The Baltimore Ravens defeated the Cincinnati Bengals, 34-20, in Week 11 on Thursday Night Football. RSR staff react to the win here…
Derek Arnold
What a weird game. You had Cincy LB Logan Wilson on a one-man mission to injure as many Ravens as possible, some mystery pilot flying drones over the stadium every hour, a referee I’ve never seen before…and of course, importantly, Joe Burrow‘s hand mysteriously swelling up like a balloon around the time he threw a TD pass to give his team their only short-lived lead of the evening.
It was a great opening drive by the offense, which then stalled for the next several. On that drive, they also lost Mark Andrews, c/o Wilson, to an ankle injury. Hopefully not season-ending…
Meanwhile, the defense was again showing signs of being pushed around, as Joe Mixon was finding tons of room on early downs. The D looks like they REALLY need this mini-bye. Fingers crossed that’s all it is, fatigue. Because the gaps opposing OLs have been blowing in the front seven are…disturbing. As are the holes in the middle of the zones.
Lamar’s ankle was also busted up a bit – thanks to Wilson. As was OBJ’s shoulder after a long fourth-quarter catch – THANKS TO DAMN WILSON. We’ll wait with bated breath for news on Andrews & Odell.
As for the Bengals and Burrow…that’s their problem. They got to play against Tyler Huntley in a playoff game. Crap happens. And crap usually happens right before teams are scheduled to play the Steelers, but I digress…
P.S. Huge shoutout to the crowd at M&T Bank Stadium. The place is LOUD again. The noise caused several problems for Cincy’s offense when Burrow was still in the game.
Brennan Stewart
Ah, how relieving it is to go into a fourth quarter with a 14-point lead and not completely blow it.
A lot to be happy about in this one, and a lot to be upset about, too. Fingers crossed that Mark Andrews is only dealing with a high ankle sprain— he would likely be able to return in four weeks at the earliest, and that’s with a bye week mixed in. As for Lamar Jackson’s ankle issues, I would’ve liked to see him run less after limping so much, but hopefully the extra rush attempts don’t hinder his chances of playing against the Chargers. Keep an eye out for him on the next injury report.
With that said, Logan Wilson should be public enemy number one in Baltimore.
Ronald Darby didn’t get enough praise tonight, accounting for three crucial pass breakups that kept the Bengals out of the red zone. Pat Queen was the star of the linebacker corps, notching nine solo tackles.
Overall, it’s hard to feel unsatisfied with such a wide win margin.
Kevin McNelis
This one looked painful to start, and there were bumps and bruises throughout. Lamar seems like he’ll be fine, but time will tell on Mark Andrews and OBJ. This was a game they had to have, though, and the offense paid dividends as the defense took over in the second half.
Sure, Baltimore faced a back-up QB for a good portion of the game, so the kitty cat fans will want to put an asterisk next to this one, but if we didn’t get a pass for Tyler Huntley losing in a start against them, they don’t get a pass either. Tough break, kids.
Among the things that did the heart good tonight were Gus continuing to roll and Justin Madubuike continuing to hunt every QB under the sun. My favorite, though, was seeing a sour expression on Ja’Marr Chase’s face for most of the evening.
Chad Racine
No fourth quarter collapse tonight. The Ravens can feel good going into the mini bye at a good time.
OBJ had a great game after showing flashes in recent weeks. I predicted a touchdown but not the prolific receiving stats tonight. What was impressive was his speed and elusivenes after the catch. Let’s hope the injury isn’t severe because he’s rounding into peak form.
Keaton Mitchell is again as advertised. When he gets a little space he makes good things happen.
Andrews going out for the game was the worst thing to happen tonight with another scare with Lamar. This mini bye is much needed with the actual bye not far behind.
Darin McCann
The Flock will be waiting on pins and needles to get an update on the health of Mark Andrews, and that is definitely something that can impact them going forward.
But this was a big win. The Joe Burrow injury certainly affected how the game played out, at least to some extent, but the Ravens’ offense heated up with that final drive of the first half, and it was very encouraging to see the run game salt things away in the fourth quarter. How about that Beckham fella? He showed a little something tonight, didn’t he?
Lamar Jackson was good, and played extremely gutsy after injuring his own ankle. The good news is the Ravens have a mini-bye week now for Jackson to try to heal, and he did continue to run after hurting it.
Big win.
Rob Shields
Needed the win and got the win. That’s obviously important.
Of course, the talk of this game is all about the injuries. Andrews hurt early, Lamar tweaks an ankle and of course, Burrow has the injury that takes him out of the game and made this game far easier.
We now wait and see what happens to Andrews and hopefully OBJ doesn’t have a bad shoulder injury.
The Ravens have just one game in the next 23 days. Get some much needed rest and healing time.
Jared Pinder
The Ravens avoid a fourth-quarter collapse and sweep the Bengals. This game would have been much closer if Burrow was in obviously but you can’t use injuries as an excuse when we several Ravens got hurt as well tonight. The Ravens now sit atop the AFC North and have a mini-bye to prepare for the Chargers in L.A.
Overall a solid game but the problems on this team are starting to show with the offensive line having another down day and the defense looked really bad when Joe was in. They really need this mini bye and their real bye coming up after this Chargers game to regroup and get healthy.
