Ravens 2-1 on homestand; Burrow, Andrews hurt.
Thursday, November 16, 2023, M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE – Bloodied, but not unbowed. Wounded, but not defeated. Lost a battle or two, won the war. That’s basically how the Baltimore Ravens came through a crucial midseason three-game home stretch of their 2023 schedule, concluding it with Thursday night’s 34-20 win over the visiting Cincinnati Bengals before 70,997 fans to raise their record to 8-3.
The Bengals had won three of their last four meetings with the Ravens going into the current season, plus a Wild Card Weekend game to boot. But with the win, Baltimore swept the intradivisional series with Cincinnati for the ninth time and the first since 2020. The Bengals have swept the Ravens on seven occasions, and there have been a dozen splits. The Ravens, who have now won five of their last six home games against Cincinnati, lead the Bengals in the lifetime head-to-head series, 30-26 (regular season only).
With the homestand over, the Ravens now get the customary post-Thursday night mini-bye before going back on the road for another prime-time game Sunday night against the enigmatic Los Angeles Chargers (Sunday, November 26, 8:20 p.m.) The Ravens’ bye week, coming at a much later juncture than in recent years, follows that game.
An 8-3 record enables Baltimore to maintain a tenuous hold on a beast of a division. The AFC North has been indisputably the NFL’s best all season and has been perceived as such for most of recent history. Before last weekend’s games, all four teams were at least two games over .500, thanks in part to the four-game winning streaks both the Ravens and Bengals had put together before they were both snapped.
But the Bengals (5-5) were victimized by a few crucial and ill-timed injuries, including defensive end Sam Hubbard (ankle) and wideout Tee Higgins (hamstring), who caught eight passes for 89 yards against the Ravens while scoring twice in the team’s Week Two game in Cincinnati. Two-time defending division champions, the Bengals also brought a losing streak of 14 road prime-time games (including playoffs) going into what the Ravens self-described as a “darkness” game, replete with all-black uniforms and sinister-looking pregame activities. For their part, the Ravens are now 20-3 in home prime-time games under head coach John Harbaugh, who picked up his 155th win as head coach, breaking a tie with Washington’s Joe Gibbs for ninth place on the NFL’s all-time list of coaches’ victories with one team.
The Ravens have now won 19 of 25 games in which they have worn their all-black uniforms, a particular fan favorite. But what the partisans value even more is the strength of the team’s defense and its new offensive look, both of which worked in more instances than not on Thursday night. The Ravens outgained the Bengals 405-272 and were a sparkling 6-for-12 on third-down conversion attempts to just 2-for-11 for Cincinnati. Furthermore, the Ravens gained nearly seven yards per play to just 4.6 for the Bengals.
In the bigger picture, it all meant that the Ravens’ three-game homestand was a moderate success if not a complete one. Wins over the Bengals and Seattle Seahawks sandwiched a come-from-ahead loss to the Cleveland Browns in a game that saw their quarterback, Deshaun Watson, incur a shoulder injury that will require surgery and keep him out for the rest of the season.
That one injury alone might keep the Browns out of the frenzied North race, but the Bengals are a team that began the season with a quarterback injury of their own – Joe Burrow’s well-scrutinized calf – and have rebounded well for the most part ever since. Burrow, one of two big-name players to get hurt in Thursday’s game, is a big reason why the Bengals have won nine of 13 games following a loss since the start of the 2021 season. However, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, who is now 8-1 for his career against Cincinnati, also gets back on the horse rather well, now having gone 15-3 following a defeat, including an active seven-game winning streak in such situations.
Also, Jackson came into Thursday night’s game sporting a 70.3 percent completion rate, tied for the NFL’s second-best. That figure could go down slightly after a night that saw him complete 16 of 26 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns, playing to a 121.3 rating. He was sacked three times behind a line that was again missing left tackle Ronnie Stanley (ankle). Jackson started the game well, hitting tight end Mark Andrews – who would leave the game with an ankle injury soon thereafter when linebacker Logan Wilson rolled up on him – for 14 yards and cutting the electrifying Zay Flowers loose for 33 more, mostly after the catch. The quarterback ran for two first downs, the latter to the Bengals’ 13 before Gus Edwards finished off the nine-play, 75-yard drive with a two-yard run, his eighth touchdown in his last five games and the first of two on the night.
Evan McPherson answered with a 50-yard field goal to get the Bengals on the board, finishing off a possession aided by Odafe Oweh’s face-mask penalty. But the feel-it-out first quarter would end with that 7-3 Ravens lead; the two teams could generate a mere 113 total yards between them. But it was Edwards and the Ravens’ vaunted running game, top-ranked in the league at 154 yards per contest, that had to be the key against the Bengals, owners of the NFL’s third-worst run-stopping unit.
