After deflating back-to-back division losses at home, it was perfectly fair to ask whether the Ravens were going to get off the mat in Cincinnati on Sunday.
A sub-.500 team entering Week 15 hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt, but the same certainly applied to the Bengals, especially after they blew a 10-point fourth-quarter lead in Buffalo last week to all but eliminate what remained of their faint playoff hopes. The way two teams in such fragile states started Sunday’s game figured to be critical, especially playing in such frigid conditions.
But it was Baltimore weathering another slow start offensively to record its first shutout in more than seven years in a 24-0 win that head coach John Harbaugh labeled his team’s “best football game of the year.” In truth, that wasn’t a high bar with the Ravens owning just one victory all season against a team currently over .500, but Sunday was as close as they’ve come to looking like the Super Bowl contender everyone predicted since the fourth-quarter collapse in Buffalo in the season opener and the nightmare 1-5 start that followed.
Such a showing against the 4-10 Bengals doesn’t erase the mediocrity over the first 13 games in a humbling week-to-week league, but showing such toughness and swagger in beating an elite quarterback on the road was certainly a heartening development. And it makes the remaining three-game gauntlet against New England, Green Bay, and Pittsburgh — the last two coming on the road — to close the regular season feel a little less daunting.
In what was a must-win game psychologically, the Ravens rose to the occasion to get their arrow pointing in the right direction again.
The first 10 minutes of the game looked to be the opposite as Baltimore’s opening drive ended with Lamar Jackson being sacked near midfield and the Bengals moved the ball methodically to begin their first drive, looking like the team handling the cold better. But a short Joe Burrow pass that would have moved Cincinnati inside the red zone bounced off Ja’Marr Chase’s hands on a second-and-4 and the returning Tavius Robinson sacked Burrow on the next play to knock the Bengals out of field goal range.
The game was far from over at that point, of course, but the Ravens defense began taking control from that moment as Burrow looked out of sorts and Chase registered multiple drops in a 132-yard receiving day that was more empty calories than impactful. The key to the game was Baltimore’s maligned defensive front beating up a Cincinnati offensive line that had played better in recent weeks as the Ravens registered three sacks and 10 quarterback hits. Five of those hits came from edge defender Dre’Mont Jones, whose bravado and postgame comments put an exclamation point on Baltimore playing the part of the bully Sunday.
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“I think we just wanted to attack,” said Jones, who added that the Ravens handled the cold much better than the Bengals did. “We knew we had them on their heels just by how they were calling [plays], how they looked, their demeanor. They didn’t feel lively to me, and I feel like we just wanted to attack them.”
There was no better example of that than the play that sealed the game as Robinson pressured Burrow into an ill-advised throw and Kyle Van Noy intercepted it inside the 10 and astutely handed the ball to the faster Alohi Gilman, who ran all the way for a touchdown and a 24-0 lead with 7:38 to play.
Offensively, it was a strange day for the Ravens as they ran just 40 plays with Cincinnati trying to play ball control and owning a virtual 2-to-1 edge in time of possession. But Baltimore finally broke through late in the first half with Jackson wisely checking into a pass to the flat to counter the Bengals blitz on third-and-7 and hitting backup running back Rasheen Ali for a 30-yard touchdown. On his next drive, Jackson threw a beautiful 28-yard touchdown to Zay Flowers, who atoned for a drop leading to an interception earlier in the half.
It’s worth noting that both touchdown drives included a Jackson scramble of more than 10 yards, which was the latest example of the two-time MVP quarterback looking healthier coming out of one of the most difficult stretches of his career last month. This offense still isn’t firing on all cylinders, but Jackson looking better and better and the Ravens leaning against a porous Bengals defense with the ground game in the second half were encouraging signs. After eight plays of 20 or more yards, Baltimore’s 7.9 yards per play marked its best average in a game since Week 1.
Yes, the Ravens finally played the complementary football that’s eluded them all season, but there’s no time for pats on the back with the schedule only getting tougher from here and overtaking Pittsburgh for the AFC North being their only path to the postseason.
The Ravens were able to play a complete game against a bad team on the road, but the 11-3 Patriots will now come to M&T Bank Stadium in a foul mood next Sunday night after blowing a 21-point lead against Buffalo for their first loss since Week 3. Both teams have much to prove with the Patriots still needing to clinch the AFC East and wanting to show their prosperity in Mike Vrabel’s first year as head coach is much more than the product of playing the NFL’s easiest schedule. For the Ravens, it’s an opportunity to show Sunday’s dominance was much more about them and less about the Bengals looking like they gave up.
The dominant win over the Bengals was an encouraging step in the right direction we’ve been waiting to see for weeks, but the 7-7 Ravens still have much work to do to show they’re a real threat in the AFC.
