Aliens like Baltimore: First the Blackout Bowl, now the Drone Beatdown?

The Ravens' 34-20 victory over the Bengals on TNF was expected, solid, and very well-earned. Nothing was shocking about the result. What was bizarre, however, was what happened in the sky above M&T Bank Stadium.

All of a sudden, an unexpected drone made its first appearance with five minutes remaining in the second quarter, and it surprisingly came back just before the start of the fourth quarter.

The first disruption of the game because of the drone happened with exactly 5:04 left in the second quarter, coinciding with a Bengals crisis following an injury to quarterback Joe Burrow. Was it a sign? We don't know!

The great play-by-play man Al Michaels, broadcasting the game on Amazon Prime Video, reported the situation deliciously, saying, "Apparently, there was a drone inside the stadium, so they have stopped play." The cameras captured the device in the sky, leading to a stoppage and a commercial break.

The game resumed for the remainder of the second quarter and the third quarter without much trouble (for Baltimore, at least). However, the drone made a second appearance just before the fourth quarter, prompting another stoppage.

Michaels explained that officials took an 'administrative' timeout, waiting for the drone to clear the area before play could resume.

This unusual incident added to the Ravens' history of peculiar events during their games following their Super Bowl bizarro development around a decade ago.

John Harbaugh joked about it after the game, "Yes, there were drones. We heard there were drones. Is that what you guys heard? We saw them up there. That's a first."

He added, "I thought I'd seen it all with the Super Bowl [in 2012] with the lights going out at the Super Bowl. Now we have drones flying around."

Helped by the drone or not, one thing is clear: the Ravens are in a commanding lead of the AFC North and the Bengals are... not.

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