Lamar Jackson is inevitable and 4 other things we learned from Ravens – Bengals

Some questions were answered while others came into focus on Thursday night.

Coming off just three days’ rest, the Baltimore Ravens completed a regular season sweep of the Cincinnati Bengals in a a 35-34 thriller on Thursday Night Football. Offensively, the Ravens recovered from a slow first half in which they were held to season-lows across the board to outscore their rivals 28-20 in the second half and overcome a double-digit deficit. Defensively, Baltimore got torched through the air by the Joe Burrow-Ja’Marr Chase connection yet again, but came up with enough stops and a momentum-shifting turnover that gave the whole team new life.

The win is the Ravens’ seventh in their last eight games since starting the season 0-2 and keeps them within a half-game of first place in the AFC North with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who play the 7-2 Washington Commanders on Sunday. This result also marked the first time the Ravens have swept the Bengals in back-to-back years since the 2019 and 2020 seasons.

There were several encouraging performances by players and units on both sides of the ball that were vital in securing this victory to improve the Ravens’ overall record to 7-3.

Here are five takeaways from Thursday night’s dramatic victory at M&T Bank Stadium.

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Lamar Jackson is inevitable

As Thanos from the Marvel Cinematic Universe once eloquently stated, “Dread it. Run from it. Destiny arrives all the same.” On Thursday night, destiny was the reigning league MVP bringing his team back from the brink. He led them to an incredible come-from-behind victory that seemed inevitable once the offense got rolling in the second half after being held to just seven points and 102 total yards in the first half.

Jackson only threw for 71 passing yards in the first half — his fewest since September of last season — but exploded after halftime to finish 25-of-33 for 290 passing yards, four touchdowns with no interceptions and a passer rating of 141.4. He also didn’t take any sacks and ran six times for 34 yards before taking a knee in victory formation that ended the Ravens’ streak games with more than 100 rushing yards at 41, one shy of tying their own record. Jackson is on pace to set a new NFL record for single-season passer rating with a mark of 123.2 through 10 games, which would best Aaron Rogers’ 122.5 from his 2011 MVP-winning season.

“What can you say? We have seen it before, and I just think [Lamar Jackson] took that game on his shoulders, like he does,” head coach John Harbaugh said.

As is true for Jackson throughout his career, the box score alone doesn’t fully quantify how sensational he was in this game. His accuracy and touch on his passes were nearly perfect all night except for a handful of throws. He extended plays with his legs to buy himself more time to throw and find his targets downfield when even team personnel on the sideline could be seen encouraging him to take off and run on the broadcast.

On a night where the Bengals once again had a nice plan of attack to slow down the Ravens’ league-leading rushing attack, Jackson’s arm was more than enough to get the job done. The most glamorous throw he made of the game was his last, a floater to wide receiver Rashod Bateman over ex-Raven Geno Stone in the back of the end zone that looked like Stephen Curry hitting a fadeaway jumper on a basketball court.

“It was like a two-on-one basically,” Jackson said. “Me and my receiver versus Geno. I believe he thought I was going to run the ball, but ‘Bate’ [Rashod Bateman] was just flying. I just have to deliver him a throw he can catch, and he did.”

Complementary Offensive Weapons Continue to Step Up

The Ravens came into this matchup down one of their top pass catchers in third-year tight end Isaiah Likely, who recorded a pair of touchdowns in the teams’ first matchup this year. The Bengals also made a concerted effort to limit league-leading rusher Derrick Henry and team-leading receiver Zay Flowers that worked to a degree, but other Ravens skill players rose to the occasion and made big plays throughout the night.

In addition to hauling in the eventual game-winner, Bateman made several other crucial snags for drive-extending first downs and finished with six catches on eight targets for 54 receiving yards. While three-time Pro Bowl tight end Mark Andrews is far from a complementary weapon, he had his most productive game of the year by recording season-highs in targets (seven), catches (six), receiving yards (68) and scored a touchdown for the fifth time in the team’s last five games.

Veteran wideout Nelson Agholor recorded the Ravens only points of the first half on a six-yard touchdown catch, but the most surprising pass-catching star of the night for either team was fourth-year pro Tylan Wallace. He made the most of his opportunities by catching all three of his targets for both a career-high 115 receiving yards that led the Ravens, plus his first career receiving touchdown on an incredible 84-yard catch-and-run up the left sideline. His receiving total eclipsed his entire career production leading up to that game.

“It feels great,” Wallace said postgame. “I’ve always been happy to be able to make a difference for the team, make a difference in the game, so to be able to do something like that [for] the first time in my career, it feels awesome.”

Marlon Humphrey Provides Spark With Clutch Turnover

As was the case in the first shootout between these two teams, the Ravens three-time Pro Bowl cornerback came up with a game-changing turnover when the team needed it most.

