Baltimore Ravens Stay Aggressive for Season Sweep of Cincinnati Bengals, Joe Burrow
The Baltimore Ravens beat the division rival Bengals on Thursday night convincingly in front of a national audience to complete the first season sweep of Cincy since 2020. It gave the Ravens a huge advantage in the battle for the AFC North crown and was a good rebound game after Baltimore failed to finish the contest against the Browns the week prior in a 33-31 loss.
After allowing the Browns to score 24 second-half points in Week 10 and win on a last-second field goal, it's safe to say one of the areas of focus in the abbreviated week of practice for Baltimore was finishing the game.
Monken and Jackson
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And it showed as the Ravens stayed aggressive with playcalling on both sides of the ball even after Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow left the game with an injury.
Baltimore offensive coordinator Todd Monken didn't let up after taking shot after deep shot down the field in the first half and getting out to a big lead. Ravens' signal-caller Lamar Jackson kept throwing the ball deep and kept finding success with the aggressive play calling.
Monken and Co. weren't just aggressive through the air, though, as the ground game kept finding success too. Running backs Gus Edwards and Keaton Mitchell combined for 95 yards rushing on 20 carries, while Jackson kept the ball nine times for 54 yards.
On defense, they kept pressure on the quarterback too. In Week 10 against the Browns, Baltimore allowed Cleveland to convert 8-of-16 third downs in the game. That improved against Cincinnati, who went just 2-for-11.
“It means a lot,” inside linebacker Patrick Queen said. “They had a lot of stuff to [say]. We put that to bed. It’s still a long season. There’s still a chance we may have to play them again, you never know. We definitely just have to keep working, but it feels good.”
