Baltimore can’t win AFC North and its playoff quest is in severe jeopardy.
Sunday, January 2, 2022, M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE. Sometimes, old lessons are learned. and endlessly re-learned. in the harsh light of a new year. They are so often regurgitated that, on many occasions, those that teach the lessons the first time around end up being harshly victimized by them.
In October, the Los Angeles Chargers came to Charm City with allegedly one of the NFL’s best teams. But a glaring logistical error – flying into Baltimore late on Saturday and not adjusting well to the time-zone change – contributed to the visitors’ sleepy blowout loss and the Ravens’ high-water benchmark performance of the season.
And the way this 2021 season has progressed, the illusory perception that the game provided has seemingly come full circle. Just as the Chargers didn’t have their physical welfare covered sufficiently, it was the injury- and COVID-riddled Ravens on this Sunday that had the tables turned back on them. It came by way of a rare home loss to a West Coast club, and it came at the worst possible time.
Despite a heroic defensive effort and an offense that played its traditional ball-control game to near-perfection, the Rams were able to overcome being outplayed by the Ravens for a 20-19 win before 70,328 fans. The loss effectively eliminated Baltimore from winning the AFC North Division, and the win put the visitors one step closer to winning the NFC West.
With the defeat, Baltimore fell to 8-8 and incurred its fifth straight loss in a season for the first time under head coach John Harbaugh. It is the longest skid since a club-record nine-game slide in 2007. Those long-ago Ravens broke that streak by beating the Pittsburgh Steelers on the season’s final week, and the very same opportunity awaits the current flock of Ravens next Sunday afternoon (Sunday, January 9, 1 p.m.).
Baltimore needs to win that game to have any chance of making the playoffs. But the focus nationally won’t be on the Ravens; it will be on quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. He’ll end his regular-season career in the same place where he began it when he filled in for injured starter Tommy Maddox in Week Two of the 2004 season.
Had Miami, Las Vegas, and the Los Angeles Chargers all won Sunday, that result, coupled with the Ravens’ loss, would have been enough to send Baltimore home to await the 2022 season. The Raiders won their game against the Colts and the Chargers were leading the Broncos at press time, but the Dolphins were blown out by the Tennessee Titans, 34-3. That outcome kept the Ravens hanging by a thread for one of the three wild-card spots.
That means there is something to play for next Sunday beyond the normal “win every game” mantra. And there is hope, largely because the Ravens’ much-maligned defense got several players back, including veteran cornerback Jimmy Smith.
On Sunday, the Ravens–a team that had produced just 11 takeaways all season long–turned over the Rams three times. The D also held down Matt Stafford’s impressive passel of receivers, including Cooper Kupp, who is in contention for a rare “Triple Crown” by leading the league in yards, catches, and touchdowns. Kupp caught six passes for 95 yards. But after his 18-yard touchdown catch in the second quarter, he did not make another play until his 21-yard catch-and-run in the fourth quarter that helped set up running back Sony Michel’s short touchdown run that brought the visitors to within 16-14.
Veteran strong safety Chuck Clark was the early defensive catalyst by notching two first-quarter interceptions, perfectly reading a pass to tight end Tyler Higbee and running it in for a 17-yard touchdown, then thwarting a long pass Beckham for his first multi-pickoff game of the year. It was his fourth and fifth interceptions for Stafford in a period spanning two games and 51 pass attempts.
“It was just something I saw on film individually,” Clark recalled. “We had that same play in practice and had a collision with somebody.”
In his first 77 career games, Clark had three previous interceptions, and his touchdown, remarkably, marked the Ravens’ first defensive score of the season. Baltimore had been one of seven teams leaguewide that didn’t have one going into Sunday.
As the clock wound down, Smith forced Rams’ running back Sony Michel into a loss on LA’s last-ditch drive. That play set up a fourth-down play with the Ravens leading, 19-14, and only a minute left in the game. Unfortunately for Baltimore, that play didn’t end the Rams’ quest. Stafford found newly-signed Odell Becckham, Jr. for a first-down conversion with only a yard to spare, and then again in the right flat for a go-ahead touchdown with 57 seconds to go, giving the visitors their first lead of the game.
The two-point conversion failed, leaving the Ravens needing only a Justin Tucker field goal to win; he already had four successful kicks on the day. But QB Tyler Huntley, who had done an excellent job sustaining ball-control-oriented drives all day (20-for-32, 197 yards, interception, five sacks, 66.8 rating), could not push the ball over midfield.
On offense, the Ravens put together scoring drives of 15, nine, 14, and 12 plays, and won the time-of-possession battle for the first time in four weeks–racking up 33:39 worth of time and, eventually, using Tucker’s leg and timely defense to sprint out to a 16-7 lead. And Mark Andrews’ 18-yard catch helped him set a new team single-season reception yardage mark. With six catches and 89 yards on the day, Andrews passed the late Michael Jackson’s 1996 record.
On the other side of the field, LAR was in danger of being shut out before halftime for the first time since the Ravens did it to them two years ago in a Monday-Night game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. But a miscommunication between Huntley and Marquise Brown led to an interception that set up Kupp’s pre-halftime score.
Tucker would answer with a pair of 46-yard field goals as the Ravens, who had only a dozen points off turnovers all year before Sunday, would add ten on this day. Linebacker Tyus Bowser, one of only two defensive players to start every game all season (Patrick Queen is the other), forced a Stafford fumble that Justin Houston recovered to end a third-quarter drive. The Ravens had corralled just four takeaways in the previous eight games before their trio of turnovers Sunday.
However, as usual, the Ravens did not escape the afternoon unscathed by issues and injuries. Reliable center Bradley Bozeman, one of three offensive linemen who had started every game all season, came up with a sudden pre-game illness. At the same time, he did dress for the game. Backup Trystan Colon replaced him. Only Bowser, Queen, Alejandro Villanueva, and Kevin Zeitler have started every game in this torturous season.
But as it turned out, nothing could prevent yet another stark dose of reality from hitting the hard-luck Ravens in the face.
Mark Andrews: I thought we were in control the whole game. When you control a game–the whole game–like I felt we did, it just hurts. We don’t do this thing for moral victories. (We are) the Ravens. We win games.
That is as about as blunt and harsh a lesson as any team can learn. And, this year, the Ravens have had to re-learn it time and time again.
