Lamar Jackson’s glorious performance leads Ravens to overtime win vs. Bengals: ‘Best player in the league’

Jonas Shaffer, The Baltimore Banner

Lamar Jackson became a religious experience Sunday. The Ravens quarterback had to be seen to be believed, his football miracles leaving tens of thousands here awestruck by his almighty power, wondering why they ever doubted. Even an hour after the Ravens’ surreal 41-38 overtime win over the Cincinnati Bengals, those with the most fervent faith in Jackson stood in Paycor Stadium’s visiting locker room, shaking their heads at his supernatural abilities.

Jackson, indeed a mere mortal, had a different explanation of the Ravens’ afternoon, a game they had won and lost about a dozen times. He pointed to a presence arguably more powerful than him. “That was just God on our side,” Jackson said.

The Ravens will take the help wherever they can get it: offense, defense, special teams, higher powers. For much of Sunday, though, it was Jackson who lifted them, who carried them, who rescued them from the brink of a deflating loss in their AFC North opener.

The Winners and Losers of NFL Week 5

Steven Ruiz, The Ringer

The race for Game of the Year is over. There’s no topping what we saw on Sunday in Cincinnati, where the Ravens escaped with a 41-38 win in overtime. The game was a perfect mix of high-level play from superstar players and goofy moments. It was the type of game that will make you forget there was a scoring problem across the league through the first few weeks of the season, as the quarterbacks combined for 740 passing yards and nine touchdowns.

Jackson and Burrow had no issues throwing the football over the first 57 minutes of the game before taking turns trying to blow the game. With the Bengals sitting on a three-point lead with just over three minutes left in regulation, Burrow forced a pass to Ja’Marr Chase. The Ravens picked him off, setting up the eventual game-tying field goal. And then Baltimore’s opening drive in overtime abruptly ended when Jackson fumbled a perfectly good snap and Cincinnati recovered. After three straight Bengals runs were stuffed, Evan McPherson missed a 53-yard would-be game-winning field goal (after being iced by his own coach, Zac Taylor). A long Derrick Henry run set up a short game-winner for Justin Tucker.

There were plenty of lows for both sides at the end, but this game should be remembered for the highs we saw from Jackson and Burrow. It felt like the first proper duel between the AFC North rivals. Their past meetings have been drab affairs or one-sided blowouts. And because of their respective injury problems, we had seen Jackson and Burrow square off only five times before Sunday’s thriller.

When things looked bleak vs. Bengals, Ravens QB Lamar Jackson was at his best

Jeff Zrebiec, The Athletic

Jackson’s insane competitive drive and quest for perfection wouldn’t allow him to celebrate on a day when he deserved to be the loudest man in the room.

“I just don’t like how that situation happened (in) overtime,” said Jackson. “If that probably wouldn’t have happened, I would be the happiest person in a Ravens uniform right now.”

Jackson’s fumbled snap prevented the Ravens from scoring on the first possession of overtime. But when Evan McPherson sent the potential game-winning 53-yard field goal attempt wide left, Baltimore had another chance. As the Ravens saw it, Jackson deserved another chance. He had played too hard and too well to have made the decisive mistake in a Ravens loss.

Time and time again Sunday afternoon, as mistakes mounted for the Ravens in all three phases, as the defense seemed powerless to stop Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and the Bengals, Jackson gave his team hope.

Reborn Ravens a Reflection of John Harbaugh’s Trust in the Program

Albert Breer, Sports Illustrated

It would have been easy for doubt to creep in after back-to-back losses to start the season—one on the road to the Kansas City Chiefs, and the other at home to the Las Vegas Raiders—that followed last year’s devastating finale in the AFC title game. Similarly, it’d have been easy for the Ravens to chalk up Sunday to facing a red-hot Bengals offense, with Cincinnati taking 10-point leads on three separate occasions in the second half.

Instead, Harbaugh’s group kept swinging, and eventually, it was the Bengals who found themselves on the canvas. And when it was over, to Harbaugh, there were so many people, Henry and Elliott among them, that personified what it took to gut out his sort of win. The result should give the Ravens, reborn at 3–2, a puncher’s chance at getting back to where they were a year ago—and maybe even further.

Ravens’ defense hits highest highs and lowest lows in win over Bengals

Giana Han, The Baltimore Banner

The Ravens’ defense reached soaring heights against the Cincinnati Bengals — a clutch interception, a last-minute three-and-out, an overtime stand — but the lows reached startling levels as the Ravens gave up four straight touchdowns in the second half.

On the surface, the Ravens didn’t look like they’d experienced any lows in the locker room after the game. After the team beat the Bengals 41-38 in overtime Sunday, the room was raucous and celebratory. But there was also a frenzy to it because, as happy as the players were, they realized how close they had come to losing. It’s hard to hide there’s a lot to clean up after they gave up the third-most passing yards (392) in any NFL game this season.