Hopkins missed a PAT, but his FG won it.
Sunday, November 12, 2023, M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE – College graduates are often counseled by older, wiser types with the words, “It’s a jungle out there.” There’s no more dense or perilous jungle in the NFL world than the humid, treacherous, rainforest-like thicket known as the AFC North Division. One slip, one wrong turn down a dark path, and one miscalculation can lead to an endless, fruitless odyssey in a vain search for safety and light.
Not that any further proof was needed of its toughness, but teams from the AFC North blew through their opposition undefeated in three of the last four weeks, winning 12 of 14 total games in that span. For the most part, the Cleveland Browns have most often gotten lost in this wilderness since returning to the NFL as an expansion team in 1999. They are the only one of the four teams in the division to have not won it since it formed in 2002. But after their 33-31 comeback win over the Ravens on Sunday afternoon before a stunned crowd of 70,424 fans, it appears that the Browns will, for once, not be the first to fall out of contention in what has been the league’s most challenging quartet.
Minutes after missing an extra point that would have tied the game, Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins nailed a 40-yard field goal into the west-end goalposts as the final seconds ticked away.
It was a surprisingly high-scoring game between two teams that featured some of the NFL’s highest-ranked defenses in many key categories. Yet, the back-and-forth nature of AFC North football was on full display. Going into Sunday, all four teams in the division were at least two games under .500, and the division had a cumulative record of 22-11, far and away better than that posted by the other seven races.
Sunday’s result was surprising because the Ravens (7-3), who saw their four-game winning streak broken, are not just the same franchise that has consistently had more talent than the Browns – enough to have beaten them 36 times in 50 games – but they have ascended to yet another level in 2023, one where a varied, hard-to-stop offense and trademark defense have truly made this one of the NFL’s best teams. Those traits were on display at times again Sunday, as the Ravens were bidding to win their fourth straight home game against the Browns (6-3) and complete their 14th sweep of Cleveland in the 25 seasons since the Ravens’ ancestral city returned to the league; it would have been the Ravens’ first sweep since 2020. Instead, the teams have now split ten times, and the Browns have swept the Ravens twice (2001, 2007).
The Ravens have to put this tough loss behind them quickly, as another division rival comes calling on Charm City this Thursday night when the Cincinnati Bengals visit to complete their annual two-game season series with Baltimore (Thursday, November 16, 8:15 p.m.; Amazon Prime).
The short turnaround between the two home division games will mean that just one AFC North clash remains for the Ravens, which won’t take place until the regular season’s final week. The Pittsburgh Steelers will visit Baltimore to close the campaign in a game that could have major postseason ramifications; the TV network, date, and time of that Week 18 game are yet to be announced. But for Cleveland, the ramifications of playing the Ravens usually involve a good chance of losing. On Sunday, that seemed apparent right away, thanks to a Baltimore squad that is the league’s best in the first quarter in points scored (76), points allowed (16), and differential (plus-60).
On the game’s second play, safety Kyle Hamilton – a pass-pocket presence all season long – deflected Deshaun Watson’s pass to himself and ran the ball 18 yards for his first career touchdown and second interception of the year just 40 seconds into the game. Surprisingly, it had been 27 games since the Ravens’ last interception runback for a score, the league’s third-longest streak. Plus, it was the second time this season that the Browns’ first pass attempt of a game was run back for six opposition points. Not surprisingly, the other occasion happened within the AFC North, against the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week Two.
The multi-faceted Ravens offense took over from there, with quarterback Lamar Jackson showing off his NFL-best accuracy on passes of nine yards to tight end Mark Andrews and 18 yards to wideout Rashod Bateman. Rookie running back Keaton Mitchell – the only 100-yard rusher in the league last week – scampered 39 yards down the left sideline to the end zone for a 14-0 Ravens lead with under five minutes elapsed.
Mitchell, playing with his father and former Raven safety and special-teamer Anthony Mitchell in attendance, has seemed to fill the marquee outside running threat formerly posed by the injured J.K. Dobbins, helping a Ravens rush offense coming into the weekend leading in yards per game (160.3), touchdowns (17) and first downs (85). And, despite the presence of backs like Jamal Lewis and Ray Rice, Mitchell is the first back in Ravens history to have scoring runs of 35 yards or more in each of his first two career games.
The Cleveland defense had come into this game ranked first in the league in overall defense (it hasn’t finished a season ranked there since 1955), yards per play allowed, and pass defense. Yet, for all its impressive stats – including allowing just ten points per game at home – the unit had allowed 29 points a contest on the road. The Ravens’ defense ranked just behind Cleveland’s in many categories before this game and stood ahead of everyone else, yielding just 13.8 points per game.
