Report Card: Ravens Top Bengals in Prime Time

In what probably shouldn’t be a surprise considering this was an important AFC North clash, injuries will garner a lot of attention from this one, but make no mistake about it — the Ravens wanted this win badly, and they went out and took it.

Let’s get to the grades.

Offense

Overall: B+

The Ravens put up more than 400 yards of offense, didn’t turn the ball over, went 3-4 in the red zone and scored 34 points against a battle-tested Bengals defense. After a terrific opening drive that ended in a touchdown, things went stale for a bit and it looked like the offensive line was getting beaten for a second week in a row. But they turned it around, made some big plays, ran the ball well in the second half and did their thing.

Quarterback: A

Lamar Jackson was definitely impacted by his injury, but he gutted through it, continued to run when he had to and made some big plays with his arm. He was 16-26 for 264 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for another 54 yards. He just missed on a couple deep balls early, but threw a great ball to Odell Beckham Jr. in the fourth quarter, and was electric with his scramble-and-throw to Rashod Bateman for a touchdown. He got a little lucky with the tipped pass that went to Nelson Agholor for a touchdown, but he got robbed on the touchdown to Zay Flowers being called back.

Running Backs: A

It didn’t start out great, as the backs weren’t finding much room to run, but things did turn around, and Gus Edwards and Keaton Mitchell both made big plays. Edwards powered in for two more touchdowns, caught a pair of passes and broke a 26-yarder to start the second half for the Ravens’ offense. Mitchell busted loose for a thrilling 21-yarder and ended up with 33 yards on eight carries, and another eight yards on one catch. His downfield blocking was tremendous on the Flowers TD-that-wasn’t. Remember how the Ravens couldn’t finish last week? The backs did some of the heavy lifting tonight.

Receivers: A-

The season-ending injury to Mark Andrews is sobering, but there was good stuff out there from his teammates. Odell Beckham Jr. showed he still loves the bright lights, with 116 yards on four catches, and he displayed some serious wiggle after the catch. His holding penalty was a ridiculous call. Flowers was his usual lightning-quick self, generating 43 yards off three catches and he had a rush for seven yards. He should have had a 68-yard touchdown, but read above for what happened there. Nelson Agholor had one catch, but it was a doozy — a deflected 37-yard catch-and-run that displayed terrific reflexes. Charlie Kolar did a nice job finding a spot in the zone and getting a 13-yard catch on his target. Bateman worked hard to shake loose for his touchdown catch, and nearly caught a bomb early, but for a very good defensive play. The new Ravens playmakers showed they can make things happen. It’s been a while since we’ve seen that around these parts.

Offensive Line: B

There were times when this unit looked completely overwhelmed, particularly in the first half. Patrick Mekari was being owned by Trey Hendrickson, and the running backs had nowhere to go. But they did improve as the game went on, and Tyler Linderbaum and Kevin Zeitler both stood out to me. Morgan Moses had a few nice pulls, especially on Edwards’ first touchdown run. Simpson had two holding calls, and Mekari picked up a flag for a false start. The Ravens finished with 157 yards on 31 carries. The line had a lot to do with that in the second half.

Defense

Overall: B+

Look, Joe Burrow being injured skews things. He’s one of the best in the game, and aggravated his injury on a touchdown pass to give the Bengals a 10-7 lead. And they did struggle to control Joe Mixon for big parts of the game. But they did hold the Bengals to 272 yards of offense, had five sacks and Cincy went just 2-11 on third down. There were some missed tackles for a second straight week that is bordering on concerning, and, again, too many big running lanes. But they stepped up in high-leverage situations and again destroyed drives with sacks.

Defensive Line: C+

They have to take the majority of the heat for the run defense woes, but they also had their moments. Odafe Oweh was a constant presence in the Bengals backfield, and got his sack in the fourth quarter. Justin Madubuike had yet another sack, and Tavius Robinson and Jadeveon Clowney also got in the act. Robinson nearly had another one in the fourth quarter, as well. Brent Urban stood out with three tackles, including one play where he sniffed out a screen pass early, reacted and made a tackle on the sideline. Michael Pierce was quiet.

Linebackers: B+

Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen were active, and notched 21 tackles between them. Smith did get beat by Mixon on a short pass for an early touchdown, but he was really good overall. Patrick Queen had a huge run stuff in the fourth quarter, and another late in the first half. But he got beat on a few passes, and got bulled by Mixon for some extra yards on the Bengals’ first possession. Kyle Van Noy got a sack late in the game, and nearly had another in the third quarter. Malik Harrison blew up a run early in the game.

Defensive Backs: A-

Rock Ya-Sin had a tough one, getting beat by Tyler Boyd for a first down catch in the second quarter, and he had a big pass-interference penalty to help set up the Bengals for a field goal their first drive of the second half. But the rest of the backfield was pretty darned good. Marcus Williams made a spectacular diving pass break-up to end the Bengals’ opening drive, and was in on another incompletion late in the quarter. Kyle Hamilton broke up two passes, and forced another with his pass-rush in the first quarter. Brandon Stephens was sticky in coverage all day, though he was beat on a garbage-time touchdown late on a well-thrown back-shoulder toss. Ronald Darby stood out twice to me — once on a pbu on a deep pass early int he second half, and then  another play later in the quarter when he pushed Ja’Marr Chase out of bounds before he could come down with a deep ball. Jalyn Armour-Davis mad a nice open-field tackle to prevent a first down in the fourth quarter.

Special Teams: B

Justin Tucker was perfect, connecting on both of his field goals and all four extra points. Jordan stout was solid, but he had one touchback late I’m sure he’d like to try again. Giving up a 24-yard punt return to Charlie Jones, and then sprinkling in another 15 yards on a penalty on Justice Hill was… what’s the opposite of “Delightful?”

Coaching: A

The Ravens had a short turnaround after a heart-breaking loss, against the team who has won its division the last two years. The team showed up, and the coaches deserve a lot of credit. The offense took some deep shots, which is the right choice against the Bengals, and they figured how to seal the game with the run after not being able to do it a few days ago. The Ravens appeared to give up some ground in the run game on defense, with an emphasis on pass defense. Even when Burrow did hit receivers early, they were usually tightly covered. It felt like a well-called game that made sense on both sides.

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