Baltimore’s second-half surge gets team to 6-5 on the season.
Sunday, November 25, 2018, M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE – In tennis lingo applied to pro football, this was a day about holding serve–for the Ravens to retain its playoff spot. And that’s exactly what this team did.
The Ravens certainly didn’t want to drop into a group of wanna be’s. But the team also didn’t have a chance to move up the pecking order. Even a win wouldn’t enable Baltimore to catch AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers for the top-four playoff seed that comes with being in first place. The fifth AFC playoff seed (and first wild-card spot) was also out of reach; the Los Angeles Chargers held a two-game edge on Baltimore.
What the Ravens had to do in front of 70,035 fans was obvious — beat an overmatched, outclassed opponent and, with a win, fend off four wild-card contenders with the same 5-5 record as the day began.
Baltimore holds that playoff edge over Miami, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and Tennessee due to a better record within the AFC (5-3).
Now a tougher assignment begins. The Ravens’ three-game home swing is over and a two-game road stretch awaits, starting with a trip to Atlanta to take on the Falcons next Sunday (1 p.m., WJZ-TV; WIYY-FM).
In a scheduling oddity, that game will mark the third time in the past four years that the Ravens will have played a game at that same season’s Super Bowl site. Super Bowl LIII. That game will take place at Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium on February 3, 2019.
But first thing first. On Sunday, the Ravens shook off a pesky Raiders team (2-9) and then cruised in a game they were heavily favored to win.
The victory gave head coach John Harbaugh his 100th regular-season win and upped the Harbaugh-led November record to a league-best 32-13 (20-4 at home).
The Ravens beat the Raiders using the same formula that worked in last week’s pivotal intradivisional victory over the Bengals. They kept the ball on the ground and got another spectacular performance from rookie quarterback Lamar Jackson and undrafted Gus Edwards.
Edwards (118 yards, 23 carries) made history, too. He became the second rookie in team history to have consecutive 100-yard games (Jamal Lewis did it first in 2000), and he was the first Raven since Justin Forsett (2015) to have two straight 100-yard games.
On the day, Baltimore rushed for 242 yards as Oakland.
But before turning to the ground game in the second half, Jackson was determined to throw the ball more–even against the league’s second-worst run defense. Through the air, Jackson ended the day 14- 25, with 178 yards, one TD, two interceptions, a sack, and a 58.4 passer rating.
And even though Jackson ran the ball only twice in the first half, he delivered show-stopping runs in the second half, finishing the contest with 71 yards on 11 carries and a touchdown.
Surprisingly, it was Oakland that put its own running game on display early, using a no-huddle offense and poor coverage to drive 81 yards in 12 plays. Oakland quarterback Derek Carr found Lee Smith for a 30-yard strike on fourth down, a play that set up ex-Tampa Bay running back Doug Martin’s first score as a Raider on a one-yard plunge.
The Ravens came right back. Michael Crabtree and John Brown caught balls from Jackson on the Ravens’ first possession, including a 25-yarder to Brown that set up Justin Tucker’s 47-yard field goal. That kick cut the Raiders’ lead to 7-3.
Then, the Ravens’ often-beleaguered special-teams unit put the home team ahead. Former Baltimore prep star Cyrus Jones (Gilman) ran back a punt 70 yards down the right sideline–thanks, in part, to a Chris Moore block–to put the Ravens in front, 10-7. It was the Ravens’ first return score of the year of any kind–punt return, kick return, interception or fumble.
Meanwhile, the Ravens’ defense, mired in a sackless slump, couldn’t get to Carr (16-for-34, 194 yards, touchdown, three sacks, 74.9 rating) much throughout the first half. But, after the opening drive, it held Oakland to 25 yards on its next 12 plays as momentum slowly turned.
Jackson put a punctuation mark on his new throw-first ethos by finding rookie tight end Mark Andrews for 74 yards, setting up a Tucker 28-yard field goal. On that play, Andrews beat ex-Ravens corner Rashaan Melvin off the line, found space near the sideline, and caught the ball in stride for the Ravens’ longest pass play of the year.
But Jackson might have been better served by running on the next drive. A third-and-10 pass in traffic was tipped twice and picked off by ex-Cincinnati defensive back Reggie Nelson near midfield.
However, not even the fifth drive all season begun in an opponent’s territory could yield a touchdown for the visitors. Rookie kicker Daniel Carlson’s 42-yard field goal could only bring Oakland to within three at 13-10.
But then Jackson made another mistake on what could have been a promising drive before halftime. Throwing into coverage in the end zone, cornerback Gareon Conley tipped it to Marcus Gilchrist, who intercepted the ball.
Jackson made sure that wouldn’t happen again. He came out after the halftime break to spearhead a 75-yard, 13-play drive, capped off by his own fake-and-run to the left for a five-yard touchdown. The score put the Ravens firmly in control at 20-10.
That was the Ravens’ 26th drive of ten or more plays–the most in the league–and 12 of the 13 plays were runs. That approach enabled Baltimore to hold the ball an astounding 12 minutes in the third quarter.
But just when the Raiders seemed dead, Carr returned from concussion protocol to lead the visitors on a touchdown drive. Carr rolled out of the pocket and lofted a pretty pass to Jared Cook, who had gotten behind backup safety Chuck Clark, The result was a 16-yard, one-handed catch touchdown that cut the Ravens’ lead to three points, 20-17.
The Ravens answered right back, though, with a 71-yard, 17-play drive that bled into the fourth quarter. The length was due to play-calling: 23 of the Ravens’ first 28 second-half plays were runs.
But it was a pass play that extended the lead to ten. On third-and-goal from the 8, Crabtree burned his former team with a wide-open slant route to make it 27-17.
It was a reversal for Crabtree, who had scored a fourth-quarter touchdown last year for Oakland against the Ravens in the Raiders’ 28-27 win.
This year, Baltimore’s defense put an exclamation point on the day by scoring a TD for the first time all year. Matt Judon got a sack–one of three straight in the fourth quarter–and forced an Oakland fumble. Terrell Suggs picked it up and ran 43 yards for a game-clinching touchdown.
It was Suggs’ third career score, his first on a fumble recovery, and the Ravens first forced turnover in 18 quarters.
With Oakland possessing the league’s worst second-half point differential, that meant the game was basically over.
At day’s end, it was mission accomplished in Baltimore. The Ravens did what they had to do, hold serve.
