The Ravens escaped.
They survived.
Yes, Baltimore won ugly in Cleveland, but it beats the alternative, especially when John Harbaugh’s team hadn’t swept the Browns since the 2020 season and had lost three of the four previous trips to the shores of Lake Erie. After starting a season 1-5, you aren’t in a position to drop any more games you have no business losing if you’re the team you believe you can be.
Whether Mark Andrews’ 35-yard touchdown run on fourth down goes down as a catalyst for the Ravens truly taking off down the stretch or merely a highlight play in a 23-16 divisional victory, they preserved what margin for error they still have. Falling to 4-6 wouldn’t have been a death knell by any means, but it would have required heavier lifting in December and early January when the schedule toughens up again.
Sunday marked just the eighth start of Lamar Jackson’s career in which the two-time MVP neither threw for a touchdown nor ran for one, and two of the previous seven were games in which he exited because of injury. You’ll gladly take a win any time your star quarterback doesn’t play well, especially when Browns edge rusher Myles Garrett threatened to wreck the game by himself with four sacks.
But there were indeed positives to take away beyond finding a way to win despite finishing minus-2 in the turnover department and going 1-for-4 inside the red zone and 1-for-3 in goal-to-go situations against a very tough Cleveland defense.
The Ravens defense continued its climb from the NFL’s bottom to make life miserable for Browns rookie quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders, who combined to complete just 11 of 26 passes. Not only did Baltimore register three sacks and a season-best pressure rate of 45.5%, but holding the Browns to a field goal after punt returner LaJohntay Wester’s second-quarter fumble put Cleveland at the 6-yard line proved to be one of the game’s most pivotal sequences. The Ravens held the Browns to just 64 yards on 28 plays in the second half to pitch a shutout after intermission.
8
The in-season acquisitions of safety Alohi Gilman and edge defender Dre’Mont Jones continue to pay major dividends, and moving two-time Pro Bowl safety Kyle Hamilton closer to the line of scrimmage has unlocked one of the NFL’s most dynamic players. No other position on either side of the ball comes close to matching the value of an elite quarterback, but suggesting the versatile Hamilton has become the Jackson of the defense hardly sounds crazy at this point.
Let’s also give a nod to veteran cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, whose end-zone breakup of a Sanders pass to Gage Larvadain thwarted Cleveland’s best chance to tie the game in the final moments. For all the hype the Jaire Alexander signing received over the summer, Awuzie — who signed a one-year, $1.255 million deal in late March — has been one of Baltimore’s steadiest defensive performers despite seeing his role diminish last month. He played at a high level filling in for the injured Marlon Humphrey.
While no one is crowning this defense as the second coming of the 2000 Ravens after taking down an underwhelming post-bye slate of quarterbacks and offenses, Zach Orr’s group has come a long way from comparisons to the 1996 defense and that nightmare five-game start. You can only play the teams on your schedule and fair questions persist about the defensive line and pass rush, but we’ll get a better gauge of how far the defense has come beginning in Week 13 against Cincinnati and continuing into the month of December.
Even as much of Sunday’s attention fell on a below-average offensive line that surrendered five sacks and a 37.5% pressure rate and an off-day for Jackson, the ground game fared much better than it did against Cleveland in Week 2 when Baltimore finished with its lowest rushing total in a game started by Jackson in his entire career. The Ravens still had too many negative plays, but Next Gen Stats tracked Derrick Henry with 65 yards before contact, which marked his second most in a game in 2025 and the most a running back has registered against the Browns this season.
Of course, offensive coordinator Todd Monken and the rest of the coaching staff deserves their flowers for the fake “tush push” call executed perfectly for Andrews’ game-winning touchdown run. It doesn’t get any better than that in a high-leverage situation.
8With Thanksgiving nearly upon us, it’s tough to know exactly what to make of this Ravens team that deserves credit for getting off the mat to win four straight after the four-game losing streak that threatened to ruin the season before Halloween. Baltimore doesn’t look like the regular-season juggernaut and serious Super Bowl contender it’s been in recent years, but this team is still good enough to be the favorite to win the AFC North as Pittsburgh now faces questions about the health of Aaron Rodgers and Cincinnati just suffered its seventh loss.
At 5-5, the Ravens are back to “just above water” in Harbaugh’s words with a seven-game sprint ahead to try to continue improving and make the playoffs in an AFC still looking as wide open as ever. If nothing else, they’ll hope Sunday’s ugly win serves as another character-building experience for a team that’s too often lost that kind of game to the Browns in recent years.
“It’s just a tough league. It’s not going to be perfect too often,” Harbaugh said. “Even when it seems perfect, everybody can still find something, and you should because you want to improve. But that’s how it works. It’s like DeAndre [Hopkins] said: ‘All these things that we’ve been through, that makes us who we are going forward.'”
We’re going to find out over these next seven weeks and beyond.
