Ravens Tame Burrow, Bengals in 27-3 Victory
BALTIMORE — Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow will learn some hard lessons when he watches the tape of his game against the Ravens.
Baltimore continuously knocked the rookie to the turf, forced him to throw off his back foot and had him running for his life for much of the afternoon.
The Ravens allowed 205 yards and steamrolled Cincinnati in a 27-3 victory.
Burrow was 19 of 30 for 183 yards with an interception. He was sacked seven times, absorbed 15 hits and lost a fumble.
"Obviously, a very good team win," Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. "You start with the defense. The defense played lights out throughout the whole game, and that was fun to watch. But, all three phases did what they had to do to win; we’re proud of that. I guarantee our guys aren’t satisfied.
"There are plenty of things that we can look at and do better, coaching and playing. We’ll do that, but I’m proud of them for the win. Especially [because] we did get to the quarterback."
Five of the Ravens' defensive backs — Marcus Peters, Marlon Humphrey, Chuck Clark, DeShon Elliott and Jimmy Smith — managed a sack.
While Baltimore's defense shined, quarterback Lamar Jackson was out of sync for much of the game. He was 19 of 37 for 180 yards and managed a pair of touchdowns, but was sacked once and threw an interception for the second straight week (71.9 rating). He averaged 4.9 yards per pass attempt.
Baltimore improved to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in the AFC North with a road game at Philadelphia in Week 6.
The Ravens opened a 10-0 lead with an impressive 15-play, a 62-yard scoring drive that took over seven minutes off the clock in the first quarter. Jackson threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mark Andrews.
On the ensuing drive, Clark surged through the offensive line and ran into Burrow, who floated a pass off his back foot that was intercepted by Peters.
“They were bringing a lot of different blitz looks," Burrow said. "They brought some ‘Cover Zero’ that I personally didn’t handle well. One positive on the day is our defense played really, really well. They played their tails off for us, and we’ve just got to give them a better showing on the offensive end.”
That set up a 2-yard touchdown pass from Jackson to Marquise Brown for a 17-0 lead with 14:56 left in the half. Later in the second quarter, Jackson could not hold into a pass in the middle of the end zone.
Ravens rookie Patrick Queen then drilled his former LSU teammate Burrow for a strip-sack at midfield. However, Baltimore failed to capitalize when Jackson overthrew Andrews on a 4th and 6.
Baltimore committed more to the running game late in the third quarter and began to wear down the Bengals.
The Ravens finished with 161 yards rushing on 24 carries (6.7 ypc).
Justin Tucker made a 39 field goal that increased the lead to 20-0, 2:36 left the third quarter as a steady rain began to fall.
Cornerback Marlon Humphrey had his third forced fumble of the season. This time, he stripped wide receiver Mike Thomas, and Queen picked up the ball and ran 52 yards for a 27-0 lead with 8:21 left in the game.
“It goes to show that we’ve got a lot of guys who, when we blitz, you don’t know who is going to be free," Humphrey said. "Whenever we blitz, we all come thinking, ‘I’m going to get the sack.’ All guys that are blitzing are thinking, ‘I’m going to get the sack.’
"Sometimes you get freed up, and you never know who it might be. We’ve got great pass rushers, but it’s really good when you can have some DBs [defensive backs] get in there and get some sacks.”
