Ravens vs. Chargers final: 2 MVPs, 11 Winners & 4 Losers

The Ravens took care of business in Los Angeles!

The Baltimore Ravens clutched up in the fourth quarter and leave Los Angeles with a 20-10 victory over the Chargers.

Co-MVP — Arthur Maulet

The Ravens needed a play. The Ravens needed somebody to step up and stop the Chargers from finding the end zone. As the Chargers offense got a fresh set of downs at the 50-yard line, Maulet got a hit on Guyton to make it 3rd & 6. After an incompletion, the Chargers faced 4th & 6.

Maulet delivered one of the best-timed blitzes of the season and stopped Herbert from getting any ground or an open look, instead forcing an incompletion that was ruled intentional grounding.

Co-MVP — WR Zay Flowers

The Ravens got the turnover on downs from Maulet’s big-time play. But the game was far from over, as they led by three and needed to get a first down to secure the win. On 3rd & 3, after two runs gave them an opportunity to finish, Flowers got a jet sweep and blew past the Chargers defense for the 37-yard touchdown.

Winners

S Kyle Hamilton — An all-around excellent game. Good plays in the first half where he was being constantly praised by the broadcast. He finished with two tackles for loss, a pass defensed and six total tackles.

OLB Jadeveon Clowney — The Chargers were in the midst of a wildly lengthy drive, down 10. But on Play 19, Clowney halted their drive to zero points with a strip sack of Herbert in the red zone to keep them from putting any points on the board.

LB Patrick Queen, Roquan Smith — Each forced a fumble, a pass defensed and they combined for 15 tackles tonight. All over the field they got things taken care of.

DT Broderick Washington — The Chargers weren’t going to simply die after the Flowers touchdown. But a big sack by ‘Broddy’ put them into a 3rd & 19 situation that ultimately led to another turnover on downs for their offense. It’s good to see him get going after being healthy-scratched last week.

WR Rashod Bateman — His hands on third down are so trustworthy. Two completions (like always) but both moved the chains.

RB Keaton Mitchell — At this point it’s expected he makes a splash run in every game. Sunday, he delivered yet another, with a 29-yard rush. He finished with nine carries for 64 yards.

TE Isaiah Likely — With Mark Andrews out, Likely showed some ability in the first half, catching four receptions for 40 yards. There’s more to come.

DL Brent Urban/Michael Pierce — The veteran big fellas leaping onto some loose balls to make the forced fumbles pay off.

DL Justin Madubuike — A half-sack by ‘Beeks’ puts him at 10 on the year. First Raven with double-digit sacks since Terrell Suggs in 2017.

Defensive backs vs. Keenan Allen — In all, Allen finished with 14 receptions on 16 targets for 106 yards. He’s nasty and does this to about everybody, but good grief.

Harbaugh’s Challenging — Not challenging the two spots was poor. Then, to challenge the lateral was rough. Harbaugh addressed this in the post-game presser.

“We had trouble with the down and distance and what the spots were pretty much the whole game, just understanding what it was going to be. The Lamar run [The first incorrect spot], I’d say no [to regretting not challenging]. We could see that one. It did look short to us. The [Nelson] Agholor one, we thought was a first down, in all honesty. We thought it was ruled first down and we thought it was a first down. It wasn’t until the next play we realized it was short. That was the challenge we had pretty much four, five times during the game.”

Officiating — What the hell was that? Two no-calls on the Ravens. Two trash spots on Ravens should-be first downs. Just a sloppy game that had no-calls, missed calls and looked ugly. Only good thing I can say is they didn’t spam defensive holding calls at the end that would’ve given the Chargers extra life on the final drive(s).

Play calling / Personnel Choices — The Ravens were running the ball effectively. But they would stop doing so and go to the air when the ground game was working. It just felt Monken was trying to be two steps ahead of the Chargers at all times when he was already one step ahead. This is always a hindsight thing but it didn’t add up giving Gus Edwards a direct snap and having him run off-tackle on 4th & 1. Does Jackson not want to be involved on QB sneaks?

Also, having Justice Hill in a short yardage situation instead of Edwards later on? Just some puzzling choices on Sunday.