A deafening hush fell upon the purple kingdom and the chilly winter air was sucked out of the building and down the tunnel behind the Baltimore Ravens bench as Lamar Jackson gripped the railing and descended down the back stairs as a lone fan came over the top with a parting hand to wish him well.
Lamar Jackson disappeared – and so, most certainly, will the Ravens’ season if this is the last we see of him in 2022.
With dark clouds hanging over the season and the team down six points late on Sunday afternoon, what understudy quarterback Tyler “Snoop” Huntley managed to pull off was, as the words of head coach John Harbaugh pointed out, “remarkable.”
The most important narrative of the day is this: the Ravens season remains on track for January football because of a gritty, unlikely victory behind the calm of QB2.
I saw someone on the internet call it a disgusting victory. Perhaps that is worth a chuckle but it’s not an inaccurate description of what must be considered the ugliest win in franchise history. But it’s a 10-9 win in a key circumstance that will make quite a difference in the narrative of the remainder of the season, especially a conference win that breaks ties.
Harbaugh famously hates “narratives” (even though he loves to dictate his) so we’re going to give him the primary one and the thesis of the season: if Lamar Jackson doesn’t stand upright and soon, the Baltimore Ravens have no chance. And if Ronnie Stanley doesn’t return to being Ronnie Stanley, the Baltimore Ravens have no chance.
(And one more narrative that will evaporate in this unlikely victory for Coach Hardball: if you lose a game where a back-up wide receiver who has never thrown a pass anywhere but on a sandlot field a decade ago when you have the best kicker in the history of kickers on a clear day and are in a field goal game, you should be fired. I’m not kidding. That was one of the more boneheaded play calls I have ever seen in a circumstance like that in Baltimore. Pass that along to Greg Roman as well for his culpability. But this is a “Get Out Of Second Place” free pass because when you win the game no one talks about that narrative.)
Seeing Dr. Leigh Ann Curl next to Lamar Jackson and walking toward the locker room is always less than ideal. It’s a total nightmare for everyone with a stake in the Baltimore Ravens. The game took on a body bag quality with Patrick Queen, Kyle Hamilton and Isaiah Likely all having physical struggles.
And as Harbaugh said, there were a lot of heroes in the supporting cast on Sunday to pull out a magical victory with an offense that looks lost even with Lamar Jackson at this point.
Here’s a narrative for you: the Baltimore Ravens season was teetering but rescued by Tyler “Snoop” Huntley and an incredible two-minute drive after he threw an ugly interception. And the Pittsburgh Steelers played well enough on Sunday and will be waiting on the backup quarterback or a gimpy Lamar Jackson at The Confluence in six days. All of the AFC North teams are dusting up the visiting locker room to make way for this limpy, gimpy version of the Ravens, who haven’t played great football in, well…since…???
And, no Coach Harbaugh, we’re not going to discuss how the running game has evaporated and whether J.K. Dobbins will be back to save the day or how a running, former MVP quarterback is going to run when he couldn’t walk down or up steps on Sunday afternoon.
The offensive line was mostly a disaster with an injured Patrick Mekari and a very green Daniel Faalele doing their best on the left side of the line but it was far from ideal against the Broncos pass rush. Huntley finished the day an extraordinary 27-of-32 for 187 yards and did just enough running to create a poor man’s Lamar impersonation. (And I do mean “poor man” – Huntley’s salary is $763,333 this season; Jackson is making $23,016,000 this season. Basic reminder: you shouldn’t expect the same results! You tend to get what you pay for in the NFL.)
All the better to take a win over a desperate Denver Broncos franchise that is destined for new coaching staff and far more criticism of the play of quarterback Russell Wilson (salary: $28,000,000) when he couldn’t be better than Tyler Huntley in Baltimore.
The Denver Broncos managed just three field goals on the day so give the Ravens defense a nod as well. There was enough pressure on Wilson to chase him around and sometimes he almost looks like the Danger Russ who baked his way to a Super Bowl win and was thought to be a Hall of Fame candidate. Other times he looked like Johnny Unitas with the San Diego Chargers, old and slow.
The Denver Broncos scored nine points. They are a lousy football team.
In the end, it was the hungry Tyler Huntley who showed the composure at the end to win a game against a bad team, against all odds.
For Harbaugh and the Ravens organization, it was a big win for perseverance and bringing a team together when the backup quarterback and a cast of characters can win ugly when it needs a December result to remain relevant.
No, it’s not a time for sweeping narratives but the story of the Baltimore Ravens right now is uncertainty and the path to win the division actually going through the division over the next month in a unique scheduling model that was thought to be a benefit until it’s actually Pittsburgh Week and you don’t know who your quarterback is going to be until you see an MRI.
Yep, they’ll be onto Pittsburgh and then Cleveland and these next two weeks and what healing comes the way of Lamar Jackson and Ronnie Stanley. And then there will be a Christmas Eve gift with Atlanta at home and some more of Pittsburgh and an improving Cincinnati team, which has intentions of defending its Super Bowl-worthy honor.
It’s exactly the time for the narrative that shows if this team is good enough to win playoff games by beating the franchises that hate them the most.
The Ravens better be ready for the Steelers on Sunday. And they better play better than they have recently because the last few efforts won’t be good enough over the next five weeks.
