The satisfying 24-16 win follows last weekend’s disappointing road loss to the Steelers. Lions are next.
Sunday, October 15, 2023, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London: The five-hour time difference between Baltimore and London is not exactly the same as between night and day. But to the Baltimore Ravens, it might as well be, considering the results of the team’s two-lifetime trips to England’s capital.
Sunday, the Ravens finished a much-better-adjusted week of logistics, practice, and play across the pond with a grind-it-out 24-16 win over the designated-host Tennessee Titans to raise their record to 4-2 in front of 61,011 fans.
Justin Tucker had his most productive day of the season, kicking six field goals in a surprising but profitable display of conservative head-coaching decisions by John Harbaugh. The defense contributed with six sacks, holding the Titans to 1-for-9 on third-down plays.
Six years ago, Baltimore was assigned to play one of the NFL’s International Series games at Wembley Stadium, one of the last teams to go overseas for the first time. It was, to say the least, an unmitigated disaster. Besides not arriving in London until late Thursday and dealing with jet lag and long travel distances between practice fields and the hotel, the Ravens made a sleepy effort in a 44-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars–a team that is contractually obligated to play one game in the British capital every year.
On top of that, the game had an unexpected but significant outcome. Approximately 10-12 Ravens knelt during the American national anthem. This gesture angered many fans at a time when ex-San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick same gesture attempted to bring awareness to various issues concerning minorities. The Ravens, a team that can boast one of the loudest home-field advantages in the league, played in front of thousands of empty seats at M&T Bank Stadium for the remainder of that season.
Furthermore, that loss was tied for the biggest Harbaugh-era margin of defeat. Plus, if the Ravens hadn’t scored a touchdown with just three minutes remaining, their long points-scoring streak would have ended at 240 games. That streak now stands at 342, the fifth-longest in history and just 78 behind the NFL record 420 set by San Francisco (1977-2004). The Ravens have only been shut out twice in team history, not at all since the 2002 Week 2 home opener against eventual Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay, 25-0.
This time around, the Ravens flew over on Monday, got in a solid week of practice, played at a different venue (Tottenham Hotspur Stadium), and put temporary brakes on a slide that had seen them lose two of their last three games in head-scratching fashion, forfeiting control of the AFC North Division in the process.
A big edge Baltimore had on Sunday was that the Titans, like the 2017 Ravens, didn’t fly over to London until Friday, not letting their body clocks adjust adequately enough to get off to a good start. It certainly showed.
But with the win, the Ravens re-assumed the division lead over the idle Pittsburgh Steelers in advance of what could be a challenging homecoming game — their first home game in a month — against the resurgent Detroit Lions (Sunday, October 22, 1 p.m.; WBFF-TV, WIYY-FM). Baltimore — which has trips to Phoenix, Los Angeles, and San Francisco to deal with later in the season — again elected not to take its bye week immediately after its London game, a choice that could come back to bite them against the Lions.
But they will worry about that over the course of the week after basking in the glow of redemption in England. The victory was not just important in the international sense, but it came against a team that has served as one of the Ravens’ biggest rivals since their 1996 birth. The all-time regular-season series between the Titans and Ravens is now tied at 11 wins apiece, with the teams now having traded wins for six consecutive meetings. Also, the road team has won all five postseason games between these two.
Tennessee (2-4) is one of three teams with which the Ravens are tied all-time; Miami (8-8) and Seattle (3-3), two opponents visiting Baltimore later this year, are the others. The Ravens have lifetime edges on 20 NFL teams and are trailing against only eight others.
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (21-for-30, 223 yards, touchdown, interception, sack, 88.6 rating), coming off his first game completing less than 70 percent of his passes, looked sharp as the Ravens attempted to wear down the Titans early, completing passes to four different receivers in a drive that ended with Tucker’s game-opening 41-yard field goal. Jackson opened the game going 7-for-7 to seven other targets.
One of the cover men Jackson picked on was Titans corner Kristian Fulton, who had allowed a whopping 267 yards in coverage coming into the game. Moreover, defensive tackle Denico Autry, one of the league’s best interior pass rushers, couldn’t get near the slippery Jackson in the pocket. What also didn’t help the Titans was that the Ravens were healthier than at any time since the season opener, with both starting tackles (Ronnie Stanley, Morgan Moses) suiting up, as well as everyone in the secondary and on the much-ballyhooed wideout corps.
