Chicago wins another game against an AFC North Team.
M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE — The last three times the Ravens and Chicago Bears have met, the weather has been beyond awful. A game-long Chicago rain shower in 2005, back-to-back Baltimore pregame blizzards in 2009, and a tornado warning outside Soldier Field in 2013 were the overwhelming storylines in a series that had seen the home team win each of the first five meetings in this interconference series.
But these days, the climate is considerably more gloomy around the Ravens.
Baltimore was looking to notch its second straight win and up its record to 4-2 but, instead fell to .500 with a flat, sloppy effort that led to a 27-24 overtime defeat at the hands of the Bears in front of 70,616 fans.
Chicago’s Jordan Howard had big day against Ravens (photo, Chicago Tribune)
Connor Barth’s 40-yard field goal with just over two minutes left in the extra session — the Ravens’ first overtime game in two years and the team’s first under the new 10-minute overtime rule — gave the Bears their first road win in their last 11 tries. That field goal came after Baltimore rallied via a Michael Campanaro 77-yard punt return and Nick Boyle’s two-point conversion catch with 1:37 left in regulation.
But even while backed up on its own 7-yard line, Chicago got the win by virtue of a 53-yard carry by Jordan Howard (167 yards, 36 carries) and Kendall Wright’s 18-yard leaping catch, which set up the game-winning field goal.
As a result, the Ravens failed in to notch the franchise’s 200th victory (including playoffs), which would have tied them with Seattle for the league’s sixth-most since the Ravens were born in 1996. And a win would have given head coach John Harbaugh his 99th overall win.
Chicago held territorial domination over the Ravens for most of the game, rushing for 231 yards and winning both lines of scrimmage against injury-depleted Baltimore interior lines. But the Ravens’ defense and special teams got Baltimore back into the game in the second half. Two takeaways and a big kick return did the trick.
The Bears won despite a middling game by rookie quarterback Mitch Trubisky (8-for-16, 113 yards, touchdown, four sacks, 94 rating), who was the first rookie quarterback to win in Baltimore since 1997.
Oct 15, 2017; Baltimore, MD, USA; Chicago Bears safety Adrian Amos (38) returns a Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco (not pictured) interception for a touchdown during the fourth quarter at M&T Bank Stadium. Chicago Bears defeated Baltimore Ravens 27-24 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Playing a bigger role was Calvert Hall product and Bears safety Adrian Amos, who played in three Turkey Bowls in this same stadium.
Both Chicago wins have come over AFC North teams–Pittsburgh and Baltimore. The Ravens will play yet another NFC North squad next week in Minnesota (Oct. 22, 1 p.m.; WJZ-TV; WIYY-FM).
The game started as a snooze-inducer.
The teams exchanged punts twice in a tenuous first quarter that saw them gain 65 yards between them. But the Bears held a territorial advantage, gaining five first downs to the Ravens’ one over the game’s first 13 minutes.
What’s worse, the Ravens were held without a first-quarter point for a third time in four weeks as the offense continues to struggle with inconsistency under quarterback Joe Flacco (24-for-41, 180 yards, two interceptions, three sacks, 48.8 rating).
Meanwhile, the Bears’ ground game–paced by second-year back Howard–was better prepared to sustain long drives and protect its young quarterback. Such a drive (ten plays, 60 yards) resulted in a Barth 24-yard field goal early in the second quarter, giving the visitors a 3-0 lead.
The drive was aided by a face-mask call on aggressive-tackling safety Tony Jefferson. It was one of four Ravens penalties early in the game, a week after they went through an entire game in Oakland with just one infraction. At one point, the Ravens had 44 penalty yards and 31 yards of offense.
Not only that, the Bears at that point had already run on 20 of 26 plays and racked up 58 rushing yards against a defense that was down another defensive lineman, Carl Davis (hamstring), who joined Brent Urban and Brandon Williams on a rapidly-growing injury list.
Zack Miller catches TD pass against Ravens (photo, SaukValley.com)
The Ravens tried to get their own run-game going behind Alex Collins (74 yards, 15 carries), whose runs of 30 and 12 yards put his team deep into Bears’ territory. But after gathering in a third-down pass, TE Maxx Williams fumbled the ball to kill the drive against a Bears team that had a league-worst minus-9 turnover ratio — and only three total takeaways — before the game. Williams hurt his ankle on the play and was lost for the game.
The Bears would add their first interception of the season late in the first half when a rare Flacco shot to Breshad Perriman was juggled and intercepted by Bryce Callahan, who returned the ball 52 yards.
Chicago then hit the reeling Ravens with a halfback-option pass, as Tarik Cohen found TE Zach Miller with a 21-yard touchdown pass, upping the Bears’ lead to ten points.
With Jeremy Maclin (shoulder) already deactivated, Williams hurt, and Perriman getting concussed on the interception play, the depleted Ravens offense got even thinner. And with a defense that allowed 42 points off their teammates’ last 11 giveaways, it made for a bad combination.
Flacco then had to turn to Moore, a former fourth-round pick who has been mostly deactivated this year. Two big catches by Moore and another by Michael Campanaro got the ball deep enough into Bears territory for a Justin Tucker 27-yard field goal and a 10-3 halftime deficit.
Even with Howard having a good day, Chicago relied on Cohen (32 yards, 14 carries; 14 yards, one catch) to pace a ground-oriented drive in the third quarter that ended when Trubisky rolled to his right and found TE Dion Sims for a 27-yard TD that ballooned the Chicago advantage to two touchdowns.
Joe Flacco has mediocre day against Bears (photo, Baltimore Beatdown)
As on Cohen’s halfback-option score, safety Tony Jefferson was beaten to a spot in the end zone, and the intended receiver was wide open.
But the Ravens’ special teams units, consistently one of the league’s best, got Baltimore back in the game as recently-re-signed Bobby Rainey ran back the ensuing kickoff 96 yards for a touchdown.
On the mandatory replay, there was a question whether Rainey was down by contact at the Ravens’ 25, but teammate Tyus Bowser was the player over whom Rainey leaped, not an opponent. Suddenly, it was 17-10, as the Ravens notched the league’s first kick-return score in 2017.
Safety Eric Weddle then forced a Cohen fumble late in the third quarter and Michael Pierce recovered at the Bears 39, giving the Ravens a chance to tie the game. But when Flacco was called for being across the line of scrimmage on a touchdown pass, Tucker’s 31-yard field goal could only bring Baltimore to within 17-13.
On the next series, it was Lardarius Webb’s turn to strip Trubisky and CJ Mosley recovered near midfield. But Amos made his big play soon thereafter, and the Bears survived the late Ravens’ rally to win.
By then, the sun had come out but, in reality, it had long since set on the flat, mediocre Ravens.
