The Baltimore Ravens fell to the Cleveland Browns, 13-3, in Week 15 of the 2022 season at FirstEnergy Field.
The loss pushes the Ravens back to 9-5 and a half game behind the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC North.
RSR staff react to the loss here.
Derek Arnold
Basically all you need to know about this game, you learned watching the Ravens’ very first drive. They moved the ball into the red zone easily, on the backs of Gus Edwards and JK Dobbins. They then came away with no points after failing on a fourth-and-1 attempt.
Warren Sharp summed it up nicely here.
this game has been a Greg Roman special
Ravens RBs are averaging 8.7 YPC
Dobbins -> 9.6 YPC
Edwards -> 7.9 YPCand yet Huntley has 28 attempts?
which are averaging only 4.8 yds/pass
vs the worst run defense in the NFL since at least 2000
make it make sense, Greg Roman
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) December 18, 2022
Huntley isn’t very good, but Roman put him in bad situations, as he does with Lamar Jackson often. Time and again, the Ravens would get behind the chains with a first down loss or no-gain passing play, despite being able to do whatever they wanted on the ground all day. With 10 minutes left, they had a drive stall at midfield where they didn’t run the ball a single time. Down 10 with 10 minutes to play! And on the fourth down failure that particular time, once again the play was late coming in and everything was rushed.
That’s now ONE touchdown in the first half in the last FIVE games for the Ravens, and no touchdowns today after not scoring one until the final seconds two weeks ago against Denver.
Maybe getting Lamar Jackson back fixes this…a little. You’d like to think that, with a running game like this, the play-action game could really cause some damage. Until we see it though, we will still have more questions than answers about this plodding mistake-prone team.
Chris Schisler
Let’s keep this short and to the point, because nothing about this game was sweet. This game was a dark and gloomy nightmare. Nothing went right.
The first chance for the offense was squandered. The running backs were borderline unstoppable, but hey they gave it to Pat Ricard for a whole lot of nothing. We saw a missed field goal and Justin Tucker had another field goal blocked. Demarcus Robinson fumbled, Huntley had a red zone interception on a throw that got away from him. Nothing went right, and the Ravens made mistakes you can’t get away with.
This game got worse at an aggressive rate that was frostier than the snow flurries in Cleveland. The defense was in an impossible position. It was a valiant effort and that will get lost in the shuffle. The offense wasted so many chances to score. You just can’t win that way. It was a bad day. They happen. Start rooting for Bengals losses. The Ravens lost the driver’s seat.
The Ravens had over 300 yards. J.K. Dobbins had 125 of them. The Ravens earned 18 first downs. It didn’t matter. When push came to shove the Ravens couldn’t do anything. They essentially laid an egg. The only things the matter are the chances the Ravens threw away.
Darin McCann
In a game of inches, the Ravens lost this one by a foot — one disgusting inch at a time.
An early failed fourth-down attempt deep in Cleveland territory, a missed field goal, a pick in the red zone, a third-down sack overturned by a facemask resulted in the game’s only touchdown, a blocked field goal, a fourth-down pass through the fingers… get the point? Bad coaching decisions, an impotent offense, an inability to make a momentum-changing play on defense and some general yuckiness all combined for an ugly loss. The Ravens better hope Lamar Jackson is back next week, or they might want to lean on a resurgent run game when they get close to pay dirt. This was a bad loss — but at least they aren’t the Colts, amirite?
Nikhil Mehta
You want real knee-jerk?
Here’s one:
Ronald Toothe
Fire Greg Roman. Period. John Harbaugh can save us all the “we were playing with our backup” talk for the more gullible among us, but however you want to slice it that was as pitiful performance as an offense comprised of NFL players could muster.
The sad part is, Roman won’t be fired. Harbaugh has already proven that he doesn’t have the killer instinct he once had to make such a necessary move. You can go for all the 4th downs you want, that doesn’t make you ballsy. Being ballsy is identifying the clear fox in your hen house and eradicating it. No matter who’s under center, every week like clockwork we’re sitting here lamenting Roman’s decisions, even in victories.
Another week with more of the same, and there’s zero indication of anything being fixed before January. At this point all we can do is ride out this season and hope that Eric DeCosta and Steve Bisciotti show the internal fortitude that their current head coach so sorely lacks. At this point, Roman’s job shouldn’t be the only one on the chopping block.
