Ravens get first-ever road win over Colts.
Sunday, November 8, 2020: When the Baltimore Colts fell into decline in the early 1980s and eventually moved to Indianapolis, the whole story felt like one big, melodramatic soap opera. But that story pales in comparison to what the Ravens have gone through in the past seven days.
Despite this tumultuous period, the Ravens–on the same week when, 25 years ago the Colts’ departed for Indianapolis–beat the Colts in their new home.
Before Sunday, there were only four cities where the Ravens had never won in team history. But, after six previous tries, the team finally exorcised its Indianapolis demon at the season’s halfway point with a grinding 24-10 win before a limited Lucas Oil Stadium crowd of 12,200.
Since the midpoint of the 2017 season, the Ravens have registered their first-ever road wins in Green Bay, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, and Indianapolis. Despite only having played for 24 ½ seasons, that leaves only three teams over which the team has never gotten a regular-season road victory–New England, Minnesota, and Chicago.
The Ravens also dealt the Colts their first home loss in four games this year and registered a tenth straight road win–extending the league’s longest current streak.
John Harbaugh: I think they understand the gravity of that win. We’re going to be proud of that win. It took a lot of courage and mental toughness to win that game.
But the events that led up to this game left observers wondering if the team could maintain focus or remain healthy enough to be competitive.
Discontent has bubbled to the surface in wideout Marquise Brown and injured running back Mark Ingram (high ankle sprain). Things got exacerbated three plays into Sunday’s game when defensive tackle Calais Campbell (left calf strain) left and did not return with an injury that doesn’t appear to be long-term.
Speaking of injuries, the Ravens (6-2) must play the rest of this season with a reconfigured offensive line, thanks to ankle injuries incurred by right guard Tyre Phillips and left tackle Ronnie Stanley (a season-ending ailment).
What’s more, there is some doubt about whether the rest of the season will be played at all, given the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on the entire league. Only nine of the NFL’s 32 teams have not had any player, coach, or staff member test positive for the disease. The Ravens had largely skirted the biological bumps in the road until nose tackle Brandon Williams was deemed to have had contact with someone infected and cornerback Marlon Humphrey tested positive.
The coup de grace came earlier this week when seven other players who have had close contact with Humphrey were placed on the same list, putting their status for Sunday’s game against the Colts in doubt.
Fortunately for the team, linebacker Matthew Judon returned to practice before the weekend, and linebackers Patrick Queen, LJ Fort, Malik Harrison, and Tyus Bowser were cleared and put back on the roster for this game–as were safety DeShon Elliott and cornerback Terrell Bonds (practice squad). Fort would eventually be deactivated with a finger injury.
If the Ravens can avoid the hurdles provided by the virus and other physical ailments, they can begin the second half of their season next week with a relatively clean bill of health at New England (Sunday, November 15, 8:20 pm; WBAL-TV; WIYY-FM).
Should another set of problems crop up, the Ravens have proven resilient enough to adjust on the fly. Just as last year’s Ravens improved their defensive depth and effectiveness via a series of shrewd midseason moves, this year’s squad has had 22 players with 30 or more snaps over the last four weeks, three of them victories.
The defense’s versatility, depth, and strength were especially evident against the Colts (5-3). The unit slowed veteran quarterback Philip Rivers to a 25-for-43 day, 227 yards, an interception, and a 62.8 passer rating. Rivers was not sacked. He has only been taken down a league-low seven times in eight games. To be fair, Rivers (six touchdowns, one interception the past two weeks) was missing a few injured teammates, including standout veteran receiver TY Hilton, without whom the Colts are 1-10.
Don Martindale’s unit was especially brilliant in the third quarter.
Humphrey’s absence and the injured-reserve status of three other corners had led to Marcus Peters and the little-used Khalil Dorsey being the only healthy corners on the roster.
In the first half, the sleepy-looking Ravens punted five times in five drives with four first downs while gaining a mere 55 yards in offense, and even that was offset by 55 penalty yards and a 2-for-7 performance on third-down plays.
The Ravens’ only points came on a Marcus Peters strip–the seventh takeaway in which he has been involved this year–and Chuck Clark’s 65-yard fumble return for a game-tying score. It was Baltimore’s league-high 16th forced fumble this year and 21st straight game with a takeaway, seven short of the team record set between 1999-2001.
Marcus Peters: I think everybody just felt like we needed a sense of urgency on defense, We’ll be all right.
Under Lamar Jackson, the Ravens got no first-half offensive touchdowns was the 2018 Divisional playoff loss to the Los Angeles Chargers in January 2019. But after halftime, the Jackson-led unit had considerably less trouble than the Mayflower vans of 36 years ago. A more up-tempo approach seemed to wake up the Ravens, who were facing another top-five defense in the mold of Pittsburgh’s unit last week. But the Colts’ defense seemed to have more speed than that of the Steelers, so Jackson had to be more precise.
For his part, Jackson looked a lot sharper and more accurate than he has in recent weeks as he ran his career road record to 13-2 and his overall record to 25-5, matching Hall of Fame passer Dan Marino for the best-ever 30-game start to a career.
Gone were the sidearm throws and the uncertainty, as he completed 19 of 23 passes for 170 yards, including completions on all ten second-half throws. He was sacked twice but played to an above-average 97.5 passer rating, running for 58 yards on 13 carries.
The Ravens, who gained no ground yards in the first quarter, ended up rushing for 110 yards, well below their per-game average but still breaking the century mark for a 31st consecutive game. No individual runner gained more than Jackson, as the second-ranked Colts defense has not allowed a 75-yard individual rusher all year.
The first long drive of the second half ended without points as Gus Edwards was stripped of the ball inside the Colts’ 5. But after Peters intercepted a subsequent deep pass, the Ravens drove 54 yards in ten plays and let Edwards atone for his mistake by handing the ball to him on three straight plays before his one-yard plunge put the Ravens ahead to stay at 14-10.
A 75-yard, 14-play journey followed that, with JK Dobbins gaining four yards on a crucial fourth-and-3 play. Jackson capped it off with a planned nine-yard run around left end, assisted by a massive Mark Andrews clear-out block.
And at the final whistle, the Ravens and their fans could clear their lungs with a huge sigh of relief. Their latest soap-opera scenario had come to a happy conclusion. But there’s still half a season to go, so what possible obstacles could present themselves next?
As they say in the soap opera world, “Tune in tomorrow.”
