When things looked bleak against the Bengals, Ravens QB Lamar Jackson was at his best

CINCINNATI – The noise from the visiting locker room at Paycor Stadium was deafening, and the noise grew louder as Baltimore Ravens executives and assistant coaches came in from above to celebrate.

“That,” said center Tyler Linderbaum, “is the reason you play this game, the locker room experience.”

Running back Derrick Henry didn’t even enter the interview room, instead rushing in with the same sense of speed and urgency he showed on his 51-yard run in overtime that set up Justin Tucker’s game-winning 24-yard run. Yard field goal.

DERRICK HENRY!!!!

📺: Sunday 1 p.m. on CBS pic.twitter.com/7qKcVgBmF7

– Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) October 6, 2024

As John Harbaugh spoke to reporters, wide receiver Zay Flowers sat in a chair against the wall, smiling broadly and nodding in agreement as his head coach tried to put into perspective the Ravens’ improbable and wild 41-38 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals .

Then there was quarterback Lamar Jackson. He could barely manage a smile. He used words like “upset” and “angry.” The person most responsible for the Ravens’ victory admitted that he was probably the least excited player in the team’s locker room.

Jackson’s insane competitive drive and pursuit of perfection didn’t allow him to celebrate on a day when he deserved to be the loudest man in the room.

“I just don’t like how this situation came about in overtime,” Jackson said. “If that probably hadn’t happened, I would be the happiest person in a Ravens uniform right now.”

Jackson’s fumbled snap prevented the Ravens from scoring on their first possession of overtime. But when Evan McPherson sent the potentially game-winning 53-yard field goal attempt wide left, Baltimore had another chance. From the Ravens’ perspective, Jackson deserved another chance. He had played too hard and too well to make the crucial mistake in a Ravens loss.

Again and again on Sunday afternoon, as the Ravens’ mistakes mounted in all three phases and the defense seemed powerless to stop Joe Burrow, Ja’Marr Chase, Tee Higgins and the Bengals, Jackson gave his team hope.

Members of the offense repeatedly urged the oppressed defense to “just give us a stop.” There were times when it seemed like that stop would never come, as Burrow threw for 392 yards and five touchdowns and Cincinnati scored touchdowns on four straight possessions.

“You put yourself in a dark situation for a minute,” said Harbaugh, whose team won its third straight and improved to 3-2 while the Bengals fell to a discouraging 1-4 record. “There is no doubt about that.”

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Lamar Jackson is stunning; Ravens beat Bengals 41-38 barnburner

However, with Jackson, the Ravens always have hope. When the Bengals took a 24-14 lead with 8:51 left in the third quarter, Jackson responded immediately, driving the Ravens 74 yards downfield in four plays and hitting tight end Isaiah Likely for a 1-yard score.

When Burrow threw his fourth touchdown pass of the day early in the fourth quarter, a 4-yard connection to running back Chase Brown to make the game 31-21, Jackson answered with a 2-yard touchdown to the tight end Charlie Kolar.

When Burrow and Chase scored a 70-yard touchdown on the very next play to regain a 10-point lead, Jackson didn’t allow the Ravens to score. He jogged into the group with confidence that Baltimore would score.

All it took was one of the most remarkable plays of Jackson’s career. On second-and-goal from the Bengals’ 6, Jackson dropped Linderbaum’s snap. He went to the ground to contain it, got up and scrambled to his right as Bengals veteran defender Sam Hubbard gave chase. Jackson didn’t try to escape the 6-foot-1, 250-pound Hubbard. Instead, he pinned him to the ground with stiff arms. Jackson then continued to his right, looking downward the entire time, and fired a strike at Likely in the back of the end zone as he was drilled out of bounds.

LET SOMETHING HAPPEN!!!!!!!!!!!

Tune in to CBS! pic.twitter.com/e2u8hXsNqI

– Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) October 6, 2024

“It speaks for itself,” Harbaugh said. “I never stop wondering, but I am always amazed. I just think about Lamar so much, and I think so much about his work ethic and also the way he plays the game. It’s unprecedented.”