Jared Pinder
No excuses for this offense and the man that controls it. Roman was just straight up asleep this game. There was no excuse for Huntley to throw 30 times this game with the backs both averaging over 8 yards this game. I don’t care if he was trying to establish the pass, he shouldn’t be doing that. Roman is just stale and yet John continues to go to bat for his guy and nothing will change.
Yes, I am starting to get on the “John Harbaugh needs to go” train as well. We are dangerously approaching Andy Reid with the Eagles territory with this team. I think it might be time at this point.
The defense wasn’t that bad outside of one drive. You can’t expect defenses to be the 2000 unit anymore.
This is the game for me that pushed me over the “Greg needs to be gone” edge. At least for the other games the offense wasn’t healthy, but he had a run game today and he chose to go away from it.
Rob Shields
I was hoping for a split with Lamar out and we got it. That’s the good news.
The bad news is that they should/could have won today. But in a season-long theme, this team continues to be dumb and make poor ill-timed mistakes.
Coaching decisions, penalties, turnovers and now we get to add in missed FGs. Just a cluster of stupidity and unforced errors.
When you rush for 200 yards, you aren’t supposed to lose… and you are supposed to score points.
And can we please end the “Huntley is a starter” talk. He can’t threaten the defense beyond 10 yards. He does do decent in the short, up tempo passing game but otherwise, he can’t do much. He’s fine for a back up but any talk outside of that needs to be over..for good.
Kevin McNelis
*Insert “Price is Right” loser horns*
What a disaster. I understand trying to preserve JK as he continues to recover, and he acknowledged himself that he still needs some time to get up to speed, but there is NO reason that Tyler Huntley needs to be throwing 30 times in that game.
When we hit the halfway point of the schedule, I was relieved that it looked like a slate of some easier opponents would be coming. If we can’t move the ball, though, it doesn’t matter who we play.
Onto the Falcons.
19 Responses
Let’s see, both RBs averaging over 8 yds per carry, second string QB, cold weather, only down 10 points. With plenty of time left. Yeah let’s throw the ball 30 times. Brilliant
My favorite is the delay of game COMING OUT OF A TIME OUT. 🙄
EVERY GAME!
Horrible day by Roman obscures the fact that no OC in football is competing in Jan with(checks notes) the worst WR corps in the league for at least 5 years running. Until this front office understands that WR is now 2nd most important position and you need at least 5 quality WR when season starts we are doomed. Any other contender loses Bateman its a speed bump. We lose him and our SB chances (slim as they were), go out the window
Qualified WRs DON’T want to play in this system! That’s why Hollywood Brown wanted to be traded and, if you look on the internet, you’ll find numerous articles indicating why WRs don’t want to play here! It’s been 10 games since a WR caught a TD pass and this is a professional football team! Embarrassing and…..pathetic!
Super bowl chances? You can give Roman cheetah, Jefferson and Kupp and he will send all three in the same distanc eon the same side. Wonder why Hollywood wanted out? Because he knew.
roman does not know how to pass, yet he called 30 pass plays today when the running game was churning 9 yards a play. Incomprehensible lack of understanding of the game.
roman must have compromising pics of Harbaugh because there is NO other explanation for Harb’s loyalty for that so called offensive coordinator
As a loyal, die hard Baltimore football fan, I hope this loss marks the beginning of the end of the John Harbaugh era and his antiquated offensive system and philosophy! Blame Roman if you like, but he, Cameron, Caldwell, Trestman and Mornhinwheg all shared one thing in common…..they ran Harbaugh’s offensive system the way Harbaugh wanted it run! Imagine the stat announced today that a Ravens WR hasn’t caught a TD pass in 10 games! And, there are those who believe we can get qualified WRs to play here! As someone commented recently, sooner or later winning ugly catches up with you….
Nothing else to say but #BurnItDown
8, Get out of here…FAST.
Wow. How uncanny. I guess you and we’re commenting on this the same time and we both felt it was time to burn it all down. See the universe knows. It wants to be heard.
