Ravens News 12/5: Survival Mode and more

Dec 5, 2022 - 1:00 PM

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2022 NFL season, Week 13: What We Learned from Sunday’s games - Bobby Kownack

Gut checks, Tyler Huntley give Ravens some breathing room. Baltimore went 1-4 last season without Lamar Jackson, including four straight losses to end the season with an 8-9 record. Given that recent history, Ravens nation likely held its collective breath when the former NFL MVP went down with a knee injury at the end of the first quarter and did not return. Head coach John Harbaugh told reporters following the game that Jackson’s injury is not season-ending, but may keep him out for a matter of “days to weeks.”

With Jackson’s immediate future up in the air, a clutch game-winning drive that went 64 yards on 16 plays, including two fourth-down conversions and a Huntley rushing touchdown, has allowed the team to exhale just a bit. The first fourth-down conversion took place on Baltimore’s 18-yard line with just over four minutes remaining, a roll of the dice that would have all but handed Denver a two-score lead. Instead, the Ravens converted and continued to convert. Huntley finished the game 27 for 32 for 187 yards and one interception, plus 41 rushing yards and the game-winner. He can hold things down for however long Baltimore needs.

Next Gen stat of the game: QB Tyler Huntley threw 46.9% of his passes outside the numbers compared to Lamar Jackson’s 35.9% this season.

NFL Week 13 takeaways: Lessons, big questions for every game - Jamison Hensley

What to know: The Ravens are in full survival mode. After Lamar Jackson didn’t play in the final three quarters due to a knee injury, backup quarterback Tyler Huntley led a 91-yard, game-winning drive, which was capped by his 2-yard touchdown run with 28 seconds remaining. It wasn’t a statement game, but it was a much-needed victory for a banged-up team that is coming off an upset loss in Jacksonville. The Ravens believe Huntley will keep them in the playoff hunt, even though Baltimore lost its last four games last season without Jackson. Baltimore remained atop the AFC North but goes on the road to Pittsburgh and Cleveland the next two weeks.

How long will Jackson be sidelined? Coach John Harbaugh said Jackson isn’t out for the season, but he didn’t have a definitive timetable on his Pro Bowl quarterback, who left Sunday’s game after getting sacked on the last play of the first quarter. Jackson is scheduled to undergo testing Monday. Huntley is considered one of the top backups in the league, and he has kept the Ravens competitive when filling in for Jackson. Still, Baltimore went 1-4 last season in games without Jackson.

Five Thoughts on Ravens’ Gutty Win Over Broncos - Ryan Mink

Ravens’ suffocating defense will have to keep it up.

With as much talent as the Ravens have on defense, they’re going into every game thinking they have a chance at a shutout. With the offense struggling for much of Sunday’s game, outside linebacker Odafe Oweh said there was chatter on Baltimore’s defensive bench that they might have to score a touchdown.

The Broncos offense has scored the fewest points in the league this year, so this wasn’t a juggernaut test. But Baltimore’s mighty defense handled its business and more, keeping Denver out of the end zone and limiting it to just 272 yards. The Broncos had an 11-play drive to kick off the game and eight-play drive to end the first half. Besides that, no drive lasted more than five plays.

Denver came out thinking it was going to run the ball and finished with just 3.1 yards per carry. Russell Wilson completed 17 of 22 passes, but for just 189 yards (two more than Huntley).

It was fairly clear in recent weeks that Baltimore’s defense was probably going to lead the way down the stretch. Now it’s even more clear.

“This is really what we were honing ourselves for the whole season, ever since training camp,” Oweh said. “We wanted to be a dominant defense. Now we have to be a dominant defense.”

Position-by-position grades for Ravens’ 10-9 win over Broncos - Mike Preston

Offensive line

The Ravens shuffled tackles because of injuries but that’s no excuse for how poorly the group played. The Ravens allowed four sacks and Huntley and Jackson were hit a combined five times. They couldn’t run the ball because Denver’s defensive line dominated the line of scrimmage. The Ravens had 285 yards of total offense, but most were the result of Huntley running around and making plays on his own. Grade: D

Secondary

Cornerback Marcus Peters has been criticized in recent weeks for not coming up in run support or attempting to make tackles on screens or tosses that came his way, but he was dominant Sunday. He had four tackles and didn’t give up a big play. Cornerback Marlon Humphrey had seven tackles, including a sack, and also got another hit on Wilson. Safety Chuck Clark is good in run support but his safety mate, Geno Stone, gets lost in pass coverage and Denver took advantage. Rookie safety Kyle Hamilton had five tackles and is starting to impact games. He appears to have been studying more film. Grade: C+

NFL Week 13 grades: Eagles get an ‘A+’ for destroying Titans, Giants and Commanders get same mark for tie - John Breech

Ravens C

The Ravens offense has been in a rut for the past few weeks and that rut continued against Denver. Lamar Jackson left the game with an injury in the second quarter, but even when he was in, the Ravens offense struggled with three punts on his three possessions. The good news for the Ravens is that the offense finally showed signs of life late in the fourth quarter when Tyler Huntler engineered a game-winning scoring drive that was capped by his TD with just 28 seconds left. The win means the Ravens are still in first place in the AFC North, but right now, everyone in Baltimore is going to be holding their breath until we know more about Jackson’s knee injury.