Here’s how the Ravens graded out at every place after a season-ending 24-17 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals in Sunday night time’s AFC wild-card playoff sport at Paycor Stadium.
Quarterback
Tyler Huntley didn’t dazzle anybody along with his arm, however he managed the sport properly and made a number of large performs down the sector, a key lacking ingredient on this offense. Huntley accomplished 17 of 29 passes for 226 yards and two touchdowns, together with a 41-yarder to Demarcus Robinson within the third quarter, in addition to an interception. He additionally ran for 54 yards on 9 carries. Huntley, although, fumbled reaching the ball towards the purpose line and Bengals defensive finish Sam Hubbard returned it 98 yards for a landing early within the fourth quarter, which was the distinction. He’ll be criticized by lots of Baltimore followers, however he was attempting to make an extra-effort play. I can’t fault him for that. Grade: B-
Running backs
J.Ok. Dobbins wished the Ravens to hitch a experience on him on this sport and he was the offense’s prime weapon, ending with 62 yards on 13 carries because the Ravens rushed 35 occasions for 155 yards. He labored properly together with Gus Edwards, who had 39 yards on 12 carries. These two had been positively up for the problem. Grade: A-
Offensive line
The Ravens pounded the Bengals on the line of scrimmage, particularly throughout a 17-play, 10-minute second-quarter drive. They ran some handsome tosses and sweeps to Dobbins, and guards Kevin Zeitler and Ben Powers and middle Tyler Linderbaum labored mixture blocks properly off the road of scrimmage. The downside is that these guys battle in cross blocking when the Ravens have to come back from behind. The Bengals had two sacks, however Huntley was pressured a number of occasions. Grade: B
Receivers
The neatest thing about this group is that they held onto the ball and didn’t have any drops. Wide receivers mixed for 3 catches for 61 yards whereas the Ravens made good use of their tight ends, utilizing all three and placing rookie Isaiah Likely on the skin from time to time. Tight finish Mark Andrews had 5 catches on 10 targets for 73 yards and Josh Oliver had two catches for 26 yards. Grade: C
Defensive line
This group struggled within the first quarter as a result of the Ravens had been on the sector too lengthy, however the Bengals averaged 2.1 yards per carry and completed with solely 51 dashing yards. Calais Campbell, Broderick Washington and Justin Madubuike might have supplied extra stress, however Washington completed with three tackles whereas Campbell and Madubuike every had two. Grade: B+
Linebackers
The Ravens weren’t dominant however this group held its personal in opposition to some of the explosive offenses within the NFL. The Bengals had solely 234 yards of whole offense because the Ravens, particularly inside linebackers Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen, flew all around the area. Smith had eight tackles and Queen had six. The Ravens obtained respectable stress on quarterback Joe Burrow from outdoors linebackers Odafe Oweh, Jason Pierre-Paul and Justin Houston because the Ravens completed with 4 sacks. Grade: A-
Secondary
For the third time this yr, the Ravens didn’t hand over any large performs to the Bengals vast receivers. They stayed with their bend-but-don’t-break strategy, which stored them within the sport, however they wanted to be extra aggressive and have cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters press the Bengals on the line of scrimmage. Peters wanted to settle down. The Ravens like his effort and depth, however the lack of self-discipline causes issues. Rookie security Kyle Hamilton had a team-high 9 tackles and tailored properly all through the season to taking part in within the slot. Grade: A-
Special groups
Justin Tucker had one area purpose of twenty-two yards however appeared to come back up brief on two kickoffs, which could have been by design. James Proche II is indecisive on punt returns and rookie Jordan Stout averaged 47.2 yards on three punts with a protracted of 53 yards. The Ravens, although, had been undisciplined within the second half attempting to dam punts, one among which resulted in a roughing-the-kicker penalty that gave the Bengals a primary down. Grade: B
Coaching
Coach John Harbaugh did all the things proper in making ready his staff, from holding out a number of starters in final week’s sport to getting them able to be bodily in opposition to a tender staff. Offensive coordinator Greg Roman stayed along with his sport plan of operating the ball however he had some unusual calls, like throwing to fullback Patrick Ricard in a goal-line state of affairs or having Andrews carry the ball out of the backfield in a short-yardage state of affairs. The remaining two minutes had been poorly executed, too. Defensively, coordinator Mike Macdonald likes to play lots of zone however wanted to change as much as extra man-to-man protection to disrupt the Bengals’ receivers and maintain stress on Burrow, who needed to throw shortly behind a banged up offensive line. Grade: C
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Source: www.bostonherald.com