Lamar Jackson, Ravens Have Another 4th-Quarter Collapse in Loss to New York Giants
Quarterback Lamar Jackson and the Ravens had a breakdown late in the fourth quarter that opened the door for the New York Giants to escape with a massive victory.
Jackson managed to pick up an errant snap but then threw an interception to safety Julian Love that gave the Giants (5-1) the ball on the 13 with just over two minutes remaining.
Marcus Peters thought he had a game-saving interception but it was negated by a pass interference penalty that put the ball on the 1.
Saquon Barkley had a diving touchdown on the next play that gave New York the 24-20 victory in Week 6. Jackson was stripped-sacked on the final drive.
“We’re just messing up ourselves," Jackson said. "We can’t let that happen. The mistakes happen in practice and shouldn’t happen in the game. But it’s a part of NFL football. We try to overcome it, [but] sometimes it happens.”
The Ravens fell to 3-3 on the season, and have blown fourth-quarter leads in each of those losses.
“We have to take responsibility for that, and we have to find a way to do it,” coach John Harbaugh said. “It comes to coaches and players; we have to come up with calls, we have to coach our guys better in those situations, be in the right spot, play the right leverage, block the play the correct way, whatever it might be. Those are the things we have to do a better job of, and players have to take responsibility as well. It’s just us, as I told them, it’s us. It’s us together; all of us together. Six games into the season, we’re in good position big picture-wise. Let’s get to where we can be and where we need to be, where I think we all can see we should be. It’s our responsibility to do it though, and we have to go get the job done.”
Jackson was 17 of 32 for 210 yards with a touchdown and interception for a 71.1 rating. He also ran for 77 yards on 7 carries.
Kenyan Drake had a dominant performance with 119 yards rushing, including a 30-yard scoring run.
The Ravens had 1st-and-goal from the 5 on their first possession of the second half but had to settle for a 23-yard field goal by Justin Tucker that gave them a 13-7 lead.
After the Giants converted a field goal, Jackson found Mark Andrews for a 12-yard touchdown pass that extended the lead to 20-10.
However, New York answered when Daniel Jones threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Daniel Bellinger that cut the lead to three with 6:01 to play. The Ravens allowed a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive just after taking the 10-point lead.
More breakdowns hampered the Ravens as Jackson threw the interception on the next drive that put them in a position to win the game.
"Tough loss, [we give] credit to the Giants for getting the job done at the end," Harbaugh said. "That’s the biggest story for us, is winning the game at the end of the game. Making the plays that need to be made, and not making the errors that cost you an opportunity to win the game. So, we’ll regroup, we’ll go to work, and we’re going to find ourselves as a football team. That’s what we have to do right now; find ourselves as a football team.
"We have an opportunity to be a very good football team. We can be as good as we want to be and decide to be, and we’re going to go to work with everything we’ve got to get that done."
Despite the late touchdown, the Ravens managed to contain Barkley, who entered the game ranked second in the NFL with 533 yards rushing but finished with 83 yards on 22 carries.
Jones was 19 of 27 for 173 yards with two touchdowns for a 112.1 rating.
Baltimore right tackle Morgan Moses left the game with a heel injury and did not return after being carted from the field. Moses returned to the sideline but his status is uncertain.
“It doesn’t look like a serious injury; he was back up actually in the second half," Harbaugh said. I chose to go with Pat [Mekari] and we had Danny [Daniel Faalele] going in there with the pitch count that we had going with Ronnie [Stanley]. I just felt like it was the safer thing to do in this situation, to hold [Morgan Moses] out until next week.”
The Ravens struggled with three presnap penalties in the first quarter and it was a bad omen when Tucker missed a 56-yard field goal attempt.
The second quarter was much better as Drake converted a tough first down and then ran for a 30-yard touchdown that gave Baltimore a 7-0 lead.
The Giants tied the game on a 4-yard pass from Jones to Wan'Dale Robinson. The Ravens defense allowed New York to convert 3rd-and-14, 3rd-and-12, and 3rd-and-goal from the 5 that extended the drive.
Drake had another 30-yard run on the next possession that put the Ravens in Giants' territory. That set up a 34-yard field goal by Tucker and Baltimore led 10-7 at halftime.
The Ravens outgained the Giants 256 to 90 in the first two quarters, but once again, they could not finish the game strong enough.
