Can the Ravens End on an Unlikely High Note?

The Baltimore Ravens’ final regular season game is the subject at hand. In early November, the season was flying by. In early January, it seemed to Ravens fans that December was lasting a full calendar year. That month saw the purple and black score 46 points in four games.

That’s not counting the 13 points the Ravens started 2023 with against the Steelers.

Now it’s time to take on the Cincinnati Bengals. Can the Ravens find the fun of football again?

We have four downs, let’s go for it.

First Down: No Expectations could be a nice little X-Factor in this game

This game could be for the AFC North title… maybe? At the time of this writing, the NFL hasn’t decided how they will handle the postponed Bills-Bengals game. It was the right thing for the NFL to cancel the rest of that Monday Night Football game. Damar Hamlin and the fight for his life was the only thing that mattered after that tragic moment.

One way or another, there was no scenario in which the Baltimore Ravens could win the AFC North without toppling the Cincinnati Bengals in their house. If the Ravens want the division crown, they have to beat the Bengals. For a Ravens team that already has a playoff seed clinched, this doesn’t change much. Let’s be honest though, nobody expects the Ravens to beat the Bengals. Cincinnati has been red hot while the Ravens keep finding ways to struggle.

The Ravens are the underdogs on the road. If John Harbaugh and the Ravens have their heads in the right place, they’re playing with house money. If the Ravens win this game they will shock everyone going into the playoffs. If the Ravens lose but make it a compelling fight, reasonable fans will walk away thinking “It could have been worse.” Should the Ravens get absolutely steamrolled, there’s a part of you that thought that was going to happen anyway.

It’s an AFC North battle, and the rubber match between the Ravens and the Bengals. Division games are always a bit different than other games. Stranger things have happened than the Ravens beating a team they’ve already defeated once this season.

The fact that nobody sees it coming (the Bengals included) could be the only thing the Ravens truly have going for them here.

2nd Down: How ugly can you make this game?

Everything is trending the way it’s been trending with Lamar Jackson. That probably means that Tyler Huntley is the starting quarterback for the Ravens. We know the drill by now. It’s going to be a low-scoring affair with pressure on the defense to keep the team in it. We know the offense isn’t going to astonish you, so what do the Ravens need from the defense? Let’s look at the 19-17 win from earlier this season as a model.

In the game the Bengals lost, Joe Burrow was 24 for 35 passing with 217 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. Ja’Marr Chase was held to 50 yards and former Raven, Hayden Hurst, lead the Bengals with 53 receiving yards. The Bengals only converted on four third downs in the contest and they failed to convert on their lone fourth down attempt. It’s hard to imagine the Ravens having a more ideal defensive effort. The last game was almost too good to be true; it broke their ugly and gritty direction. That needs to happen again but in an even better way. You’re going to need an extra turnover in this one.

This time the Ravens don’t have Lamar Jackson. They have a backup quarterback and an offense that is going through a tough time. This time the Ravens can’t allow Joe Mixon to average 5.6 yards per carry. If the Bengals can run the ball at will, they have their whole playbook available to them and this could get real bad, real quick. It’s important to remember that the run defense is a concern. Baltimore may have held the Steelers to 16 points, but they gave up nearly 200 yards on the ground in the process. The Steelers’ run game led to a slow death. If Mixon is hot on Sunday, that’s going to be a quick death.

This has to stay a low-scoring game for the Ravens to have a chance. The Ravens need to run the ball, keep the ball out of Burrow’s hands, and make this game the ugliest game Cincinnati will see from the Bengals this season.

Third Down: Is the Huntley-to-Andrews connection heating up?

Lost in the mess of a game on New Year’s Day, was the fact that Mark Andrews had one of his best games of the season. The Pro Bowl tight end caught nine passes for 100 yards. One hundred yards is a great game, but when you consider how little the rest of the offense did, it’s monumental.

Isaiah Likely had 12 receiving yards. Demarcus Robinson and Desean Jackson both had nine yards. Andrews had 100 of Huntley’s 130 passing yards. Huntley hasn’t gone over 187 passing yards this season. He has three interceptions and a quarterback passing rating of 77.8. Huntley needs all the help he can get. If Andrews and Huntley are getting their rhythm down, it could be the thing that saves this offense.

The Ravens need to lean on Andrews in the passing game. They can’t win this game if he doesn’t make a huge difference. As ugly as the Ravens hope this game will be, they need to do enough to compete. The good news is that Andrews had 89 yards and a touchdown the last time these teams met. Outside of the running backs, Andrews is the only star this offense has. He needs to be the difference maker. If Huntley can only chip in 120-140 passing yards, he has to make those completions count. The Ravens need at least three big plays from Andrews to win this game.

Fourth Down: Pay attention to the energy Baltimore brings to this game

John Harbaugh was complimentary of the team’s effort after the loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. I had a little harder time finding the praise for the intensity the Ravens played with. They allowed 198 rushing yards to a team that had struggled to run the ball most of this season. A good bit of the problem was that the Ravens’ defensive front got pushed around and Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen had an uncharacteristically sloppy performance.

Ray Lewis once said that “Effort is between you and you.” There’s a wise truth to that. It may not be fair to criticize effort. One way or another the energy of that game was flat. There have been many spirited fights between the Ravens and the Steelers. This had the usual physicality and it was settled in a familiar fashion, by a three-point margin. It just didn’t feel like it had the normal fiery energy.

Human nature is hard to avoid. The last month of football has been a very frustrating time, even when the Ravens have won. Is this team ready to get up for a big game? Do the Ravens see this as a big game? Can the Ravens find any momentum to carry into the playoffs? It may not be fair but I need to see the Ravens show some emotion on Sunday.

We need to see them fight, scratch, and, claw to finish out the regular season. They need an energy that gives fans a reason to be invested in a first-round playoff game.

Win or lose, the Ravens need to show positive energy against the Bengals.

Unfortunately that (along with points) has been the one thing that’s been tough to find in recent weeks.

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