Zay Flowers said it best after the Ravens’ 41-38 overtime win over rival Cincinnati on Sunday.
“I don’t know how he missed it, but thank you.”
Of course, he was referencing Bengals kicker Evan McPherson’s unsuccessful game-winning 53-yard field goal try in overtime, which came a few plays after Lamar Jackson’s nightmare fumble that looked like it would cost Baltimore the game despite the two-time MVP quarterback’s monster second half. But instead of being more aggressive with a passing attack that had shredded the Ravens defense for much of the afternoon to try to set up an easier kick, Bengals head coach Zac Taylor went ultraconservative with three inside runs before a shaky snap and bad hold resulted in the long kick sailing wide left.
It was all a reminder of Hall of Fame baseball manager Casey Stengel’s old adage that more games are lost than won, and the Bengals ultimately did a little more than the Ravens in that department to drop an AFC North instant classic that may prove to be a season-defining game for both teams.
The loss puts Cincinnati — projected by many to be Baltimore’s toughest competition to win the division — in a massive 1-4 hole after the Bengals had viewed this game in must-win terms throughout the week. Quarterback Joe Burrow said he was “going to have to play damn near perfect” to beat the Ravens and nearly did until Marlon Humphrey’s fourth-quarter interception, which allowed Baltimore to tie the game at the end of regulation. You have to wonder if Cincinnati will be able to recover from this, especially with a defense that’s been just plain bad so far this season. The Bengals have scored 25-plus points in four straight games and won only one of those.
Defensive coordinator Zach Orr and the Ravens definitely have work to do to improve a pass defense that had seemingly righted itself in the blowout win over Buffalo last week. That Baltimore has had such difficulty stopping the pass with a defense that’s nearly at full strength remains unnerving, but it’s at least fair to note that few opponents have as much firepower as the Bengals with star receivers Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins, who combined to make 19 catches for 276 yards and four touchdowns on Sunday.
Any way you try to frame it, there’s no denying the defense underperforming to this point.
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After the game, John Harbaugh acknowledged being “kind of aggressive” at the end of the first half, but that was an understatement to describe the bizarre sequence of events that included a successful fourth-and-1 run from his own 23-yard line with under two minutes to go. The Ravens clearly didn’t want to give Cincinnati the opportunity to score at the end of the second quarter before then receiving the kickoff to open the second half, but unnecessarily running a play before the two-minute warning and inexplicably calling a timeout before a third-and-10 play deep in their own territory — instead of forcing the Bengals to call one themselves — aided Cincinnati in accomplishing exactly that.
Had the Ravens lost Sunday, the 17th-year head coach would have been roasted for such poor game management.
But the positives were very encouraging for Baltimore and where it hopes to go this season.
With Cincinnati doing all it could to slow down a running game that had been unstoppable the last couple weeks, Jackson threw for four touchdowns and 348 yards, the latter being the third-highest regular-season total of his two-time MVP career. Four different players — tight ends Mark Andrews and Charlie Kolar included — eclipsed 50 receiving yards, and that didn’t even include Isaiah Likely and his two touchdown catches, the second being Jackson’s latest “bananas” scramble-and-throw highlight. Flowers was outstanding with seven catches for 111 yards, and Rashod Bateman made a few impressive catches and grabbed Jackson’s first touchdown pass of the game.
That Baltimore’s passing game went toe to toe with Burrow and Cincinnati despite trailing by 10 points for most of the second half is the kind of task critics have doubted Jackson’s ability to do over the years. No team wants to be trailing by two scores under any circumstance, mind you, but it’s encouraging to see this run-first offense overcome such adversity, especially when the Ravens defense was struggling to get stops until late in the fourth quarter.
Seven-time Pro Bowl selection Justin Tucker suggested reports of his demise may have been exaggerated as he made the game-tying 56-yard field goal with 1:35 remaining in regulation. Watching Tucker connect from such a distance in the clutch before McPherson’s miss reminded that the future Hall of Fame kicker deserved patience despite his uncharacteristic struggles to open 2024.
8And on a day when the Bengals were mostly able to bottle him up, Derrick Henry still proved to be a dynamic finisher with a 51-yard run to set up Tucker’s game-winning chip shot.
Whether it’s the first Sunday in October or late January, the best teams find different ways to win over the course of a long season.
Yes, the Ravens did much to win and plenty to lose in an up-and-down performance in Cincinnati. If we’re being honest, they may have been more lucky than good in the final minutes. But they got the job done for their third straight victory to improve to 3-2 and move into a tie with Pittsburgh for first place in the AFC North while putting the Bengals in an even deeper hole that threatens to sink their 2024 chances altogether.
Sunday’s overtime thriller will not only go down as a game to remember, but it could prove to define two teams going in opposite directions more than a quarter of the way through the 2024 season.
