Jackson has career rushing day as tough schedule beckons.
M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE, OCTOBER 13–In these parts, orange is an important color. It’s the main color of the fall season, a sign of pumpkins, and the primary color of the local baseball team.
It is also the main color of the Cincinnati Bengals, a luckless, star-crossed franchise that, for some reason, has managed to get the better of the Baltimore Ravens in recent years.
Cincinnati had won nine of the last 13 meetings with Baltimore before Sunday’s encounter, and those wins made it possible for Cincy to knot up the all-time series at 23 wins apiece.
This time, at least, the Ravens came out on the winning side, beating the Bengals 23-17 on Sunday before 70,051 fans. With the win, the Ravens raised their record to 4-2 with a second straight AFC North Division win in what has been a streaky season so far.
The win wasn’t truly secured until the Bengals failed to recover an onside kick. It meant that the Ravens are 3-1 in one-score games this year after going 20-29 in such contests over the previous five seasons.
This time around, quarterback Lamar Jackson, whose 119 rushing yards at home against the Bengals highlighted his first career start last year, outdid himself with a career-high 152 yards on 19 carries. With 111 of that in the first half, Jackson had the second-most rushing yards by a quarterback in a half in league history. It was also his third straight 100-yard rushing game.
Jackson got the Ravens going on their first possession by gaining 57 of the team’s 75 opening-drive yards, capping it off with a read-option fake and 21-yard touchdown around left end. It was Baltimore’s league-high fourth opening-drive touchdown.
The Ravens’ total of 269 rushing yards also marked the fourth time in six games Cincinnati’s 31st-ranked run defense had allowed at least 175 yards on the ground.
Jackson had to go without top wide target and first-round pick Marquise Brown, who had 21 of the wideout corps’ 45 catches coming into the game. Second-year receiver Jaleel Scott activated for the first time, didn’t produce. However, Chris Moore hauled in his first two catches of the year. Seth Roberts also had a pair of receptions.
On defense, the Ravens have always taken pride in making teams one-dimensional. Coming into Sunday, they had done that again, allowing only 96 rushing plays and 180 passing (including sacks allowed). The problem has been that opponents have thrived using that one dimension.
Baltimore’s much-maligned pass rush–one that had gotten just one sack in each of the last three games and only nine for the year before Sunday–didn’t get to Andy Dalton until twice in the fourth quarter when the Bengals were being forced to pass.
But before that, Dalton picked on the Ravens’ more inexperienced corners, such as Maurice Canady and, late in the game, Justin Behel. Canaday was forced to make a team-high nine tackles.
The good news is that top cover-man Marlon Humphrey did an excellent job on top target Tyler Boyd, intercepting one deflected pass and holding Boyd to just three catches for ten yards.
Not only has the pass rush been hurt by productive quarterbacks that get rid of the ball quickly, a banged-up Ravens secondary with five on injured reserve, including starting strong safety Tony Jefferson and top corner Jimmy Smith still sidelined, yielded 21 catches for 235 yards in a dink-and-dunk attack. The linebacker level has undergone some changed, tool, what with inside players Kenny Young and Chris Board sidelined in favor of returnee Josh Bynes going into the middle and Patrick Onwuasor moving to a more natural weak-side spot.
But with Onwuasor declared inactive before game time with an ankle injury incurred last week at Pittsburgh, recent signee LJ Forr was started at weak-side and former starter Kenny Young was re-activated after being a healthy scratch last week. Bynes tied for second with three tackles, and Fort contributed two.
Surprisingly, a few special teams errors reared their head in this game. Not only did long snapper Morgan Cox practically bounce a snap back to punter Sam Koch, a Justin Tucker 40-yard field goal brushed the upright before going through. And on top of all that, the Bengals’ Brandon Wilson ran back the opening kickoff for a 92-yard score to put Cincinnati on the board first.
It was the first kickoff returned for a score against Baltimore after 245 straight without one–going all the way back to an October 2011 Sunday-night home game against the New York Jets, when the now-deceased Joe McKnight accomplished the feat.
But Tucker did become the fastest player in league history to reach 1000 career points, doing so in his 118th career game. Tucker’s 21-yarder capped off the NFL’s longest drive of the year–a nearly ten-minute, run-dominated masterpiece–that allowed Baltimore to keep the ball for over 11 minutes in the fourth quarter. Baltimore had been averaging a league-best ten minutes in the final period, part of their league-best per-game average of over 35 minutes.
But despite the hiccups, it was the kind of day that would not plunge the Ravens fans into a period of grief and mourning. In other words, they were thankful that orange did not become the new black.
Time for celebrating is short, though, as the Ravens now embark upon a grueling stretch of games. That’s scary news for a team that has alternated two-game winning and losing streaks. It means a lot more consistency on the winning side is going to be needed.
Baltimore is hoping to capitalize on the fact that teams with a 4-2 start have made the playoffs 62 percent of the time since the playoffs last expanded in 1990. Standing in the way is the fact that the next seven opponents were a combined 24-11 going into Sunday.
First up is a rare trip to Seattle to play the Seahawks for the third outing to Seattle in franchise history. The game will be played next Sunday, Oct. 20, at 4:25 p.m. Eastern Time (WBFF-TV, WIYY-FM).
After Seattle comes a bye week, which will be welcome preparation for a home Sunday-night contest with the defending Super Bowl champs, New England Patriots. Then comes a return match with Cincinnati (away) and a game against the always-dangerous Houston Texans (home).
After that, a tough gauntlet of contests awaits with the Los Angeles Rams, San Francisco 49ers, and Buffalo Bills, two of which will be played on the road. The Ravens have never played the Rams on the road and have not won in two games at either Buffalo or Seattle.
But lately, they couldn’t beat the Bengals at home, either–losing three of the last five Russell Street rumbles until Sunday, that is. Winning Sunday is a good sign–a much-needed sign–as scary October, and always tough November, await.