Ironically, the only starter missing was edge rusher Odafe Oweh, who spent part of his boyhood years in Scotland, denying him an on-field homecoming.
Oweh was missed on the Titans’ first drive, as pass-interference calls on Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Williams — both while covering standout receiver DeAndre Hopkins (one catch, 20 yards) — helped the Titans even the game at 3-all on Nick Folk’s 26-yard field goal, the first opening-drive points the Ravens have allowed this year.
The Ravens have allowed only two field goals and no touchdowns in the first quarter this year, and their traditional stinginess helped against a Titans offense that is fourth-worst in the red zone all season. But with both teams fielding top-five red-zone defenses this year, the early field-goal exchange was somewhat predictable.
Even though the Ravens’ offense ranks just 17th under Jackson (62 yards, 13 rushes), its lowest under him, a 32-yard pass to Odell Beckham, Jr. and a 14-yarder to Nelson Agholor, preceded two tough Gus Edwards runs in a bid to re-take the lead. Tucker did just that, finishing the nine-play journey with a 28-yard field goal.
The early three-pointer pace was plodding on the whole, but a 126-40 Ravens yardage edge (242-66 at the half), plus the fact that Titans back Derrick Henry had just six carries for 13 yards after two quarters, portended the result even though he would rally to get 97 yards on a dozen attempts.
Tennessee averaged only 17 points per game, the seventh-worst in the league, before Week Six. Moreover, the Titans have gone 24 straight games without reaching 30 points, the league’s longest streak and a franchise record. Usually, a special-teams play breaks open a game like this, and Ravens punt returner Devin Duvernay tried to provide it with a 70-yard runback to the Titans’ 17.
But Tennessee smartly smelled out a Jackson keeper, dumping him for a four-yard, third-down loss, and Tucker’s 23-yard field goal made it 9-3 five minutes into the second quarter.
A big reason the Ravens controlled the line of scrimmage so well was their stifling of standout Titans defensive lineman Jeffrey Simmons (one first-half tackle), frustrating him to the point where he was flagged for a shove on Beckham.
Not long after that, rookie wideout Zay Flowers (50 yards, six catches, touchdown), the NFL co-leader with 29 catches without a touchdown, found the end zone on a ten-yard play for his first pro score and only the sixth passing touchdown Tennessee had allowed all season.
The extra point was blocked — only the eighth missed conversion in the Ravens’ 28-season history — but Baltimore led 15-3. With the league’s second-best scoring defense, allowing just 15 points per game through five weeks, the game was practically over before the half.
Ravens special teams ace DelShawn Phillips made sure of that, falling on a Titans’ punt muff at the Tennessee 11 with one second left. Tucker booted home a 29-yarder for his fourth field goal and an 18-3 intermission lead.
The Titans attempted to rally behind Henry’s 64-yard run that set up a field goal and an interception and subsequent Kyle Hamilton helmet hit (for which he was ejected) that led to Henry’s 15-yard touchdown run — the first rushing score Baltimore has allowed all year — that closed the gap to five points midway through the third period.
But, with a chance to grab the lead, Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill got greedy, and his next deep pass was picked off by Ravens deep safety Geno Stone, his second of the year.
Momentum quickly swung to where it had been most of the day, as the Ravens drove 54 yards on 13 plays, getting a fifth field goal from Tucker for a 21-13 bulge as the final quarter began. Tennessee couldn’t rally behind second-year backup quarterback Malik Willis, who had to fill in for Tannehill (twisted ankle) and got sacked four times during his last-ditch shift. Tucker further sealed the Titans’ fate with a 36-yard field goal at 4:16. Justin Madabuike and Ja’DaVeon Clowney had two sacks each, and Patrick Queen and Kyle Van Noy got one apiece.
For once, the Ravens and their fans could look back on a London game as a positive experience, the difference between night and day. Now the Lions come calling in what’s sure to be one of the NFL’s feature games of the week.
