Ravens Finally Avoid Collapse, Win 23-20

The Ravens managed to hang on to beat the Cleveland Browns, 23-20 in Week 7 of the 2022 season. RSR staff react to the win here.

Ben Dackiw

It’s only fitting to get an ugly win while celebrating the 2012 Super Bowl.

The defense was fine. They couldn’t bring down Nick Chubb in the 4th quarter, but to be fair, not many defenses can.

Greg Roman needs to shape up. He did not call a good game. Condensing your personnel around the ball when Rashod Bateman is playing just isn’t a good look.

Lamar looked off. Again. I don’t know if he’s dropping back too far, but he wasn’t doing his offensive line any favors.

Lots to fix with only a few days to go until Thursday Night Football.

Chris Schisler

The Ravens flat out got away with one. Sabotage is painful when it’s self inflicted. The Baltimore Ravens had a 23-20 lead when Justice Hill fumbled as the offense was marching towards a game winning score. The fourth quarter drama couldn’t take a break. The Ravens are inventing ways to give us heart failure.

The Ravens gave up a big throw down the field and the Browns were essentially in field goal position. The Ravens could have made a field goal next to impossible by sacking Jacoby Brisset. They seemingly had him and he slipped away for valuable yards.

The Ravens got away with it. The Browns had a false start and Cade York missed his 61-yard field goal attempt. Regardless of the result, there’s a lot to be upset about. The Ravens had a chance to put it away and have a win they could have felt great about. Instead they avoided overtime against a 2-4 team and they got a little lucky.

The offense only scored 23 points. The defense had a bad start, yet controlled most of the game. 23 points isn’t always enough. Look, the Ravens rushed for over 160 yards and held the ball for 34 minutes of a 60 minute game. That should result in a much more convincing win. It’s a win. It’s a win that helps a lot because it’s against a divisional opponent. Still, it’s hard to feel food about this. You have to wonder if this team will ever stop leaving points on the field. The problems remained, though we get a victory Monday tomorrow. A win is a win. Thank goodness you don’t have to win in style.

Let’s end it on a positive note. Here’s a shout-out to Patrick Queen. He had a very impressive game and made some big plays. Here’s a shout-out to Mike MacDonald. His defense responded after getting punched in the mouth. The defense hasn’t given up more than 24 points since Week 3.

It’s a murky way to win. Baltimore will take it.

Chad Racine

The Ravens finally got the monkey off their backs. The Deja Vu was strong though. At first I thought this game was going to be a reverse of what we had been seeing by starting down and coming back. Well that happened but so did the 4th quarter woes with the Justice Hill fumble. Let’s hope this win does as much for the team mentally going forward.

Gus Edwards didn’t waste any time looking like his old self.

Patrick Queen has made some significant strides in the last few weeks as well. Maybe Ray Lewis‘ presence inspired him today

Justin Houston was a welcome presence back today with two sacks and a strip. Tyus Bowser and David Ojabo should spark the outside linebackers even more.

Derek Arnold

Dear Ravens,

It doesn’t have to be this hard. I promise, it really doesn’t.

Love,

A loyal fan.

Rob Shields

Well that was a totally uninspiring win.

It was great to see Gus back and just getting many of the injured guys back was nice to see.

The defense did a pretty good job against Chubb for most of the game, with the exception of the Browns’ final TD drive.

Brissett had a better game than he should but a lot of that has to do with how the defense was playing the run. They also had him getting the ball out fast.

I don’t really know what that game plan was. I’m fine with them running it a lot but your QB went 9-16 for 120 yards. There was very little rhythm to that game.  Mark Andrews didn’t catch a ball. Just a very bad look for the offense today. They ran it well at times but ultimately had less than 4 yards per carry.  It just seemed like they played not to lose today.

Defense gave up a few key drives including the fourth-quarter TD drive. They want the game in their hands and they keep giving it up, whether they are rested or not.

Glad they won and Tampa looks bad. Maybe you can steal one on the road on Thursday but still hard to have much confidence in this team.

Kevin McNelis

WHY DO WE HAVE TO DO THIS EVERY FOURTH QUARTER??

*deep breath* Ok, we won the game. I’m very happy that we secured the win. Gus Edwards looks every bit as good as the last time we saw him, and I’m grateful that the front of our defense came up big in some large spots.

That said, the Justice Hill fumble shaved about a year off my life at the end of the game. Luckily, Cleveland took a page out of our book and shot themselves in the foot a few times at the end of the game, but this could very easily have been another game the Ravens failed to close.

I guess on the bright side, Tampa just finished getting smacked around by maybe the worst team in the league, so who knows what we’ll see on Thursday night?

Here’s hoping it involves Mark Andrews getting the ball on actual passing plays this go-round.

Ron Toothe

Today, fortune favored the Baltimore Ravens. After a crucial fumble by Justice Hill late, fans everywhere began to see the 4th quarter writing on the wall once again, but luckily today it was the Browns who truly beat themselves when it counted most (in the form of two backbreaking penalties).

A win inside the division is never something to scoff at and it should be enjoyed, but we still saw an entirely incomplete performance from the Ravens today on both sides of the ball. This was far from a “get right” game in any sense of the word. There’s still much work to be done if this team has any hope of competing deep into January, and hopefully that starts with a team helping move before the upcoming trade deadline, but for today we can bask in the satisfaction of a victory over one of the Ravens most hated rivals.

Jared Pinder

Can this team please stop getting in its way please? The Ravens offense was once again sluggish but this time it is not all on Lamar. This offensive line got bodied in the run game and couldn’t block for Lamar today so it is a double whammy. It was nice to see Gus back and if they stop getting obliterated at the line, this run game can be so good. Passing offense wasn’t good but at this point what do you expect? Why does it feel like Roman will have to chop off his leg if he calls more screens. I get some of them were not successful but it just feels like something is holding back this offense.

As for the defense, if you take out two drives they looked good today. Unfortunately we can’t just forget about how soft they played on those two possessions.

And then we have those last couple of minutes that honestly feeds into the “NFL is rigged” theories. Hill can’t fumble there, but the Defense did their job and got some help from the Browns on that false start that lead to a blocked field goal.

Again the toughest opponent the Ravens will face is themselves, but these mental mistakes and bad play calls have got to stop. This team has as much talent to reach the Super Bowl, but they can’t keep beating themselves even in the wins.

Darin McCann

Well, it wasn’t great, but it was a win.

On the good side, no turnovers by the quarterback, some good stuff by the Bus and some big plays by Justin Houston and Patrick Queen. Oh, and special teams.

On the bad side… a lot of the other stuff.

Nikhil Mehta

This team sure loves to play (and sometimes win) ugly!

Fantastic to see Gus the Bus back, and I liked some of the creativity from Greg Roman with the offense sputtering. Other than that, it was another ugly day for Lamar Jackson and the offense, and that’s all I have to say about that.

This team is winning due to defense and special teams, especially fitting with a group of Ravens legends at the Bank. Jordan Stout had some boomers and the defense made some big plays when it counted.

You’ll only ever see a John Harbaugh-led team intentionally dial up a FG block play AND have it work perfectly. They did it against the Colts last year!

Unfortunately, that’s how the Ravens will have to win for now.