Nick Polinsky
Tonight was much less stressful than this past Sunday. Of course, Joe Burrow going out early with a throwing hand injury made it much easier, but nonetheless it was a cleaner operation.
Tackling woes came up early, but they improved over the course of the game. The biggest question mark out of this game was once again the linebacker pass defense. Queen looked suspect in man coverage, and a few too many passes were completed over the middle of the field against zone coverages for anyone’s liking. It’s hard to make any major conclusions due to Burrow’s injury, but the defense continued to show they’re an elite unit.
The offense has finally begun to take their shots, which is something we’ve all been yearning for. The top four wide receivers all made contributions for Baltimore, including Odell Beckham Jr. with over 100 yards. Most importantly, Lamar Jackson played turnover free football and when that happens, it usually leads to very, very good things.
The Ravens did exactly what they needed to against a tough divisional opponent, defend the home turf and lower the eyebrows that may have been raised after last week.
Chris Schisler
This was a very good win for the Ravens. When the Bengals lost Joe Burrow, it took the style points away from the victory. While you hope Burrow is ultimately okay, it’s irrelevant. The Ravens got to bury the Bengals a bit farther and now they just need the Browns and Steelers to drop off a bit, for some AFC North comfort.
Injuries put a damper on the game in general. The Mark Andrews injury was the last thing Baltimore wanted to see. The Ravens also got lucky a couple of times in this game. They had a touchdown pass mercifully bounce into Nelson Agholor’s hands off the ricochet by a defender. The Ravens were granted a seemingly phantom pass interference penalty that continued a touchdown drive. In general this game was just odd. The officiating was poor for both sides.
Odell Beckham Jr. is having a great stretch. Kyle Hamilton quietly had an incredible game. His top highlight was dislodging the football from Ja’Marr Chase one-on-one. Justin Madubuike and Odafe Oweh were fantastic. Jadeveon Clowney was impressive off the edge.
The run game for the Ravens got the job done. Especially in the second half. Gus Edwards is so dependable. Keaton Mitchell still needs more carries, he was good again. Overall it’s a win in the AFC North. Those are never easy to get, so the Ravens had a powerful evening.
6 Responses
Call me crazy but i think we can handle Andrews out more than OBJ. OBJ, Flowers, Agholor, Bateman, Likely, Edwards, Mitchell are more than enough weapons to win with. Lose OBJ though that would be killer. He looking like a big time weapon last 3 games plus Andrews has butter fingers every January
But guys – let’s be honest. We all felt it a bit. When burrow was operating before the injury and mixon was running carefree – I and I am sure other folks pictured mahomes sitting back there and doing the same thing. We got through this one but for about half hour or so this was looking a little precarious. Good job – onto the next one.
Can the league who cares about player safety just get rid of Thursday night games except for Thanksgiving? 17 games plus post season is bad enough. This game for all intense purposes was over when Joe the Burrow went out. Gutsy play by Lamar being nicked up too. Refs really you know what the big one. Andrews out for year will hurt bad but maybe force a change in offensive game plan that might be good?Who knows? Time will tell.
The league may be inviting litigation by subjecting players unnecessarily to risk of injury with only 3 days rest with these Thursday night games! They don’t care about safety, but they do care about liability and it may take a lawsuit to put an end to the hypocrisy……
It’s axiomatic that sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good! Last night the Ravens were both! The moment that Burrow left the game after inexplicably suffering a wrist injury on his throwing hand by tossing a 5 yard TD pass without being touched, this game was…..over!
On any given Sunday or Monday or Thursday. Well this season, not only this game have been strange. You don’t know what’s going to happen one game to the next.
Let’s start with injuries. We start the season with Rogers getting hurt the first week and the Jets hopes going down the drain. Just this week we see Watson go down after a good game and a potential turnaround. Last night we saw Andrews go down possibly for the season. Then Burrow goes out after the starting the season slowly recovering. The good point is it appears we have been somewhat lucky this season in comparison with the last few seasons with few serious injuries. Keep your fingers crossed.
As mentioned the officiating continues to be a big issue for all teams across the league. Just poor inconsistent officiating every week and bad call by the NFL front office. I think many of us can agree that it appears that officiating has hit an all time low. Football is oftentimes a game of momentum. It just takes a few bad calls and a team can become totally deflated by a few bad calls and turn the game around for the opponent. Let’s be honest, it’s not one particular team, it’s all teams!!
Now to the game. It was a strange game definitely. It’s sad to see Andrews go out but it may have been a blessing in disguise. After he went out, the team seemed somewhat lackluster. I started to get this uneasy feeling that Burrow and Co. would come back and win the game.
Then when the game seemed to be flipping in favor of the Bengals Burrow goes out of the game. It seemed that from that moment on the momentum swung back to our favor. Without Andrews, the running game with Mitchell, Edwards, and Jackson seemed to start moving the ball. Jackson then started hitting his targets after missing a few long targets earlier in the second half. The offense started to move up and down the field and score. The defense, now without Burrow in the game, started to shut down the run and pressure the QB.
It’s strange how games can change at the oddest times. Sometimes it’s good to be talented but sometimes it’s good to be lucky. This time we got a few breaks. We have some time to regroup and hopefully come back and win against the Chargers. Then we get a bye week. Great timing. We need the break, to get healthy again, rest up and regroup for that late season run.