For god almighty… it’s time. Let GRo go. DeCosta needs to have a talk with his coach. This team needs a spark and we have squandered the roquan bump, the Stanley bump and <fill in the blanks> bump… did you hear harbs – “everything else is a problem around Huntley” – and he is going to show up in his professorial glasses on the recap and share how the browns were schematically brilliant. It is getting very annoying to hear Jameson ask.. “so what make the the <blank> so good?” Burn it all down.
we Have wasted 5 years of cheap Lamar contract. It,s over unfortunately. Now it’s $45 million a year. When they zig we zag? All we have showing for it is 1 playoff victory. Keep zagging, Greg and Harb’s.
31 NFL teams know that it’s a passing league, yet we keep zagging with a QB who is 5 years older, not an inch a better passer than he was 3 years ago, and NO downfield threat. Keep zagging. 31 teams don’t know. We do.
it’s been fun to watch Lamar doing magic but the league has caught on. We will not get back to to 2019 because Lamar is older, the league has figured him out, and he’s much more expensive. Time for a rebuild, starting in the coaching staff (Greg Roman is fired or Harb’s is shown the door). That you for SB 47 (won the good old way with three passing touchdowns and a mile high miracle, NOT running)
ok ..fire roman..but that would make 6 offensive coordinators since 2012…SIX…..should have run more, shouldn`t have run more…whatever…we don`t have a downfield passing game..period..and we don`t have one because the system the ravens want to use isn`t downfield passing game friendly…why?…because we don`t have a consistently accurate downfield passer…why are huntley and the third stringer our back-ups…because their game most resembles lamar`s athletic,run first offensive style…..not because they can pass the ball 15 yards downfield efficiently and consistently….we don`t have a pure passer on this roster…and until we do,these situations will continue….it is what it is…when we went to this system,we should have all known the up and down sides of what it would yield….it is good enough to get us to or at least near the playoffs every year….and that`s pretty darned good…
all this pearl clutching…just stop it…that isn`t our offense and bringing in every blue chip pass catcher won`t change that….we are what we are….we are a run first team…a throw back in a passing league…..and that won` change based on our qb`s strengths and weaknesses..it has it`s advantages and it`s disadvantages…sometimes it`s gonna work like a champ and sometimes it won`t….we are what we are and we aren`t a downfield passing team…it`s not how we`re configured….run more…pass more…fan and media b.s..we`re 5 years in…it is what it is regardless of who the offensive coordiantor is…that`s another superficial fix….
….
lol
Fire Harbaugh. Been stealing Steve’s money since 2016. What an effing fraud he is.
Even with Bateman this passing game would be just bad, instead of abysmal. It’s like the offense is trying to walk with one leg. Did I read this right: receivers had minus one yard at half time? No receiver touchdown since the third week? That can’t be just QB although I agree Huntley is nothing special. Roman and Harbaugh should go yes, but why do so few call out DeCosta? How many WRs has he drafted and how many are making contributions on the field? None of his first-round picks are making first-round type contributions. He buys established players and develops defensive linemen. For the last 10 years of his leadership Ozzie wasn’t much better. But we hang onto this myth of a legendary front office.
One of the worst offensive performances I have ever seen from a Ravens , B more Colts, or Stallions game going back to 1964. Reminded me of the the early and late 70s post Unitas/ post Jones offenses. They need an enema and some viagra . Todays football is hard for me to watch in general. This game makes me want to do yardwork.
I’m with the majority. We needed change a month ago. I won’t beat a dead horse. To many negatives and not enough positives. Most of the negatives begin and end with the coaching decisions. I tried to think like the FO and SB and say we just need to remove the OC after the season and see what happens. Now, after listening and watching and pondering the decision making this season, we need to make that CHANGE. It’s a mindset and the continual inability to make adjustments and smart decisions, impacts the players on the field. Hats off to the effort of these players in a no-win situation. Coaching changes after the season. Yes I still like Payton but there are many candidates that can do better than what we have here. EDC and SB, let’s make that CHANGE. We all deserve better-the fans, the community, and especially the players.
I wouldn’t be opposed to a complete reset for this organization, including the front office. Other than the trade for Peters in 2019 EDC has has shown me nothing. Two playoff wins since the 2012 SB. During that time we had two franchise QBs in their prime, Flacco and Jackson. Just sad, I hate mediocrity and that is what this organization has become for almost a decade.