The Ravens fell at Paycor Stadium to the host Cincinnati Bengals, 27-16, to end their regular season at 10-7, a two-game improvement over last year. The teams will meet again at the same venue next Sunday evening. Kickoff is set at 8:15p, and NBC will televise the game. The Bengals ended up as the No. 3 AFC seed, and the Ravens came in at the No. 6…
-It will mark the first time the Ravens and Bengals will meet in postseason play and the first time Baltimore will take on a first-round playoff opponent it met the previous week in the regular-season finale. Baltimore has met Pittsburgh four times in the postseason, winning once, and has not played Cleveland in the playoffs…
-Cincinnati (12-4), now 12-1 when scoring 20 or more points, got off to a hot start against the understaffed, banged-up Ravens, converting three first-half Baltimore turnovers into touchdowns (a season-high four for the game after only 17 giveaways in the first 16 games). The Ravens, a team not very proficient at coming from behind, went without a third-quarter touchdown for a ninth straight game and ended the season having lost three of their last four games after a 7-2 midseason spurt…
-The Bengals, who finished the season on an eight-game win streak after a 4-4 start, won the division for the second straight year and sixth time overall, tied with Baltimore for second-most since the division was formed in 2002. Pittsburgh has won it nine times, and Cleveland hasn’t won it. The Browns haven’t won a division title since the old AFC Central in 1989; that version of the team moved to Baltimore seven years later…
-Remarkably, this game marked the tenth time in 27 seasons the Ravens will end the regular-season schedule against the Bengals, and the eighth time in ten, the game took place in Cincinnati. Before the in-division final-week mandate went into place in 2010, the Ravens closed only the 1997 season in the Q. An City. A Bengals win in Maryland grad Boomer Esiason’s final game. But the two have been frequent final-week dance partners since the 2010 change…
-Due to the Ravens’ earlier win this season at home over the Bengals, Baltimore was going for its third sweep against Cincinnati in the last four years. The Ravens lead the all-time regular-season series, 28-26, and have eight sweeps to Cincinnati’s seven. There have now been 12 splits between the teams. The Ravens have played Cincinnati and Pittsburgh more than any other opponents (54 games each) in regular-season play…
-With the second-place finish, the NFL schedule rotation will provide the Ravens with the following list of 2023 opponents: HOME: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles Rams, Seattle, Miami (placement game), NFC North second-place teams to be determined (placement games); and AWAY: Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Arizona, San Francisco, Los Angeles Chargers (placement game)…
-The usual perception is that preseason results have no bearing on the regular season. Yet, the Ravens have won every preseason game since the start of 2016 (an NFL-record run of 23 straight); in that span, the Ravens have been to the playoffs four times, narrowly missing twice…
-During the game, running back Gus Edwards left in the second quarter and went into concussion protocol, and did not return; with Dobbins already out, that left kick returner Justice Hill and Kenyon Drake as the top available backs. In addition, Roquan Smith, the sparkplug linebacker acquired at the trade deadline, left briefly with what appeared to be a stiger but returned…
-Six Ravens have started every game this year, three on each side of the ball (Tyler Linderbaum, Ben Powers, Morgan Moses, Chuck Clark, Marlon Humphrey, Patrick Queen). Last year, only four Ravens could say that: Queen, Tyus Bowser, Kevin Zeitler, and Alejandro Villanueva…
-The Ravens have scored first 12 times in 16 games this year, winning eight of those games. On Sunday in Cincinnati, the Bengals drew first blood for the ninth time this year on a 34-yard field goal with just over five minutes left in the first quarter; the kick capped off a 17-play drive. Cincinnati led after one quarter, 10-0, having not allowed a first-quarter touchdown in its last ten games…
-Baltimore came into this game having gone 12 straight games without scoring a first-drive touchdown, the league’s second-longest current streak behind Green Bay. Also, the score was 24-7 in the Bengals’ favor at halftime, the Ravens’ 94th straight game without getting shut out in the opening two quarters, the AFC’s longest and the league’s second-longest streak behind the Los Angeles Rams (100). However, the Ravens nearly got blanked in the first half until Kenyon Drake scored on a four-yard touchdown run just after the two-minute warning…
-After getting out-rushed by Pittsburgh last week, the Ravens outran the Bengals by a margin of 110-55. Baltimore had gone 14 years without getting out-rushed, a franchise record snapped by the Steelers…
-After a series of quickly-played games that lasted less than three hours, this game in Cincinnati was the Ravens’ longest of the year at three hours and 22 minutes, beating the home-opening loss to Miami by two minutes…
-Baltimore entered the weekend tied for the league’s fewest penalties and didn’t commit one until the second quarter. For the game, the Ravens were flagged five times for 22 yards. This season, the Ravens have committed 11 defensive pass interference penalties, the league’s third-most…
-The Ravens came into this game with 12 straight games of two or more sacks, the league’s longest current streak. Sunday against Cincinnati, the streak continued as rookie David Ojabo forced a Joe Burrow fumble on a sack – the first quarterback takedown of his NFL career – and Justin Houston recorded one for his first in the last seven games…
-Ravens quarterback Tyler Huntley didn’t practice all week. He missed this game with shoulder tendinitis and a wrist injury, leaving undrafted free agent Anthony Brown, a rookie from Oregon making his first career start in only his second game, to begin the game…
-Brown completed 19 of 44 passes for 286 yards and two interceptions while being sacked four times, but his first toss of the day was a badly-overthrown interception, after which the Bengals converted into a touchdown. Later, the Bengals scored again when a three-man rush caused Brown to fumble in the end zone…
-The Ravens’ wide receiver corps ended another ignominious season by catching only five of 17 balls targeted for them in this game, including several drops. A receiving highlight was rookie draft pick Charlie Kolar, who got on the year-end stat sheet by gathering in four passes for 49 yards…
-Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow hit on 25 of 42 passes for 215 yards and a touchdown. He passed the 35-touchdown pass mark, breaking his single-season franchise record, and he has thrown at least one scoring pass in 23 straight games. Last year, in the home game against Baltimore, Burrow threw for a franchise-record 525 yards in Cincinnati’s win…
-Ravens kicker Justin Tucker extended his field-goal streak at Paycor Stadium to 17 straight when he booted a 51-yard field goal late in the third quarter. He has not missed at the former Paul Brown Stadium since his rookie season in 2012. The streak reached 18 early in the fourth quarter on a 27-yard kick…
-The Ravens wore their purple pants with the traditional road white jerseys, a combination they have worn four times this year. Baltimore is now 13-6 lifetime when wearing this combination…
-Bengals standout rusher Joe Mixon led the hosts with 27 yards on 11 carries. Baltimore’s defense had not allowed a 100-yard rusher in 24 straight games before Pittsburgh’s Najee Harris gained 111 yards on 22 carries in last Sunday’s game. The Ravens once had a 50-game defensive streak preventing such rushing performances between 1999-2001, a run broken by Cincinnati running back Corey Dillon…
-The Ravens have now scored points in 336 straight regular-season games, the league’s longest current streak and just 84 short of the NFL record set by San Francisco (1977-200In addition, the Ravens haven’t been shut out since Week 2 in 2002, a home-opening, 25-0 defeat at the hands of that year’s eventual Super Bowl champions, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Among current streaks, Carolina (327 games) and Pittsburgh (263) are second and third behind Baltimore…
