Ravens: Why the team’s Week 7 loss is no reason to panic

The Baltimore Ravens were thoroughly beaten by the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 7, snapping a five-game winning streak.

Not only did the 41-17 home loss severely hurt the Ravens’ pride, but it also ceded the top spot in the AFC North to the Bengals.

All the hype generated from their dominant win over the Los Angeles Chargers last week was undone by a motivated and resolute Cincinnati squad.

Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase highlighted the stomping put on Baltimore, with the former passing for 416 yards and three touchdowns, and the latter accounting for 201 of those yards and one touchdown on eight catches.

The second half, especially, was a massacre. John Harbaugh and co. simply had no answer, in any phase. After their first drive of the second half, the Ravens managed just 126 yards on 36 plays (3.5 yards per play), just over half their season average.

Amidst Baltimore’s offensive struggles, the Bengals scored 28 unanswered points, marking the first time since 2013 the Bengals scored more than 40 points in a game.

Speaking of 2013, the Ravens’ opening night blowout loss to the Broncos was the last time the Ravens gave up 400-yards passing and 40 points in a game.

The pass defense’s struggles are such, they have earned a comparison to the 2013 Dallas Cowboys defense and the 2018 Kansas City Chiefs defense, joining them as the only teams to ever allow three 400-yard passers in the first seven weeks.

They have also allowed 2,073 passing yards, a franchise-worst through seven weeks.

Frankly, the list of groan-worthy statistics from this game goes on and on, but no matter how disappointing the loss is, and how concerning some of the issues revealed are, it is important to have a little perspective following Baltimore’s second loss of the season.