BALTIMORE — As the Baltimore Ravens defense went through its final meetings at the team hotel Saturday night, defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald wanted to hear from the players. He wanted to know what was on their minds and what their goals were heading into the next day’s matchup with the Carolina Panthers.
Advertisem*nt
“Everybody said the same thing,” said cornerback Marlon Humphrey. “We wanted to have a goose egg today.”
The Ravens didn’t shut out the offensively challenged Panthers on Sunday on a cold and windy afternoon at M&T Bank Stadium. But the defense more than held up its end. It carried the Ravens to a 13-3 victory, keeping the team in the game early when the offense couldn’t get out of its own way and finishing it late by causing three fourth-quarter turnovers.
And the Ravens, who were sluggish and mistake-prone offensively coming out of the bye, did something they probably couldn’t have done earlier this season. They won a game on a day when there wasn’t much production from the offense.
“It wasn’t pretty, but our defense stepped up in a big way,” said Ravens coach John Harbaugh.
The Ravens managed just one touchdown against a defense that came in ranked 25th in the NFL, and even that was set up by their defense. Two plays after Marcus Peters stripped Shi Smith of the football, giving the Ravens possession at the Panthers’ 31, Lamar Jackson plunged in for a 1-yard touchdown that gave the home team a 10-point lead with 7:16 to go.
The Panthers passed midfield on only three of their 11 drives. They reached the red zone only once, ultimately settling for an Eddy Pineiro 32-yard field goal at the eight-minute mark of the third quarter. They hardly were a threat to erase a 13-3 lead in the second half of the fourth quarter.
Remember when the Ravens defense couldn’t finish? On the Panthers’ four fourth-quarter possessions, the Ravens had a forced fumble, two interceptions (Humphrey and Jason Pierre-Paul) and a fourth-down stop on a Pierre-Paul sack.
JPP on fourth down 😤
Tune in on FOX! pic.twitter.com/ecNz568xxk
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) November 20, 2022
All told, Macdonald’s group allowed just 205 yards, including only 36 on the ground, forced three turnovers and sacked Baker Mayfield four times. The Panthers are not a very good offensive football team, for sure. However, it didn’t feel too long ago when the Ravens had the league’s 32nd-ranked defense and were blowing multi-score leads on a weekly basis, so there’s no need to add an asterisk to the performance.
Advertisem*nt
“We’re starting to trend in the right direction,” said veteran defensive end Calais Campbell. “Coach always talks about trajectory, just getting better. I feel like if we stay with that mentality and everybody just does our job at a high level, I think we can be really, really good.”
The Ravens exited Sunday with two potentially significant injury concerns as left tackle Ronnie Stanley (left ankle) and rookie first-round safety Kyle Hamilton (left knee) hobbled to the locker room early. Harbaugh didn’t provide an update on either player, but the injuries appeared concerning enough to mar the victory.
Baltimore has now won four consecutive games to improve to 7-3 and strengthen its hold on first place in the AFC North. The Ravens have only one game left the rest of the way against a team currently .500 or better, and that’s a Week 18 road matchup versus the Cincinnati Bengals. If the Ravens just beat the teams they are supposed to, continuing next Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars (3-7), they should clinch a playoff spot and put away the division long before their plane touches down in Cincinnati on the second weekend of January.
Of course, Sunday’s performance offered a reminder of why it’s silly to assume anything in the NFL and why it’s foolish to think the Ravens are just going to steamroll through the rest of November and December. They simply haven’t played good enough football in all three phases on the same day to have that sort of confidence.
The Panthers arrived in Baltimore as a 3-7 team and armed with a rudderless offense and a banged-up secondary. Yet the score was tied at 3-3 when the fourth quarter began. The Ravens offense seemed to struggle with the Panthers’ team speed. Baltimore punted on its first three drives of the first half, its only two possessions of the third quarter and on its last two full drives of the game after taking over in Carolina territory. The Ravens’ fourth possession of the game ended with a Jackson pass getting intercepted by defensive tackle Bravvion Roy deep in Carolina territory.
Advertisem*nt
There were offensive mistakes throughout, from key penalties to drops to untimely sacks allowed. The Ravens’ normally sturdy special teams group also got into the act with a couple of penalties and another uneven day by rookie punter Jordan Stout. It’s no wonder the game’s result hung in the balance until late in the fourth quarter, even with a defense that never looked seriously threatened.
“That’s the name of the game,” said Ravens running back Kenyan Drake, who got 29 yards on one carry but managed just 17 yards on his other nine rushing attempts. “The NFL season is a long, hard-fought season, and it’s any given Sunday, especially when you’re playing against a hard-nosed team like the Panthers. Us coming off a bye, it was kind of a tough task to come out here. Obviously, we are home, but they were coming off a hard-fought win last week against the Falcons. They had a great scheme against us, especially against our zone-read scheme. So, it was tough all game, but we made the plays when it mattered, and our defense bailed us out time and time again.”
Jackson, who missed practice late in the week with what he referred to as a stomach bug, finished 24-of-33 for 209 yards and the interception. He rushed 11 times for 31 yards and the touchdown. Veteran wide receiver Demarcus Robinson was really the lone offensive bright spot with nine catches for 128 yards. Otherwise, it was a listless performance by an offense that appeared to be finding its groove before the bye and welcomed back top pass catcher Mark Andrews on Sunday. Yet the Ravens averaged just 3.8 yards per carry, and Jackson averaged 8.7 yards per completion.
.@Lj_era8 to @Demarcus for 31 🔥🔥
Tune in on FOX! pic.twitter.com/T1s8hkzN3M
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) November 20, 2022
“That’s November, December football. You just find a way to win to get in the playoffs,” Jackson said. “That’s what it’s all about right now. Some of them are going to be ugly, some of them are going to be pretty, but a win is a win.”
Jackson is right. The Ravens just need to bank wins and avoid major missteps. They’ve put themselves in a position where that will suffice. They’ll need to play far better to beat good teams in January, but the first step is getting to the playoffs, and grinding out wins will do just fine for now.
It also has to be pretty uplifting for the Ravens to see the defense step up the way it did after looking so vulnerable early in the year.
“You can’t be too mad with three, but we’re really trying to chase Ravens defenses in the past that have just showed an elite greatness,” Humphrey said. “That’s kind of what we’re chasing, and we’re looking better and better every week.
Advertisem*nt
“I’ve been here a lot in the past when obviously we’ve struggled on offense. This was probably the first time I didn’t hear a single person say, ‘Come on, offense, we’ve got to do something.’ We just were kind of locked in all day today, honestly. I didn’t really think about it until you just said that. I didn’t hear that one time. We were just playing defense, controlling what we can control. That’s a positive right there.”
On Sunday, the Ravens rendered running back D’Onta Foreman (11 carries for 24 yards) a nonfactor. Their tackling was superb. Linebackers Patrick Queen (12 tackles and a half-sack) and Roquan Smith (seven tackles, one sack) were all over the field.
Harbaugh regretted the fact that he didn’t give a game ball to the defensive line, because it consistently harassed Mayfield. The Ravens also covered well on the back end, allowing just one reception of more than 15 yards. And when it came time to put the game away, they not only stopped the Panthers but also took the ball.
“It felt incredible,” Queen said. “It felt like Ravens football, honestly.”
(Photo: Jessica Rapfogel / USA Today)
