Doing a traditional good, bad and ugly post does not seem warranted when you look at the final outcome of the Baltimore Ravens game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Here’s the great, good and the less than good:
The great:
Don Martindale should get the game ball for this one. He had Joe Burrow seeing double all day long. Martindale brought his usual amount of pressure, yet he disguised it in an effective way which was a welcomed adjustment. The Bengals had no answer on offense the entire game. They had a fourth down conversion fail when the Ravens got pressure and Burrow had nobody open on a roll-out. They had turnovers and they had plenty of frustration along the way. The fact of the matter is that the Ravens did some very good things offensively but the defense was the biggest standout in this game. Whether it was a Marcus Peters interception or a Patrick Queen sack/fumble or DeShon Elliott coming for his third quarter sack, the defense dominated the day.
Can we talk about how little the Bengals accomplished on the ground today? Joe Mixon was a non-factor on the ground. So it was complete domination in this game for the purple and black defense. The formula was simple. The Bengals would get behind the chains, the Ravens would take advantage of it and pressure the rookie quarterback and Baltimore would get the ball back. Rinse, wash, repeat, it was an all day thing.
Lamar Jackson wasn’t perfect in this game, in fact he made some mistakes that he’s going to want back when he watches the tape. He did throw some dimes though, hitting Mark Andrews and Marquise Brown for first half touchdowns. Speaking of Mark Andrews, he had a great day at the office for the Baltimore offense. In just the first half, Andrews had six receptions and a touchdown. J.K. Dobbins looked great on a handful of first half touches. While there were problems to work through for the offense (we’ll get to that in a bit) the offense did more than they needed to to win this game.
The Good:
The Ravens showed once again that nothing bad happens when Devin Duvernay touches the ball. Duvernay got the ball on an early reverse play and took it for the what may have been the most exciting highlight of the ball. Could the Ravens have used more Duvernay throughout the game? You bet. Let’s take what we can get. Jackson did a good job in this game making something out of nothing. He made some passes on the run that kept drives alive. He worked the pocket better than he will ever get credit for.
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The Ravens won this game because their offense could stay on the field more than the Bengals. Into the heart of the third quarter the Bengals had only converted 10 percent of the time on third downs. The Ravens at that point were converting on 53 percent of their third down attempts. The offense was fairly efficient, that’s a healthy number. The run game got off to a slower start than you’d like but it heated up as the game went along. You got some explosive runs from Mark Ingram in the back half of the third quarter. It got the offense out of a rut and it got points on the board in a spot where it seemed like it had been 17-0 forever. It was a Justin Tucker field goal, but again, we’re getting to the less than good in just a bit.
The Ravens saw a bunch of impressive performances. Patrick Queen forced and recovered a fumble in a play where he rocked Burrow. Pernell McPhee had a great game and was probably the most effective outside linebacker. Marcus Peters got back to his ball taking away ways. On defense there was more than enough credit to spread around. It seemed like there was a quarterback sack for everybody in this game. Marlon Humphrey you get a sack. Pernell McPhee you get a sack. Patrick Queen you get a sack. DeShon Elliott you get a sack. Jimmy Smith you even get a sack.
The less than good:
Lamar Jackson was pressing in this game. He was getting a little greedy and he wasn’t taking what was given in this game. There were a handful of times he could have either taken off and run and he didn’t or he could have gotten a shorter pass and he didn’t take it. Jackson seemed determined to prove he could get it done as a passer. It wasn’t a bad game, but he tried too hard in this one, and he forced it. Jackson had a really bad interception and he almost had a couple more in this game. The offense stalled in this game and Jackson didn’t take over the game when an NFL MVP probably should have. The offensive line was poor in this game. It didn’t help their MVP quarterback much and it may have been why the run game was a little sluggish at times. The offensive line remains a concern.
The offensive game-plan didn’t make a ton of sense. The run game wasn’t the focus of the attack and no running back really developed much of anything on the ground. Ingram got going in the third quarter, it wasn’t a banner day for the run game. Jackson didn’t really hep out in the run game. The Ravens did not have a rusher even close to 100 yards on the ground. That’s not how the Ravens want to win on a regular basis. This game was a butt kicking, let’s be real though the offense has some work to do. The kinks were there against Washington and they lingered into the fifth game of the season. The score wasn’t close. You know what was? Time of possesion and penalties. This offense has some work to do, which is a sentence that never really is expected to be written after a 27-0 win.
The Bengals got dominated in this game. The game was never ever even kind of in question, the Ravens won it in a dominant fashion. In fact, this was the only Bengals game that wasn’t decided by a razor thin margin and there’s something to be said for the Ravens’ dominance in this game. It wasn’t perfect though.