The Ravens won an old school AFC North slobberknocker on Sunday Night Football, 16-10. RSR staff react to the win here.
Derek Arnold
Lamar Jackson played the worst game of his career.* The running backs again found nothing but the backs of defenders in front of them. The defense gave up chunk play after chunk play.
And yet…
I don’t know, Flock. I really don’t. That game was hideous. The teams were trading turnovers at times. The offense looked no better with Lamar Jackson than they did with Tyler Huntley last week.
The Browns, for some reason…
- kept putting the ball in injured Baker Mayfield‘s hands, instead of Nick Chubb‘s/Kareem Hunt‘s…**
- Used a timeout when the Ravens were about to be forced to burn one…
- Ran the Jarvis Landry trick play again
- Couldn’t get 11 men on the field on a Ravens fourth down despite like three chances
So, thanks for all of that, Kevin Stefanski.
Next week is Pittsburgh, who got manhandled by Cincinnati today. I expect…more ugly football.
The Ravens are currently the top seed in the AFC. They didn’t play like it…and really haven’t all year, with the exception of the Chargers game. They have issues galore. But if they can get healthy at some point…who knows?
Enjoy yet another “not pretty/but it’s us” victory.
* regular-season edition.
**yes, I know the numbers. We have to give credit to Wink and the run defense. I don’t know how they did it. Yet they only combined for 15 carries in a six-point game?
Darin McCann
I am losing my faith that this team will magically find the key to ignite this offense again this season. I have entirely lost faith in the offensive line. The running backs are seasoned guys who run hard, where they’re supposed to run, but don’t get you much more than was provided them. The quarterback is flashing too many what-was-thats. But they won again, and they did it with a brilliant run defense playing without its best run defender, a tight end who is making a case to be the best at his position in the league this season, and some random spurts of brilliance by that aforementioned quarterback.
Some have argued that the flashy, high-scoring Ravens of the previous two seasons lacked a certain grit in big moments. This year’s team is brimming with grit, and hoping for some flash to find a spark.
This was a big win against a team whose defense performed incredibly well tonight. We’ll take it.
Chad Racine
Throwing four interceptions is not playing winning football, but somehow the Ravens pulled it off again. The defense finally put together a full game and did a superb job stopping the run. Not sure what video everyone else was watching, but that David Njoku touchdown hit the ground. It was clear and obvious to me.
Tyus Bowser and Odafe Oweh were on fire tonight. They’re probably the most athletic and versatile duo in the league right now. With both under contract the next several years there is less concern than there was last off-season.
The way the Steelers played today I feel pretty good about next week.
Rob Shields
If you would have asked me to write 100 scripts of how this game could have gone, I would have still gotten it wrong.
It was one of the uglier games you will ever see and the Ravens, as they done all year, found a way to win. In many ways, they showed how superior they are compared to Cleveland. It was really just poor decision making by Lamar that kept them in this game or else it’s a blow out.
I was extremely impressed with the defense tonight. The way they shut down the run game, especially without Campbell, was extremely impressive. The pass rush was all over Baker, the corners covered well and the TEs (outside of the Njoku “touchdown”) and RBs were basically nullified. They also held Cle to 4-14 on 3rd and 4th downs.
Offensively, the run game wasn’t efficient (only 3.4 yards per carry) but it was effective and they ran it 43 times. You won’t usually win games where you throw four INTs but you also don’t usually lose if you run it 40+ times either. On the plus side, they were 7-15 on third down, which is way better than they have been. I did notice a lot fewer third and longs tonight, so it was nice to see more efficiency on first and second down.
Division games are hard to win and the win is all that matters. Every week is different. Sometimes your best player doesn’t play great and others step up. It’s the nature of a long season. Just keep stacking wins.
I don’t think the Ravens are the best team in the AFC but they are the #1 seed right now and winning games is all that matters, no matter how ugly it is….and tonight was ugly.
And on a side note, I hope we never see Jerome Boger and his officiating crew the rest of the season. That was a terribly officiated game, on both sides. The NFL needs to be better at this. So many crucial and big penalties not being called or being called. That TD catch to Njoku was ridiculous – clearly on the ground from the view from behind. Just can’t have that in these games.