The Browns, missing three of their wide receivers and top three tackles up front, offered a meager rebuttal with Hopkins’ 36-yard field goal to get on the board, but the home team never broke stride. Mitchell was featured again, taking a swing pass 32 yards into Browns territory before Justin Tucker answered Hopkins’ kick with a 37-yarder of his own to restore the Ravens’ two-touchdown advantage.
And when Ja’DaVeon Clowney’s sack of Watson ended the next Browns drive, it gave the Ravens, the league leaders in sacks through nine weeks, a league-high and franchise-record 31st straight game with a sack and closed out yet another dominant first quarter at home with a 17-3 bulge. It was the most first-quarter points Baltimore had scored in its last 75 games.
The Browns could find some solace in their second-quarter point differential (plus-42), the league’s second-best, and their league-high 34-minute-per-game possession average. But despite outgaining the Ravens in that quarter, 119-41, the quickness of the Ravens’ pass rush forced Watson to struggle in the early going, misfiring on nine of his first 14 first-half passes; his passer rating was a mere 6.3 at that point (22.7 at halftime). As the second period began, a drive to the Ravens’ 12 stalled due to a holding penalty by one of the backup tackles, and Hopkins had to salvage it with a 28-yard field goal.
As is their tendency, the Browns imploded on defense by lining up with 12 men on a punt, giving the Ravens a fourth-and-2 and incentive to go for it. On the play, Cleveland was called for holding on an incomplete pass; just like that, the Ravens had a first down at the Browns’ 31. Tucker had a 55-yard field goal blocked by Jordan Elliott or more points would have surely resulted. They did come only through Hopkins’ 23-yard field goal with a minute to go before halftime. The Browns had driven to the Ravens’ 5, but a Baltimore defense that had allowed touchdowns on just nine of 105 drives all year – an 8.6 percent rate, not far off the 2000 unit’s 8.2 – and a league-low six scores through the air wouldn’t yield.
That certainly helped a Ravens team that, unlike the Browns, knows how to score touchdowns instead of field goals. The Browns couldn’t get into the end zone against Baltimore’s NFL-best red-zone unit, which had allowed only one-third of the touchdowns going into the game.
As the second half began, Baltimore drove 78 yards in six plays, finishing in the west end zone when Odell Beckham, Jr. took a Jackson slant pass 40 yards for his second touchdown in as many games and first against his former Cleveland teammates.
The visitors finally reached the end zone, but it took 17 plays, 75 yards, and over 10 minutes to accomplish that, with Kareem Hunt powering into the east end zone from three yards out. Watson ran in a two-point conversion, and the Browns were within 24-17 with just over two minutes left in the third period. The Ravens have led after three periods in all ten games this year. But despite that close margin, the main reason this game didn’t feel competitive at that point was the Browns’ mistake-prone ways.
As the fourth quarter began, former Raven returner James Proche muffed a punt, and Devin Duvernay fell on it at the Browns’ 12-yard line. Even when a third-down pass went incomplete, a Browns’ holding penalty gave the Ravens new life at the six. Justice Hill scampered into the end zone on the next play, but center Tyler Linderbaum was called for holding. Undaunted, Jackson threw the ball into the end zone, only to have it intercepted. However, the Browns were called for defensive holding in the end zone, so the home team got yet another chance from the five. The Ravens then loaded up on the goal line with monstrous tackles Ben Cleveland and Daniel Faalele – the latter in for an injured Ronnie Stanley – and Gus Edwards finally polished off the drive with a one-yard right-side plunge to restore the two-touchdown lead at 31-17.
The Ravens’ Rock Ya-Sin was flagged for pass interference on Cleveland’s next drive, setting up the Browns at the Ravens’ 10. Watson found Elijah Moore for a ten-yard touchdown to close the gap to seven with nine minutes remaining. Even when Greg Newsome intercepted a tipped Jackson pass and ran it back 32 yards for a touchdown, Cleveland misfired yet again when Hopkins’ extra-point kick sailed wide left; the Ravens still led 31-30 with eight minutes to go.
But thanks to numerous clutch passes to tight end David Njoku and clutch runs by Hunt, the Browns wore down the Ravens’ defense. They got into position to steal the lead – and the game – at the very end from a Baltimore squad that has trailed for less than 29 minutes all year, about 60 minutes fewer than Kansas City, the second-place team in that category.
The Browns had been stranded in the AFC North jungle on many dismal afternoons in the past. For one day, at least, they navigated their way through the purple jungle and came out smiling on the other side.
