Jackson and Ravens overcome four interceptions in a game that wasn’t clinched until the final seconds.
Sunday, November 28, 2021, M&T BANK STADIUM, BALTIMORE – Sometimes in football, it’s less about X’s and O’s and more about Jimmies and Joes. In other words, it’s not so much about what kind of on- and off-field philosophies and theories an organization has. It’s about the people executing those plans. If they are the right people, things are going to go well. If not, the results could be disastrous.
The Baltimore Ravens and the Cleveland Browns, who met Sunday night in the first of their two annual clashes, are well aware of this, even though one side might not want to admit it. For the past three seasons, through flashy, big-name acquisitions that looked great on paper, the forever-rebuilding Browns have dazzled national observers who have badly wanted the team to be the dominant force it was in the 1950s and early 1960s.
However, thanks to highly-publicized infighting and the discontent of impatient fans, a winning climate has failed to take hold, with Cleveland producing only slightly above-average results at best since its return to the NFL as a 1999 expansion team.
The Ravens, those perpetual blue-collar underdogs, keep walking tightropes and battling (mostly beating) long odds. How do they continue doing it? I think it’s due to team stability, organizational consistency and depth, and getting the right players to do the right things at the right time.
Baltimore has much more quickly built a winning culture, and it showed again in Sunday’s knock-down, drag-out, 16-10 win over the visiting Browns before 70,355 delighted fans, a result which ran the Ravens’ first-place AFC North Division record to 8-3 and dropped cellar-dwelling Cleveland to 6-6. With Tennessee’s loss earlier on Sunday, the Ravens had taken over the AFC’s top playoff seed before kickoff and consolidated their lead with the victory over Cleveland.
“We’re in control of our destiny, which is a beautiful thing,” tight end Mark Andrews said.
It was the Ravens’ 18th win in 20 home prime-time games under head coach John Harbaugh, and it ran the coach’s Sunday-night record at home to 7-1. Harbaugh is also 24-6 in November home games and has won 22 of his last 27 games in that spot. It was Harbaugh’s 40th November victory overall. Moreover, his 148th overall win (including playoffs) was also his 50th in 80 games against an AFC North Division team and the franchise’s 40th home win against the division all-time.
Speaking to the moment, the victory raised Harbaugh’s record over Cleveland to an astounding 23-4, the second-best record by one coach over one specific opponent; Buffalo’s Sean McDermott is 9-1 against the Miami Dolphins. The franchise picked up its 110th-lifetime win when leading at the half, and it was Harbaugh’s 100th victory when his team scores first.
Despite injuries, inconsistency, and glaring holes in certain position groups (offensive line, pass rush), Baltimore is putting together the kind of season that will be long remembered in these parts. Considering the kind of memories this franchise has already provided in its previous 25 years, that is saying a lot. But the hard and cold, bottom-line fact is that the Ravens are now 8-3 or better after 11 games for only the fifth time in team history, having done so in 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2019. As far as being exactly 8-3 at this point, the Ravens’ third such occasion they have accomplished the feat (2010, 2011). And if the Ravens are to muster up any more heart and fight and go on a significant roll, now would be the perfect time to do it for a trio of huge reasons.
For one thing, Sunday’s game marked the start of the backloaded end of the Ravens’ schedule, one stacked with five of their six annual division games, along with other leaguewide powers such as the Green Bay Packers and Los Angeles Rams. Neither Cleveland nor any other upcoming opponent currently has a losing record. For another, the Ravens have, slowly but surely, gotten healthier and deeper, citing the returns within the last month of wideout Sammy Watkins and tight end Nick Boyle, the impending comebacks of rookie guard Ben Cleveland and linebacker Malik Harrison, and the more-than-serviceable effort turned in by backup quarterback Tyler Huntley at Chicago last week.
Finally, if the Ravens were to truly catch fire and go on a 2012-type run deep into the postseason, it would lay waste to an AFC playoff field that has appeared wide-open all year, with no team having fewer than three losses going into Week 12.
The win over the Browns was merely the Thanksgiving appetizer for what is to come, especially next week’s road game against the revived and always-ominous Pittsburgh Steelers (Sunday, December 5, 4:25 p.m., their blowout loss to Cincinnati this week notwithstanding.
The Ravens are not where they want to be quite yet. They have to deal with new holes in the secondary due to injuries to safety Deshon Elliott (season-ending) and cornerback Anthony Averett. The defensive line has also been affected, with end Derek Wolfe out for the year (back), end Calais Campbell incurring a concussion last week and sitting out Sunday’s game, and nose tackle Brandon Williams having missed the previous three contests with a bad shoulder before returning against the Browns.
But another big comeback highlighted their efforts this Sunday, that of quarterback Lamar Jackson, whose highlights were more like lowlights. Jackson, who missed the Chicago game with the same kind of non-COVID illness that slightly affected several other players, has undoubtedly been the Ravens’ main triggerman, even in this most ultimate of team sports. Jackson was personally responsible for 82 percent of the team’s yards going into the Chicago game, not to mention being the league’s only player who ranked in the league’s top eight in both rushing and passing yards gained.
But Jackson’s absence in Chicago (as well as that of wideout Marquise Brown) meant that the Ravens, despite their gaudy record, are now down to just three offensive players who have started every game all season: tackle Alejandro Villanueva, center Bradley Bozeman, and right guard Kevin Zeitler. That durable trio has led a much-maligned offensive line that is still doing an outstanding job at run blocking, and the Ravens’ 148-40 rushing edge was the difference in a game riddled with mistakes.
The two teams combined for six turnovers – including five in a bizarre late first-half sequence – and Jackson was the lowlight with his first career four-interception game. He now has a career-high 12 interceptions this year. Yet, he became the first quarterback since 2013 to win when throwing that many pickoffs in a game, breaking a streak of 41 straight losses by others who had incurred the same fate.
The Ravens tackled much more soundly in this game, and the Ravens’ defense, which has a propensity for giving up big plays (54 of them going 20 or more yards before Sunday, the league-high), didn’t give up a big play in this game. “The key was definitely to stop the run and (take) our chances with Baker and his weapons,” said cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who also mused that he was surprised Cleveland did not attempt to run more than it did.
But the bruising game took a heavy physical toll. Center Bradley Bozeman (left leg) and Queen (ribs) both momentarily left with injuries but returned, while Cleveland’s right tackle Jack Conklin (knee), who had just returned from an elbow problem, did not come back. He was placed on a cart and driven to the locker room.
A game with this kind of bruised complexion demanded a bruising approach, and that’s how the Ravens won it.
Andrews led the Ravens with 65 receiving yards on four catches. Those grabs brought his career total to 216, enabling him to pass Torrey Smith for sixth on the team’s all-time list. The Ravens’ better-balanced offense also helped, running the ball 43 times and attempting to pass it 34 times. The 77 plays outdistanced Cleveland’s 57 (17 rushes, 40 passes, including three sacks allowed).
It was the kind of gritty, blue-collar effort that does not come packaged in paper. It can only manifest itself on the field where X’s and O’s turn into the Jimmies and Joes that make it happen. And now the spotlight shifts from Charm City to Steel City