That was especially true without Hubbard, who not only took a goal-line fumble 98 yards to beat the Ravens in last year’s playoffs but is one of the league’s best at setting the edge. Hubbard’s opposite-side counterpart, Trey Hendrickson, has been slowed by a knee injury, but he and his team-leading 8.5 sacks were in the lineup. Cincinnati has the league’s worst run game, so it could have taken some notes as the Ravens ran for 157 yards, an impressive total considering that the home team ran for just 17 in the first quarter and just 13 more in the second. For their part, the visitors totaled 136 yards on the ground.
McPherson hooked a 53-yard field goal try wide left as the second period began, the first time a Ravens opponent had missed a three-point attempt all season. But the visitors staged yet another drive, getting down to the Ravens’ 4 despite a pair of pre-snap penalties, unusual for the league’s least-penalized team. Undaunted, Burrow (11-for-17, 101 yards, touchdown, two sacks, 100.4 rating) found running back Joe Mixon in the right flat, where he beat linebacker Patrick Queen to the pylon for a go-ahead touchdown and a 10-7 lead with 5:49 to go before halftime.
Mixon (69 yards, 16 carries; 31 yards, five catches, touchdown) is a veteran back who had not had many successful running games against Baltimore in the past, but his multi-faceted skill set was invaluable in keeping the Ravens’ offense off the field and, as a result, out of rhythm. But his quarterback, Burrow, was out of sorts as well, not being able to grip the football as he dealt with a throwing-wrist injury and left the game in favor of little-used backup Jake Browning, a four-year starter at the University of Washington with one career NFL pass in the season’s opening week.
Meanwhile, Jackson survived a sideline knock on his ankle and would remain in the game. His return, and the lack of Burrow’s, would make a difference as Jackson gained his 53rd win, the most in league history all-time for any quarterback under the age of 27; Jackson reaches that milestone in January. Jackson found Flowers in space again for what was ostensibly a 68-yard touchdown that was called back by a penalty. But the Ravens’ new run-after-catch philosophy reared its head again, with Odell Beckham, Jr. going for 28 yards into Bengals territory and Nelson Agholor breaking tackles on a 37-yard score to put Baltimore back in front, 14-10, at the 2:20 mark before halftime.
It was Beckham’s most productive day as a Raven, with 116 yards on four catches, his first 100-yard receiving game since 2021 when he played for the eventual Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams.
lowers highlighted the next drive by getting downfield position and getting interfered with before Beckham’s catch-and-run put the ball on the Cincinnati 13. Three plays later, Jackson eluded the rush to his left and found Rashod Bateman for a ten-yard touchdown that extended the lead to 11 points at the break. It was Bateman’s first touchdown of the year.
Those final two Ravens scoring drives broke open what had been a pedestrian-paced half in which both teams ran 33 plays and combined for 12 penalties while dealing with injuries to Burrow and Andrews. But the Ravens’ deeper, slightly more talented roster was slowly pulling away thanks to averaging 6.2 yards per play to 4.9 for the visitors in the first half.
It’s a trait that could serve Baltimore well down the season’s stretch, as four of their last seven opponents are ranked in the league’s bottom third in pass defense. Moreover, the shorter throws serve Jackson well, as he is 1-for-8 on deep throws the past three weeks and has no touchdown passes over 20 yards this season. Defensively, the Ravens played reasonably well, not having to deal with the injured Higgins and holding deep threat Ja’Marr Chase mostly in check, except for a late, meaningless touchdown, thanks mostly to the versatile Brandon Stephens. The Ravens also got five sacks to increase their league-leading total to 44.
Mixon’s big night and nagging penalties marred the effort, such as Rock Ya-Sin’s pass-interference call early in the third that put Cincinnati in the red zone. Luckily for the Ravens, a Ronald Darby third-down deflection forced the Bengals to settle for McPherson’s 26-yard field goal that cut the Ravens’ lead to eight points. But Justin Tucker restored the double-digit margin with a 25-yard kick of his own, ending a drive that saw Edwards gain 35 yards on three carries and Jackson once again limp to the sideline without leaving the game.
In an effort to avoid a fourth blown-lead loss this year, Baltimore returned to its ground game, as Keaton Mitchell – coming off a three-carry game that included a touchdown – ran 21 yards into Bengals territory. Tucker converted from 47 yards to make it a full two-touchdown margin, 27-13, ensuring the Ravens would have a lead after three quarters yet again; they have pulled that off in every game this season.
Jackson applied the coup de gras with a 51-yard toss to Beckham – a rare deep-ball completion this year – and the home team finished off that possession with Edwards finding the end zone again, this time from three yards out, to cap off an eight-play, 68-yard drive. With the score at 34-13, the Ravens tied a franchise record set in 2019 by scoring 30 or more points in a fifth consecutive game.
Once the win was secured, Baltimore knew it still had but one game remaining within this rugged division, the Week 18 regular-season home finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers. For now, the Ravens can relax and plan for their next trip with a few scars but no deep cuts.