It looked like the offense’s struggles had carried over into the start of the second half as they went three-and-out on their first possession of the second half. The Bengals scored on their next play from scrimmage to go up 14 points and forced another punt to give the ball back to Joe Burrow and the offense. Rather than let Cincinnati go up 21 points in the third quarter, Humphrey gave the entire team a spark by ripping the football away from Bengals running back Chase Brown. Roquan Smith promptly fell on the loose ball, giving the Ravens offense a chance to make it a one-possession game.

“Kyle [Hamilton] had went down, and so I was going to move inside and play a little more nickel,” Humphrey said. “Kyle’s an aggressive guy, so I tried to just fit the block [and] hit [No.] 30 [Chase Brown], and then I was able to get the ball off of him, and then [the] offense was able to score.”

Jackson and the offense parlayed the timely turnover into a swift five-play scoring drive that was capped off by Henry’s 12th rushing touchdown of the season.

“When ‘Marlo’ [Marlon Humphrey] had forced that fumble, that kind of woke us up,” Jackson said. “I feel like we were asleep that whole first half – even though we scored once. We were pretty much flat throughout the game.”

Ravens’ Defense Should Play More Man Coverage

Burrow has now torched the Ravens for 820 yards and nine touchdowns in two matchups this year. Like most quarterbacks who have faced Baltimore’s defense this season, Cincinnati’s star signal-caller easily dissected their zone coverage and took advantage of miscommunications between the second and third level of the defense.

“These wins are getting harder to enjoy based off of what we’re doing in the pass defense,” Humphrey said. “I feel like when I was a rookie – first-year guy, second-year guy – the vets I looked up to [and] the standard that was there and the pass defense … We’ve really lost that standard, and I feel like that falls on me. We’re going to keep chasing at it. We’re going to keep working at it, because I’m not really satisfied with what I’ve built in this secondary [and] where it’s gone.”

“Something has got to change. We’ve just got to play better,” he continued, “I’ve got to play better; we’ve all got to play better. We’ve got to play as a unit, and we’re just not doing that.”

While the Ravens held the Bengals to just 49 yards on the ground, they allowed Burrow to use check-downs as an extension of the running game, especially when the Ravens had their inside linebackers mugged up in the A-gaps. Whether they blitzed or bailed back into zone, Brown found space underneath, finished with nine catches for 52 yards.

Most of the Ravens’ drive-ending plays came when they were running man coverage, allowing the secondary to bracket Chase and forcing other Bengals’ pass-catchers to separate single-coverage. When they ran zone, Burrow picked them apart, finding holes in coverage or isolating Chase in favorable matchups.

While there are some downsides to running more man coverage – it’s harder to disguise and relies more on individual players to win matchups – the Ravens can’t exactly get worse at defending the pass. They already rank dead last in the league, giving up an average of 294.9 yards through the air per game. Until his unit can shore up their miscommunication issues in zone coverage, defensive coordinator Zach Orr should let his players do what they have proven they do best at this time and man up on more high-leverage plays.

“It’s not cool to win a game, and you look up and a team has 300 passing [yards on you] every week,” Humphrey said. “It’d be different if we didn’t have [any] guys that could play. I haven’t once heard anybody say, ‘We don’t have the guys; we don’t have the players; we don’t have the skill.’ We’re not doing it in practice. It’s clear that it’s something from … When we do that last preparation to the game, what is happening in that span? We’ve got to figure it out. It’s pretty simple.”

Pass Rush Showed Improvement

While the Ravens pass coverage has a lot to clean up, their pass rush played with more consistency than they have for most of the season. Burrow was under constant duress in this game, and while he managed the pocket well and made plays with his arm, Baltimore’s defensive front got after him got in plenty of hits throughout the game.

The Ravens finished season-highs in quarterback hits (11) and pressures (40) according to Pro Football Focus. Leading the charge was Pro Bowl and Second Team All Pro defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike, who registered career-highs with 10 pressures and 3.0 sacks, plus two tackles for a loss and a forced fumble.

“I believe I’m a big pulse on the defensive line,” Madubuike said. “I’m a leader on the defensive line, and it starts with me and just my attitude and my focus. I feel like guys feed off of me, and I take the initiative just to stay focused and [have] high energy just to get back there. It’s one thing to say it and it’s one thing to do it, so I try to do both and just encourage my teammates to do it as well. It’s what we’re going to do.”

Even though neither of them were able to get Burrow to the ground for a sack, outside linebackers Kyle Van Noy and Odafe Oweh were also disruptive on Thursday night. They took turns trying to exploit Bengals backup left tackle Cody Ford who was playing in the place of four-time Pro Bowler and former Raven, Orlando Brown Jr. Van Noy finished second on the team with nine pressures, and Oweh finished third with seven and a team-high four quarterback hits. Meanwhile, third-year defensive tackle Travis Jones had recorded five pressures of his own while doing a lot to set up his teammates.