Baltimore’s sixth straight win yields the AFC North title and conference top seed.
Sunday, December 31, 2023, M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE – It was a day when old memories collided with new ones. Sunday, a Baltimore-based NFL team played host to the Miami Dolphins with a lot at stake, much as the Baltimore Colts of the 1970s did when the two co-existed in the AFC East Division from 1970-1983. Unfortunately for Charm City fans, the Dolphins got the better of many of those matchups, winning 20 of 29 games.
But that narrative has been rewritten in the Ravens’ era, with Baltimore winning two wild-card games in South Florida (2001, 2008). And on this Sunday, the Ravens won a pivotal regular-season clash 56-19 before 71,196 delighted fans. The win broke a Miami two-game win streak over Baltimore and allowed the Ravens to edge ahead of the Dolphins (11-5) in regular-season head-to-head play, 9-8.
It was another big day from Lamar Jackson, who tossed a career-high-tying five touchdown passes and finished with a perfect passer rating, completing 18 of 21 throws for 321 yards – and timely defensive plays (three forced turnovers). Jackson’s play enabled Baltimore to make more of its opportunities, especially during a furious second-quarter rally overturning an early Miami lead. It gave Baltimore ultimate control of this pivotal game as it scored 30 or more for the eighth time in ten games. The eight 30-point games tied a team record set in 2019 and 2020.
The 56 points scored by the Ravens represented the most ever in a home game and second-most in team history, surpassed by the 59 Baltimore scored at Miami in the 2019 season opener when Jackson began his first full season as a starter and ended up winning his first Most Valuable Player award.
The win allowed the Ravens (13-3) to wrap up their seventh AFC North Division championship–second only to Pittsburgh’s nine–and, for the second time, the AFC’s top playoff seed, yet another by-product of that heady 2019 campaign. The top seed guarantees the team a week off before a home Divisional Round game and, if they win that game, a home AFC Championship Game. If that happens, it would be only the second ever held in Baltimore after the first-ever post-merger AFC title tilt in 1970.
A Ravens win in next week’s regular-season finale against Pittsburgh would bring the team to 14 wins, tying the club record set in their other top-seed year of 2019, when the schedule was 16 games long instead of the current 17.
NOTE: The game’s date/time/TV network will be announced on Monday.
Baltimore has now won six straight games and ten of its last 11 since a 3-2 start, boasting winning streaks of four and six games. The Ravens have clinched their 15th lifetime playoff berth and fifth in the last six years; they have had 13 non-playoff seasons.
A bit of the luster came off this matchup with slowly-filtering news throughout the week that two of Miami’s most potent offensive weapons, running back Raheem Mostert and wideout Jaylen Waddle, would possibly miss the game with ankle injuries. Several years ago, Mostert, a former Ravens kick returner, also had a minor knee problem. In particular, Waddle was instrumental in Miami’s come-from-behind win at Baltimore last year, catching 11 passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns. Mostert has had an outstanding year, co-leading the league with 21 scrimmage scores and 18 rushing touchdowns.
Those key absences, not to mention the fact that Miami’s two starting guards and center have been missing most of the season, allowed the Ravens to focus on two main targets in the Dolphins’ speed-and-motion-based offense, running back De’Vone Achane and receiver Tyreek Hill. That said, Achane had only posted one 100-yard scrimmage effort since returning from injury, limiting his effectiveness. Meanwhile, Hill’s 1641 receiving yards led the league going into Sunday, with his 103 catches tying him for third-most.
On the flipside, Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa got a bonus of his own with the news that two key members of the Ravens’ secondary, do-it-all safety Kyle Hamilton–the reigning AFC Defensive Player of the Week–and corner Brandon Stephens, were inactive due to nagging injuries, along with stalwart right guard Kevin Zeitler.
Baltimore got exploited by Miami’s offense early, a unit that runs a league-high 82 percent of its plays with pre-snap motion. The visitors struck on an eight-play drive–Achane had four touches for 37 yards–in which Tagovailoa hit four different receivers, including little-used ex-Dallas wideout Cedric Wilson, who was filling in for Waddle. The 75-yard jaunt took exactly four minutes and gave Miami a 7-0 lead.
The Ravens attempted to answer right back, but a 42-yard grab by Rashod Bateman was ruled incomplete, and a holding call negated a 26-yard Justice Hill catch. But Hill then scatted for 18 yards on a short screen pass to avoid a three-and-out. Jackson kept things moving with passes to Zay Flowers for 25 yards (106 yards, three catches, touchdown on the day) and Bateman for 14 yards more along the right sideline (54 yards and four catches on the day). A 7-7 tie ensued when Justice Hill (48 yards rushing/64 yards receiving on the day) scored on a 20-yard pass play at the 6:39 mark of the first quarter.