Jackson finished the game with 348 passing yards and four touchdowns. He also rushed for 55 yards, the only mistake being the fumbled snap in overtime where he lost sight of the ball because he was looking at the game clock. With the Ravens in must-score mode for most of the second half and overtime, Baltimore’s final six drives went like this: touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, field goal, fumble, field goal.

“This was like Lamar’s third MVP,” Henry said. “It was a unique play, especially the play where he got sacked, came out of the pocket, kept running, almost went out of bounds and threw the ball back to (Probably). That’s why Lamar is the best player in the league.”

There were other Ravens heroes. They signed Henry this offseason to be a closer toward the end of games. He got off to a decent start, scoring a touchdown on Baltimore’s first drive and then surpassing the 10,000-yard mark for his career in the second quarter. But the Bengals stacked the box, determined not to let Henry — or Jackson — beat them to their feet. But when the Ravens needed Henry in overtime, Jackson threw the ball into his stomach and he rushed 51 yards down the near sideline to the Cincinnati 6-yard box.

“I tried to go after him, but he kept getting faster and getting further and further away from me, and I thought in my head, ‘That’s how the Bills felt last week,'” Kolar said. “He’s so fast. It doesn’t really make sense, but I ran hard.”

Defensively, the Ravens spent almost the entire second half chasing the Bengals, to no avail. Veteran cornerback Marlon Humphrey said during the week that Baltimore’s defensive backs must win the matchup against Cincinnati’s highly touted pass-catching group. It wasn’t a fair fight in the second half, as Burrow, Higgins (nine catches for 83 yards and two touchdowns) and Chase (ten catches for 193 yards and two scores) got it all against a Ravens secondary that continues to cause confusion what they wanted.

The Bengals had so little trouble moving downfield with their passing game that they used it instead of running to kill the clock. But Burrow got greedy and the experienced Humphrey jumped to Chase with a slant shot and collected the ball at the Baltimore 28 with just over three minutes to play.

MARLON HUMPHREY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tune in to CBS! pic.twitter.com/EC31ozHF1a

– Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) October 6, 2024

“It just shows you that whatever happens during the game, it only takes one play. It takes one play to turn the whole game around, man,” Flowers said. “I went up to Marlo and said, ‘That’s you,’ because some people slow down in their thoughts and just keep going down. He stayed up there and intercepted a big ball, so kudos to Marlon.”

Humphrey left the locker room without speaking to reporters. He had a hiking boot on his foot and knocked over the cue ball he was given.

Tucker also got a game ball. When the Ravens’ interception attack stalled at the Bengals’ 38-yard line after Humphrey’s throw with 1:43 to play, Tucker jogged onto the field and failed a 56-yard field goal attempt. He had just one on his last seven balls from 50 yards or more last year, but the Ravens have repeatedly said there’s no kicker they’d rather have in those situations.

Tucker’s kick into the wind started to the left – like many of his recent misses – but then sailed into the center of the post to decide the game.

“I had all the confidence in the world,” Jackson said. “I know who he is.”

Baltimore’s defense still needed to get a stop to force overtime, and it did. The Ravens then had to hope the Bengals missed the field goal in overtime, and they did, giving Jackson the reprieve he so deserved.

“I was angry,” Jackson said. “I didn’t want that to happen. Like I said, we had the ball. I feel like we would have scored on that drive, but time was running out and I was just trying to hurry up and get the snap from Tyler. And while I was checking to see if there was a delay, I looked away for a split second and…yeah. It was a fumble, but we got the win.”

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The Ravens won because Jackson is their quarterback. When things looked worst on Sunday, he didn’t let them lose.

“This kid is different, man,” Flowers said. “We talk about it every game. He just proves it every game, so I wonder when we’ll stop talking about it. This man is different. He is everything.”

(Photo: Andy Lyons/Getty Images)