Browns are the latest victims of relentless Ravens.
Sunday, December 22, 2019, Cleveland, OH: Make no mistake: there has always been something motivating this year’s Ravens. At first, it was talk that the team could not coalesce behind second-year quarterback Lamar Jackson. Could he improve his passing and use his running talents enough to lift an entire offense–indeed, an entire franchise–out of mediocrity?
Once that question was quickly answered, the puzzle became this: Could a younger defense hold back some of the league’s good young quarterbacks, should as Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes or Cleveland’s Baker Mayfield? Things didn’t go very well in the beginning, and the team slumped to 2-2.
The next question was: Could the Ravens beat a quality team? Once adjustments were made in both roster and attitude, Baltimore reeled off a club-record ten straight wins to win the AFC North and put itself on the verge of the Ravens’ first-ever top playoff seed.
Sunday at Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium, the revenge tour began. Could the Ravens–fully loaded with talent and confidence–turn things around from their first meeting with the Browns and get a win? As has been the case throughout this season, the answer was an emphatic yes.
Baltimore earned a split in this year’s meetings with Cleveland–reversing a 15-point Week Four home loss to the Browns–with a 31-15 win before a loud bunch of sweep-hungry fans. But not only did the Browns fail to sweep the Ravens, they were also eliminated from playoff contention with the loss.
For now, that would leave the question concerning a win over the Kansas City Chiefs as the only unresolved one for this team. But the answer will have to wait until the postseason, possibly in the AFC Championship Game, a hurdle the Chiefs are also eager to clear.
Baltimore, with the top seed now firmly in hand long with its 11th straight win, must now deal with the question of what to do with its front-liner players in next week’s home regular-season finale against archrival Pittsburgh Steelers (Sunday, December 29, 1 p.m.).
Should the Ravens put their starters on the field at all … or, perhaps, just for a quarter or two as if it were a preseason game? Or should they sit out entirely, hoping to be full strength and good health for the Divisional (second) playoff round? Fortunately, that question won’t have to be answered right away.
On this Sunday, the Ravens tied a team single-season win record set in 2006 and avoided getting swept by the Browns for only the third time (and first since 2007). They did both by laying down their usual markers and playing their kind of football.
For one thing, Jackson was his usual self. He ran for 103 yards against the Browns, and the Ravens are now 14-0 when he rushes for 70 or more yards. Jackson also threw for three touchdowns to set the new team single-season record at 36. Finally, he played to a passer rating of over 120.
Another vexing matter for January foes concerns the Ravens’ defense, which has improved by leaps and bounds since its sieve-like performance against Cleveland in late September. The rush defense, which allowed league-leading rusher, Nick Chubb, to gain 165 yards at Baltimore at Week Four, has been revamped and did a much better job on Sunday against the back who is averaging over 100 yards per game. Chubb gained only 45 yards on 15 carries against a unit that had a healthy Brandon Williams on the field for this game, unlike the first meeting.
Sunday’s win benefitted from the work of punter Sam Koch, who had two punts that flipped field position late in the second quarter. Those kicks set the stage for a two-touchdown blitz–scores within 69 seconds of the halftime whistle. When the Ravens got the ball to open the third quarter, they added another touchdown to pull away from their hosts.
But Baltimore did not play a perfect game. The Ravens committed three defensive penalties that led to a short Baker Mayfield touchdown pass that opened the scoring. Jackson failed on a fourth-down pass to tight end Mark Andrews. And running back Mark Ingram fumbled for the team’s first opening-quarter turnover of the year.
Baltimore would overcome those gaffes. Jackson found Andrews for a 35-yard score through a busted coverage to put Baltimore in the lead. He then hit a leaping Andrews on the next drive as he outjumped a defender in the back of the end zone for a 14-6 halftime lead. The Ravens added a third score early in the third quarter after a 13-play, 69-yard drive, capping it off with Ingram’s 12-yard touchdown catch.
The Browns would draw within 24-15 on a scoring catch from Odell Beckham, Jr., who was shadowed more by Jimmy Smith than by Marlon Humphrey, as was the case in the first meeting. Inexplicably, Cleveland went for a two-point conversion and failed, and that took away momentum.
Rookie running back, Justice Hill, then ripped off an untouched 18-yard scoring run that ended another long drive and put the game–and home-field playoff advantage–on ice. The Browns had allowed 406 rushing yards the past two weeks, and the Ravens would add 243 on this day.
The Ravens are now poised to embark on a playoff run that will require opponents to come to Baltimore for an AFC title game. That happened in 1970 when the then-Colts took advantage of the situation, breezing through two opponents and winning Super Bowl 5.
For Ravens’ faithful, it’s high time to revisit Baltimore’s history.
