The Ravens defense has finally come to play for the 2022/23 NFL season. The Baltimore Ravens have defeated their divisional rivals, the Cincinatti Bengals, 19-17 as their defense dominated the Bengals offense to preserve the win.
This was another classic AFC North divisional game. A tough, rugged, dirty, fierce, bone-breaking affair. It’s no wonder the fans of the Steelers, Ravens, Bengals, and Browns are so prideful about their team’s, respective, defense year in and year out.
Who would high-powered, lighting-quick offenses when you can have stingy, aggressive, and ruthless defenses duking it out for supremacy in the most competitive division of all-time (at least in my opinion). And, like I said, this game was no different.
Both the Ravens and Bengals’ offenses were stifled all night long as there were only three collective touchdowns (one by Baltimore, two by Cincinatti) scored. The rest of the points came from the legs of Justin Tucker and Evan McPherson as the Ravens and Bengals defenses stopped their opposing offenses on nearly every drive.
Though, I do have to mention that some of the Ravens offensive misfires were down to their own inept play. Simply put, this was one of the worst passing games I’ve seen Lamar Jackson have since his rookie season, and definitely his worst of the year thus far.
Even though he threw for 19/32, 174 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT, he missed two EASY throws that should have sealed this game for Baltimore much earlier.
The first came during the 2nd Quarter, with the Ravens up by 10-0 and on the 50-yard line, as he overthrew an open Demarcus Robinson. Though, what’s worse was that his gross overthrow landed right into the hands of Bengals safety Von Bell, which obviously ended the Baltimore drive right in its tracks.
Now, it’s not a guarantee that the Ravens would have scored a touchdown, but in that position on the field, a field goal would have been a guarantee if he connected with Robinson. Especially with Justin Tucker as their kicker.
The second throw, which was even worse, came at the start of the 3rd Quarter when the Bengals had just tied the score at 10.
On a 4th and 2 at the 40-yard line, Jackson snapped the ball, faked out two Bengals rushers, and slinged a 30-yard bomb downfield to a WIDE OPEN Tylan Wallace, who was streaking into the endzone. Though, just like the first throw, Jackson overshot his defender BADLY and the Bengals took over on downs, thus ending another Ravens drive prematurely.
That’s at least 6 points lost because of Jackson’s poor accuracy.
I don’t know what affected Lamar Jackson’s throws so much last night, whether it was the cold, the wind, or something else, but he looked really bad. Everyone’s entitled to a bad game once in a while, so there’s no reason to be overly worried. But it was way too noticeable not to mention.
Anyway, Lamar’s struggles gave rise for the much-maligned Baltimore defense to finally shine (hey, that rhythmed). The Ravens defense racked up 3 sacks, 5 TFL, 5 QB hits, 5 PD, and had an interception through LB Patrick Queen intercepting his former LSU teammate, Joe Burrow, on the drive right after Jackson missed his throw on 4th down.
Nonetheless, what was more impressive than the sacks, QB hits, and tackles for losses was the Ravens shutdown secondary. Led by CBs Marcus Peters and Marlon Humphrey, the Ravens defensive backfield held Ja’Marr Chase to only 50 yards, kept every Bengals receiver under 60 yards or less, only gave up one passing TD, and forced Joe Burrow into having a putrid 30.6 QBR.
It was honestly extremely impressive how efficiently they shutdown Joe Burrow (24/35, 217, 1 TD, 1 INT, 1 Rushing TD).
Although, they weren’t able to keep Burrow down forever as on the final Bengals drive of the game, Burrow led his team 68 yards in approximately seven minutes to score a rushing TD to put the Bengals up by 1 with under two minutes to go. Even when you think Joe Burrow is out of the game, he always manages to pull off some incredible 60+ yard drive that gives the Bengals the chance to win.
He’s like a young Tom Brady in that respect.
But, despite all of the criticism I’ve leveled at Lamar Jackson’s passing accuracy in this game, his running ability never faulted. He drove the Ravens right back down the field behind the power of his legs and into field goal range, to which Justin Tucker (obviously) made the clutch 43-yard, game-winning field goal to give the Ravens the 19-17 win and lead in the AFC North.
What a game! Like I said earlier, it’s always great to watch any of the AFC North teams battle off against one another as, despite how bad/good they are in that given season, they’ll always give one another a tremendous fight. And, with how the AFC is playing out this season with the Dolphins’ injuries and the Raiders and Broncos struggles, I would bet that these two teams will make the playoffs and probably face one another in January.
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