn’t score on the play, but Derrick Henry did one play later.
Jackson finished with a quarterback rating of 141.4, completing 25 of 33 passes for 290 yards and four touchdowns. And the Ravens barely snuck out with a win. It underscores the fact that until the defense starts to get stops consistently, the Ravens need every bit of this from Jackson.
He has been remarkable — with 24 touchdowns and just two interceptions in the first 10 games — and a passer rating for the season of 123.2. That’s the best in the league, and 10 points higher than the best of his career, set in his MVP season of 2019.
In other words, he’s playing nearly flawlessly, and it’s barely enough.
2. The Ravens’ defense still has no answers in the middle of the field.
Ja’Marr Chase had the middle of the field all to himself on a 70-yard touchdown pass that tied the game at 28 in the fourth quarter, but that was just the most obvious and pronounced continuation of a glaring trend for the Ravens this season: They aren’t really stopping anybody in the middle of the field.
Early in the game, Joe Burrow had his way tossing quick slants or curl routes on third down, as his receivers found open space across the middle.
To the Ravens’ credit, pressure created problems for Burrow early, and he was forced off his spot and to throw under duress more often than he would have liked. Nnamdi Madubuike finished with three sacks.
But this is an equal opportunity problem for the Ravens: linebackers aren’t covering the middle of the field in short and intermediate ranges, and safeties and cornerbacks aren’t covering it deep.
It certainly is showing up on tape, and teams are attacking that area of the field, and will continue to attack that area of the field, until the Ravens find a way to stop it. Ten games in, they haven’t done it yet.
“That’s something that we’re going to take a lot of time tomorrow to look at,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “We have been looking at it, and obviously, we’re not there yet, so we have to turn over every stone on that as a defensive staff, and we have to figure out a way to stop those plays from happening, because they shouldn’t be happening.”
3. The Ravens have to hope Kyle Hamilton’s injury isn’t too serious.
When Kyle Hamilton crumpled to the turf without contact, fans and teammates feared the worst and a hush fell over M&T Bank Stadium. Hamilton ultimately limped off under his own power, and after the game head coach John Harbaugh said Hamilton was dealing with a sprained ankle that was “not a serious” injury.
There might not be a defensive player the Ravens can less afford to lose than Hamilton, given his versatility and physicality. He finished with four tackles and two passes defensed, including a screen pass that he batted down. It was reminiscent of the pass he picked off and returned for a touchdown against Cleveland last year, but this time he hit the ball so squarely that it fell to the ground rather than up in the air.
Without Hamilton, the Ravens will lean more on Arthur Maulet in the slot and Ar’Darius Washington at safety. They both have had their moments, and Washington came up with the big breakup on the two-point conversion at the end of the game.
But Hamilton as much as anyone holds this struggling defense together. It’s too early to know whether Hamilton will be able to play at Pittsburgh in 10 days, but the Ravens need to hope he can be back sooner rather than later.
4. The Bengals did just enough to lose.
It’s hard to fault the Bengals offensive scheme when one receiver goes for 264 yards and three touchdowns.
Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said he tried to find Ja’Marr Chase after the game and couldn’t, and joked that was fitting because the Ravens didn’t really find him during the game, either.
But the Bengals also made a few very curious calls that gave the Ravens a huge assist. The most notable came in the fourth quarter when the Bengals were driving with a 21-20 lead. Facing third-and-2 from the Ravens’ 34, Burrow aired out a deep ball that overshot Chase down the right sideline. Then on fourth-and-2, Burrow tried to throw deep for Jermaine Burton and overthrew him.
The Ravens took over on downs and went 65 yards in seven plays for the go-ahead score.
Keep in mind, earlier in the game, Burrow and the Bengals had routinely been moving the chains with short passes or slants in the middle of the field. It was there all night. Yet on this drive, with a chance to march down the field and add to the lead, the Bengals instead took two low-percentage deep shots (though maybe any ball to Chase against the Ravens shouldn’t be considered “low-percentage”).
The Bengals had seen how best to move the chains over the previous 45 minutes, and then they simply got away from it.
“Those are progressions, and if you get a one-on-one shot, we are taking that all the time,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “Just because it is third-and-2 or fourth-and-2, they are dropping everybody underneath trying to take away the underneath stuff, so you either take your shot, or you wait for other stuff to clear out over the top.”
Earlier in the game, Burrow had aired out a deep ball to Burton on fourth-and-3 and it fell incomplete.
Taylor might have thought taking the shot was the prudent play, but the Ravens should thank him for bypassing the layups when he had them.
They should also thank the Bengals for their seeming aversion to tacking near the sideline, as at least six Bengals were within striking distance on sideline runs by Lamar Jackson and Tylan Wallace and never pushed them out or got them down.
5. This loss should finish the Bengals. The AFC North is a two-horse race.
With the win, the Ravens have essentially turned the AFC North into a two-horse race. The Ravens (7-3) are three games ahead of the third-place Bengals (4-6), and it’s really 3 ½ games because the Ravens own the tiebreaker by virtue of their head-to-head season sweep.
Now the Ravens can enjoy the mini-bye reward that comes with playing on Thursday night, and then they will focus on their trip to Pittsburgh next Sunday in a showdown for first place in the division.
The Steelers (6-2) play at surprising Washington (7-2) this week.
Historically, Jackson has not played well against the Steelers. His passer rating against Pittsburgh (66.8) is the lowest against any team. And the Steelers have won seven of the past eight meetings between the teams.
But as so often has been the case, it looks as if it will be Harbaugh and Tomlin, Ravens and Steelers, down the stretch in this division. Buckle up.
Photo Credit: Shawn Hubbard/Baltimore Ravens