Fourth-Quarter Frustration

The Ravens are finding ways to beat themselves.

They fell to 3-3 on the season after another late collapse led to a 24-20 loss to the New York Giants in Week 6. The Ravens have now squandered fourth-quarter leads in all three of their losses.

“We have to take responsibility for that, and we have to find a way to do it,” coach John Harbaugh said. “It comes to coaches and players; we have to come up with calls, we have to coach our guys better in those situations, be in the right spot, play the right leverage, block the play the correct way, whatever it might be. Those are the things we have to do a better job of, and players have to take responsibility as well. It’s just us, as I told them, it’s us. It’s us together; all of us together. Six games into the season, we’re in a good position big-picture-wise. Let’s get to where we can be and where we need to be, where I think we all can see we should be. It’s our responsibility to do it though, and we have to go get the job done.”

Ravens with 7 penalties for 50 yards; they outpace the Giants 256 yards to 90 but with only a 3 point lead. Ravens have 121 yards rushing to NYG’s 16. Not a particularly good half for Lamar who looked indecisive. Missed opportunities…

— Tony Lombardi (@RSRLombardi) October 16, 2022

Lamar Jackson and the rest of the offense often start strong but have failed to score points late in the game.
Jackson was the main culprit in the loss to the Giants. He threw an interception to safety Julian Love that led to the game-winning touchdown. He also lost a fumble on the Ravens’ final drive with a chance to retake the lead.

The Ravens allowed 14 points in the fourth quarter and they need to get things fixed.

“That’s the biggest story for us, is winning the game at the end of the game,” Harbaugh said. “Making the plays that need to be made, and not making the errors that cost you an opportunity to win the game. So, we’ll regroup, we’ll go to work, and we’re going to find ourselves as a football team. That’s what we have to do right now; find ourselves as a football team.

“We have an opportunity to be a very good football team. We can be as good as we want to be and decide to be, and we’re going to go to work with everything we’ve got to get that done.”

Jackson made two glaring mistakes in the final two minutes with the interruption and then a fumble on the final drive.

Jackson is looking for a massive contract so every game is huge for his side of the bargaining table.

He was 17 of 32 for 210 yards with a touchdown and interception for a 71.1 rating. He also ran for 77 yards on 7 carries.

The Ravens also have more injury issues heading into the Week 7 game against the Cleveland Browns.

Right tackle Morgan Moses left the game with a heel injury and did not return. He did manage to return to the sideline, which was a good sign, and Harbaugh was optimistic about the outlook.

“It doesn’t look like a serious injury; he was back up actually in the second half,” Harbaugh said. “I chose to go with Pat [Mekari] and we had Danny [Daniel Faalele] going in there with the pitch count that we had going with Ronnie [Stanley]. I just felt like it was the safer thing to do in this situation, to hold [Morgan Moses] out until next week.”

Running back J.K. Dobbins’ knee tightened up in the middle of the game and he didn’t play in the second half. John Harbaugh said it could have been the turf.

The bright spot was running back Kenyan Drake, who exploded for 119 yards rushing with a 30-yard score.
The Ravens’ running game can be even more formidable when Justice Hill works his way back into the lineup and if Dobbins remains healthy.

“KD did a good job; he did a really good job,” Harbaugh said. “He hit some runs, made some plays where he had to bounce one way or the other, front side or back side, hit some downhill runs. Yes, he played really well.”

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