Jackson completed six of seven passes in the opening frame, a relatively even statistical period in which the new Most Valuable Player favorite posted a perfect passer rating (158.3). Without Mostert and leaning heavily on Achane, Miami got a 45-yard run from the young back as it drove downfield again. Hill ended up bobbling a sure touchdown catch, so Jason Sanders–the reigning AFC Special Teams Player of the Week–kicked a go-ahead 27-yard field goal.
Miami’s ten first-quarter points are the most allowed by the Ravens in the opening 15 minutes this year. The Ravens had led for 72 percent of their game time this year, most in the league, before Miami came to town.
Baltimore then took to its ground game. Four Gus Edwards runs (68 yards, 16 carries, touchdown on the day), and one run by Hill got a first down in Miami territory. Then Odell Beckham, Jr. made a diving 32-yard catch at the two-yard line. Edwards plowed in from there to give the Ravens the lead behind blocks from Patrick Ricard and left guard John Simpson. It was Edwards’ 13th score – his fifth in the last six home games – and it put the Ravens in front for the first time, 14-10.
As the first half wound down, the Ravens’ defense nearly had the Dolphins stopped, but Hill gathered in an over-the-shoulder fourth-and-five catch on backup corner Rock Ya-Sin at the Ravens’ 20. Ya-Sin was in for Marlon Humphrey, who had left earlier with an undisclosed injury, and the key catch set up Sanders’ 38-yard field goal that cut Baltimore’s lead to one with just three minutes left before the half.
Jackson’s pinpoint accuracy was finishing drives with touchdowns instead of field goals, a key reason the Ravens won this game. His 10th straight completion–after his first pass of the day was barely ruled incomplete–found Flowers along the right sideline before he zig-zagged through defenders for a season-long 75-yard touchdown and a 21-13 advantage.
Tagovailoa hurried the Dolphins downfield in an effort to get pre-halftime points, a vital juncture of the game with the Ravens getting the second-half kickoff. But a snap right at the two-minute warning ended up as an interception by Ravens leading tackler Roquan Smith, who one-handed the ball and ran it back 30 yards to the Dolphins’ 38. The pickoff was the Ravens’ 27th takeaway, tying them for the league lead with Cleveland.
The ensuing drive bogged down on fourth-and-7 at the 35, but Justin Tucker was nowhere to be found for a 53-yard field-goal try. Instead, Jackson dropped far back and located tight end Isaiah Likely along the right sideline (42 yards, two catches, and two touchdowns on the day). After making a one-handed catch and picking up first-down yardage, he ran to the end-zone pylon and dove into the end zone to boost the lead to 28-13 at the half.
The Ravens had scored 14 points in just 94 seconds, plus Jackson’s 255 first-half passing yards set a new career high for the opening 30 minutes. He got hotter as the half progressed, completing 12 of his last 13 throws before the break, while Tagovailoa, after starting 5-for-6, completed only five of his next 14 attempts. With a perfect passer rating, Jackson became the second-ever Ravens quarterback (Joe Flacco was the other) with 250 yards passing and three touchdowns in a half. Moreover, the Ravens strafed Miami’s fourth-ranked defense for a staggering 11.6 yards per play in an otherwise even first half.
The Ravens kept piling it on as they did in San Francisco six days ago. Hill ran back the second-half kickoff 78 yards to the Dolphins’ 18. Three plays later, Likely got free in the left flat for a wide-open touchdown, releasing into space after a block and scoring from seven yards out for a 35-13 chasm over their shell-shocked visitors, who had ironically rallied from 35-14 in last year’s meeting.
Even when things went bad for the Ravens, circumstances quickly reversed themselves. Ex-Ravens draft pick Zach Sieler forced an Edwards fumble for the Ravens’ first giveaway of the day. But safety Geno Stone picked off Tagovailoa on the next play for his seventh interception of the year, second-most in the league to Dallas’ Daron Bland. It was also the Ravens’ league-high ninth takeaway in their last three games and league-best 28th of the season.
Tagovailoa did find Achane with a one-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter, but the drive that ended with it lasted over six and a half minutes, sharply reducing the time the Dolphins had to rally. Even worse for Miami, a two-point conversion pass to Hill was incomplete, leaving it 16 points behind. Tagovailoa would later incur an injury to his left (throwing) shoulder, forcing him out of the game.
Baltimore scored again following two passes to Bateman, a 41-yard Justice Hill run, and a four-yard touchdown pass to Patrick Ricard. Melvin Gordon, the two-time Pro Bowl back called up from the practice squad, scored another TD, and Tyler Huntley closed it out by finding third-string tight end Charlie Kolar for a 19-yard score.
Baltimore fans’ lingering memories about feeling frustrated over what Larry Csonka, Bob Griese, and other long-ago Dolphins did to the Colts have faded, and the shoe is now on the other foot. Miami won’t soon forget what Jackson, Hill, Edwards, Flowers, Likely, et al. did on New Year’s Eve 2023.
But the national headline news is what the Ravens have accomplished in a span of just six days–blowing out two of the league’s top teams, the 49ers and Dolphins. For now, at least, Baltimore is unquestionably the NFL’s best team.
