The Ravens stated they’d take a look at the movie. They stated they’d determine what had gone mistaken. They stated they’d regroup. They stated they wouldn’t let this sport, a 28-27 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, beat them once more. They stated all this with a rote, shell-shocked familiarity, as a result of collapses like Sunday’s are nothing if not acquainted for a workforce eager on enjoying with hearth.
The Ravens are 7-4, their four-game profitable streak over, and what went mistaken in Week 2 and Week 4 and Week 6 additionally went mistaken right here at TIAA Bank Field, a cavalcade of small errors blocking their path to one thing like progress.
The Ravens’ points Sunday have been nothing new: red-zone struggles on offense, questionable clock administration, a all of a sudden disappearing protection. But the style of this specific defeat — pleasure and reduction turning into ache and struggling in slightly below two minutes, the squandered alternatives to steal a win again — was particularly biting.
With 2:02 remaining, the Ravens led 27-20 and had over a 93% likelihood of profitable, in line with ESPN. Quarterback Lamar Jackson’s 12-yard landing move to tight finish Josh Oliver had given the protection a easy activity: Get a cease and get the win.
It couldn’t. Quarterback Trevor Lawrence led the Jaguars on a 10-play, 75-yard landing drive, changing a fourth down early within the march and ending it with a 10-yard strike to vast receiver Marvin Jones. With 18 seconds remaining, Jacksonville (4-7) didn’t accept time beyond regulation. The Jaguars went for the lead, they usually took it, Lawrence discovering vast receiver Zay Jones on one other picture-perfect throw.
“That’s a play I have to make,” stated defensive again Brandon Stephens, who was overlaying Jones on the 2-point conversion. “He made a play. I didn’t.”
That’s what these Ravens losses have come right down to. After Justin Tucker missed on a 67-yard subject purpose try as time expired, his kick dying a number of yards wanting the uprights, the Ravens trudged off the sector, their shoulders slumped, surrounded by a wall of noise that ought to’ve been silenced lengthy earlier than.
Afterward, gamers and coaches accepted duty for a way Sunday’s sport had ended. There was no finger-pointing, not less than publicly. It wasn’t for an absence of choices, although. On offense, protection and even particular groups, there have been culprits.
The Ravens rolled up 415 yards and 24 first downs in opposition to a poor Jacksonville protection, however they transformed simply two of their 5 red-zone journeys into touchdowns. They opened the sport with drives so far as Jacksonville’s 10- and 11-yard line, however stalled on the market, settling for subject targets. They opened the second half with a drive to the 5, however no — one other subject purpose.
Every journey contained in the Jaguars’ 20 appeared to ask dropped passes and overthrown balls and missed blocks, a recipe for catastrophe for an already scuffling red-zone offense.
“We got stopped,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh stated. “You try to call your best plays. Sometimes you think you can run it in; you run it in [and] it doesn’t work. Sometimes you try to pass it in. We just didn’t do a good job in the red zone, is the bottom line. You go down there and kick, what, four field goals? That’s tough. Those are big trips down there, and obviously touchdowns are what you’re looking for. It’s something we have to improve on going forward. That’s really important for us.”
“[We] look good in practice,” stated Jackson, who completed 16-for-32 for 254 yards and a landing, in addition to 14 carries for a game-high 89 yards. “In the game, like I said, we have opportunities. Sometimes we just didn’t hit it.”
The Ravens had late-game breakthroughs. Running again Gus Edwards’ 1-yard dive capped a short-field landing drive arrange by exterior linebacker Tyus Bowser’s strip-sack and handed the workforce a 19-10 lead. Oliver’s catch-and-run rating helped the Ravens reclaim their lead late within the fourth quarter after the Jaguars had scored 10 straight factors in lower than two minutes to go up 20-19. Tight finish Mark Andrews’ personal profitable 2-point conversion prolonged the Ravens’ cushion from 5 factors to seven.
But that wasn’t sufficient. Lawrence, as he did all afternoon, went after Ravens cornerbacks Marcus Peters and Stephens in protection. After opening the sport’s decisive drive with an incompletion and a sack, the 2021 No. 1 total decide accomplished seven of his subsequent eight passes. He hit prime vast receiver Christian Kirk for 16 yards on a third-and-21, then Marvin Jones for 10 yards on the fourth-and-5. Kirk, restricted many of the afternoon, acquired open for a 17-yard achieve. Zay Jones grabbed an 8-yarder, then a 29-yarder.
There was no maintaining with the Jaguars’ Joneses. Marvin acquired a half-step on Peters on a quick-hitting fade route, then someway touched his shin inbounds earlier than falling out with the landing catch. According to the NFL’s Next Gen Stats, the landing had an 8.2% completion chance, the bottom completion chance on any landing over the previous two seasons.
It wouldn’t have mattered if the opposite Jones, Zay, didn’t separate simply far sufficient from Stephens on an out-breaking path to catch Lawrence’s 2-point fastball within the close to nook of the tip zone. Lawrence, who’d struggled all 12 months within the purple zone, completed 29-for-37 for 321 yards and three landing passes. Zay Jones had 11 catches on 14 targets for 145 yards, serving to to hold a Jaguars offense that couldn’t run in opposition to the Ravens, particularly with prime operating again Travis Etienne sidelined early.
“We got lackadaisical out there,” stated exterior linebacker Justin Houston, who blamed “the little things,” like an absence of communication. “I think that’s what you’ve got to do to play a complete game. You’ve got to do it for four quarters, not three, and we didn’t do it for four quarters.”
Added defensive lineman Calais Campbell: “To have the game in our hands as a defense, we expect to win that every time. We didn’t get it done. We knew they were talented. They have a lot of playmakers, and they fought hard to make the plays to win the game. We’ve got to go back and watch the tape and figure out how we can improve, but this one definitely stings.”
The Ravens will return residence to Baltimore with a winnable sport on faucet — they welcome the reeling Denver Broncos (3-8) to M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday — however a much less favorable playoff path. With the Bengals’ win over the Tennessee Titans on Sunday, the Ravens at the moment are tied atop the AFC North with defending champion Cincinnati. The Ravens have the tiebreaker, courtesy of their Week 5 win in Baltimore, however for a way for much longer?
If historical past is any information, the Ravens’ fourth-quarter troubles aren’t going away. They gave up a 21-point lead in opposition to the Miami Dolphins, threw away an opportunity for a late lead in opposition to the Buffalo Bills and coughed up a 10-point margin in opposition to the New York Giants. On Sunday, a proficient if inconsistent Jacksonville workforce appeared to discover a late-game cheat code.
The Ravens’ offense hasn’t been innocent. Neither has the Ravens’ protection. Said inside linebacker Patrick Queen: “We can’t be a great defense if we can’t stop nobody in the fourth.” And Jackson: “Feels like those early games this year.”
So it’s again to the movie, again to the drafting board, again to the workforce facility in Owings Mills, the place the Ravens will attempt to divine simply what’s going mistaken at first, center and finish of those should-be wins. They’ve had a while to determine them out. It’s unclear how far more they want.
“You never know how many plays you’re going to get, so you have to make the most of each play,” Stephens stated. “Down the stretch in the fourth quarter, they made the plays, and we didn’t. So we just have to get better and close out games.”
Week 13
Broncos at Ravens
Sunday, 1 p.m.
TV: Chs. 13, 9
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
Line: Ravens by 7
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Source: www.bostonherald.com
