Baltimore is 7-2 for the fourth time in 28 seasons. Browns are next.
Sunday, November 5, 2023, M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE – Exactly two decades ago, the Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens met in Charm City and played the highest-scoring game in the latter’s franchise history. Sunday, there wouldn’t be a repeat of that 44-41 overtime shootout the Ravens won.
Baltimore hunkered down in front of 70,753 frenzied fans and got more workmanlike against a likely Super Bowl contender, the franchise’s 250th lifetime win, coming in head coach John Harbaugh’s 250th game at the helm.
The victory raised Baltimore’s AFC North-leading record to 7-2, with the Ravens reaching that record at the start of a season for only the fourth time in the team’s 28-season history (2006, 2012, 2019). On the other three occasions, the Ravens went on to win the division, taking the franchise’s second Super Bowl title in 2012. More recent versions of the Ravens had gotten off to 6-2 starts in four of the past five seasons, including the current campaign, but, except in 2019, they mainly had not managed to match what the aforementioned teams had done and get that seventh win as the season neared the halfway mark.
But with the extra cushion at the top of the division, the Ravens can further cement their status with another AFC North sweep of the Cleveland Browns next week as the team’s three-game homestand continues (Sunday, November 12, 1 p.m. on FOX.
Even though the game against Cleveland – part of a season-ending stretch that, despite being the league’s toughest remaining schedule, sees the team play six of nine games at home – will mark the Ravens’ 50th-lifetime clash with their North rivals, it won’t carry nearly the significance of Sunday’s seventh-ever game with the Seahawks, against whom the Ravens now hold a 4-3 lifetime edge. Baltimore also has a lifetime winning regular-season record against 21 of the other 31 NFL teams; it trails against eight others and is tied with the Tennessee Titans (11-11) and Miami Dolphins (8-8), a team visiting Charm City later this year. The Ravens drew even in their series with the Titans last month when the sides met in London.
The Seahawks (5-3), who took over the NFC West Division lead last week on the heels of San Francisco’s three-game losing streak, presented a challenge to the Ravens. Consider this. Coming into the game, Seattle had the third-ranked running game, the third-ranked red-zone offense, a strong pass rush (26 sacks, the league’s fifth-most), a defense that allowed just 19 points per game, a tendency to not fumble (having lost only two going into this game), and kick-and-punt-coverage units that rank among the league’s top five.
However, the Ravens eviscerated Seattle to the tune of 298 rushing yards, 515 total yards, 29 first downs, and nearly seven yards per play. On defense, the Ravens held the visitors to six first downs, 1-for-12 on third-down conversion attempts, and under 20 minutes of possession while getting four sacks to raise their league-high total to 35.
The game started slowly as the Ravens couldn’t move it from deep in their own end, but Jordan Stout’s 66-yard punt was covered well by a Baltimore punt-coverage unit that had been allowing a league-worst 16 yards per return. Justin Madabuike added to his team-leading total with his seventh sack of the year to force another punt; he leads a defense with a league-high 13 players with at least one quarterback takedown. The Ravens then went up-tempo and finally drove the ball past midfield thanks to first-down catches from backup tight end Isaiah Likely and 31st-birthday celebrant Odell Beckham, Jr. (56 yards, five catches, touchdown). Tight end Mark Andrews (80 yards, nine catches) got another first down as a rather even first quarter ended.
Going into this game, the Ravens had run the ball only 11 more times than they had passed it this season, and the deceptive mix continued in the second period. Quarterback Lamar Jackson ran for ten yards, then threw to Andrews for nine more. Two plays later, Gus Edwards – coming off a three-touchdown performance in Arizona – powered up the middle for a four-yard touchdown and the game’s first points. The 12-play, 81-yard drive featured seven runs and five passes, a trademark Baltimore possession, and it helped the home team be the first to put its stamp and break away from the initial stalemate. For Edwards, it was his sixth rushing score of the year and fifth in his last 32 carries, an eye-popping ratio.
The defense would step up right away, as Seattle quarterback Geno Smith, a collegiate star at nearby West Virginia a decade ago, was picked off by namesake Ravens safety Geno Stone for his league-leading sixth pickoff of the year, three short of the single-season Ravens record set by Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed in 2004 and 2008. It was Smith’s sixth interception in his last four games and Stone’s fourth straight game with a snag of an opposing quarterback.
Jackson then ran for 23 yards into Seahawks territory before he had the ball stripped from him for the ninth time and the sixth recovered by an opponent. But thanks in part to an Odafe Oweh sack, the visitors couldn’t take advantage of the turnover. The Ravens then went up-tempo again but kept it mostly on the ground, getting three carries for 29 yards from rookie Keaton Mitchell, son of ex-Ravens safety Anthony Mitchell, who played on the Super Bowl 35 title team. Jackson added an 11-yard run, and Mitchell added eight more before a defensive penalty set up the home team with a first-and-goal at the Seahawks’ 3. Edwards finished the ten-play, 84-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown and a 14-0 lead with just over two minutes left before halftime.
The Ravens’ rush offense had already been averaging 143 yards per game, the league’s third-best rate, and the team went over 100 as a team for a 25th straight contest. All this was accomplished despite the offensive line seeing its streak of three consecutive games with an intact unit snapped. Right tackle Morgan Moses was inactive with a shoulder injury, and the versatile Patrick Mekari filled in for him.
The Seahawks got their first breakthrough of the game as Smith found D.K. Metcalf with a 50-yard pass to threaten the Ravens’ goal line. But nose tackle Michael Pierce – coming off his incredible game in Arizona – knocked down a third-down pass at the line, forcing Seattle to settle for Jason Myers’ 33-yard field goal, his 24th straight game with a three-pointer.
A subsequent Beckham fumble gave the visitors another pre-halftime chance, but Travis Jones swatted down a pass, and Kyle Van Noy sacked Smith. Van Noy struck again with a sack fumble that Broderick Washington recovered. Jackson quickly hit Andrews to set up Justin Tucker’s 37-yard field goal with four seconds left before intermission.
The 17-3 halftime edge helped boost the Ravens’ NFL-best first-half point differential to plus-102. In the first half alone, the defense recorded four sacks – lifting their league-high total to 35 – and held Seattle to four first downs and 89 total yards while holding the visitors to 1-for-8 on third-down plays. Moreover, a Ravens defense that had allowed a mere 4.2 yards per play this season – the league’s best rate since 1999 – stifled Seattle to the tune of 3.1 per snap in the first half, stuffing its run game to the tune of just 30 yards.
The Ravens held a second-quarter yardage edge of 166-46 after the initial punt-fest and fared even better in the third, keeping the Seahawks to just 12 yards, a stunning 58-yard yield over the middle two quarters.
Edwards brought more pain on the first play of the third, running for 42 yards to the Seahawks’ 33. Tucker cashed that in with a 45-yard field goal to extend the lead to 20-3 before the visitors even touched the ball. Baltimore then chewed up a good deal of the third-quarter clock (nearly eight minutes) on a long drive during which it converted two fourth-and-1 situations, one on a Seahawks offsides penalty. Tucker converted from 31 yards, his 22nd straight successful field-goal try from inside 50 yards.
The lead was 23-3 late in the third period, and when Mitchell got his first NFL touchdown on a 40-yard scamper, the competitive phase of the game was effectively over. It was Baltimore’s first rushing score outside of 20 yards in almost a year, and Mitchell would add a 60-yard run in the fourth quarter. Mitchell, from East Carolina, is the latest undrafted rookie to make the team, another example of the diamond-in-the-rough kind of player that tends to find his way onto the team, following in the footsteps of notables like Priest Holmes, Bart Scott, Tucker, and many more. Mitchell gained 138 yards on nine carries with a touchdown.
Tyler Huntley was subbed in for a hobbled Jackson, who was visibly uncomfortable after landing on his right knee and left ankle on a running play in the third. The injury didn’t appear serious; he finished with 21 completions on 26 throws for 187 yards, two fumbles, one sack, and a 96.6 rating. He also ran for 60 yards on ten attempts. And, on a day when everything seemed to go right for the home team, it was Huntley who got Beckham his first Ravens touchdown with a six-yard toss into the corner of the end zone with just over eight minutes remaining, Beckham’s first score since finding paydirt in Super Bowl 56 with the Los Angeles Rams, an upcoming opponent.
The Ravens emphatically proved that no matter the tempo, no matter the game flow – indeed, no matter the circumstances – winning is the only game plan that this team knows how to execute.
