Ravens Show Resilience in Hard-Fought Win in Cleveland
It's not a surprise that Sunday's Ravens-Browns game on a blustery day in Cleveland was a physical, tight contest.
It took a dominant effort from the defense and a nifty trick play from an inconsistent offense in the final minutes to allow the Ravens to leave with a 23-16 comeback win over the Browns (2-8). With its fourth consecutive victory, Baltimore (5-5) got back to .500 and kept pace with the AFC North-leading Pittsburgh Steelers (6-4).
The Ravens, who committed three turnovers (two interceptions by Lamar Jackson and a muffed punt by LaJohntay Wester), won a grind-it-out-game for the second week in a row, but the bottom line is they won. The offense had difficulty in the red zone, but the Ravens showed grit and resilience to prevail in a stadium where they had lost three of the past four meetings.
The Baltimore Sun’s Josh Tolentino: "On a gloomy day when the offense looked stuck, the Ravens muscled through their mistakes and leaned on grit to drag themselves out of an ever-important divisional game to sweep the Browns for the first time since 2020. … The Ravens might not be winning with style points or full four-quarter performances yet, but they've established an important sense of momentum as they enter the final third of the regular season."
The Baltimore Sun’s Bennett Conlin: "Baltimore shouldn't spend much time on this performance, which felt uncharacteristic. Flush the tape and focus on beating the snot out of the Jets in a week. A win is a win, no matter how ugly."
The Baltimore Banner’s Paul Mancano: "If the Ravens pull off the remarkable season turnaround they're capable of making, no one will care how ugly their Week 11 win in Cleveland looked. Beggars can't be choosers, and the Ravens just need wins, no matter how they come."
Russell Street Report’s Derek Arnold: "It wasn't pretty. But under those conditions, in that stadium, against that team, it was never going to be. The ultimate 'survive and advance' game."
Baltimore Beatdown’s Mark Myers: "It wasn't pretty, but the victory was all that mattered. Overcoming multiple mind-numbing penalties, losing the turnover battle, and a tough road divisional environment is huge for the Ravens as they battle for a playoff spot. Today reinforced that this team is currently incapable of a complete performance, but four wins in a row show its resilience."
Perfectly Executed Fake 'Tush Push' Is Ravens' 'Call of the Season'
Though pundits called the win ugly, the game-winning play was a thing of beauty.
In a tie game with 2:39 remaining, the Ravens set up for the "tush push" on fourth-and-1 at the Browns' 35-yard line. Tight end Mark Andrews took the snap, but instead of surging forward, he spun around to fake a pitch, rolled to his right, and raced to the end zone.
Andrews, the Ravens' all-time leader in touchdowns, scored his first rushing touchdown in a game in which he also became the franchise's career leader in receiving yards, surpassing Derrick Mason.
Pundits praised Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken for his creativity in designing the play dubbed "Hurricane" and his gutsiness for calling it in such a crucial situation.
Russell Street Report’s Josh Tolbert: "[Offensive Coordinator] Todd Monken had the call of the season with the Mark Andrews bootleg, which the announcer called the 'Baltimore Breakout.'"
The Athletic’s Jeff Zrebiec: "If the Baltimore Ravens make something of this season, if they're able to survive their 1-5 start and put themselves in position to play meaningful football in January and maybe even February, they're going to look back to this sequence and Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken's decision to call a play that was just added to the team's repertoire days earlier. … The Ravens have struggled in short-yardage situations all year and again on Sunday, necessitating Monken to get creative and come up with ways to move the ball a couple of feet. It was a particularly gutsy time for Monken to break out a play that the team practiced 'a couple of times.'"
The Baltimore Sun’s Brian Wacker: "The real pièce de résistance was the touchdown by Mark Andrews and the creativity behind it for what had become an often predictable offense. That will perhaps go a long way toward sparking a revival for what has been at best an inconsistent group."
Zach Orr 'Called a Great Game' As Defense Dominated
Monken isn't the only Ravens coordinator who received kudos. Pundits are giving Defensive Coordinator Zach Orr his flowers for the unit's smothering performance.
Baltimore limited the Browns to 187 total yards and held them scoreless in the second half. Cleveland's lone touchdown came from its defense on a pick-six.
The Ravens harassed rookie quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders all day and limited the Browns to field goals, including on a possession in which Cleveland had first-and-goal at the 6-yard line after the muffed punt.
All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton had another stellar game, and cornerback Chidobe Awuzie, starting in place of the injured Marlon Humphrey, made a huge play by breaking up a pass in the end zone on Cleveland's final drive with the Ravens clinging to a seven-point lead.
The Baltimore Banner’s Kyle Goon: "You can almost completely give this win to how damn good Zach Orr's big blitz calls were in the right moments."
Russell Street Report’s Nick Polinsky: "Zach Orr called a great game and knew exactly what to do once Shedeur Sanders came in under center. The pressure he sent led to multiple mistakes that ultimately changed the momentum of this game entirely. The entire defense was flying around today, and the unit allowed just nine points. That's now four straight games the Ravens defense has held their opponent under 20 points."
Baltimore Beatdown’s Dustin Cox: "Zach Orr's defense deserves credit for this one, even if it was against two rookie quarterbacks. Blitzes were clearly affecting Shedeur Sanders after he was thrown into the game in the second half and Orr stuck with it to great effect."
Zrebiec: "The talk for much of the season was whether the Ravens could win in spite of their struggling defense. The only reason that they had a chance to win Sunday was their defense stood tall when repeatedly put in tough spots by the offense and special teams. Time and time again from the second quarter on, the Ravens kept stopping the Browns and getting the offense the ball back. Other than one first-quarter drive where the Ravens struggled to stop the run, the defense was in control throughout."
Finishing Drives Continues to Be an Issue
The Ravens needed that type of performance from their defense because the offense continued to struggle in the red zone and short-yardage situations.
Baltimore went 1-for-4 in the red zone and failed to score a touchdown on two possessions in which they had first-and-goal inside the 10-yard line. Jackson went 14-for-25 for 193 yards with no touchdowns, two interceptions, and a 47.6 passer rating.
Browns All-Pro edge rusher Myles Garrett wreaked havoc, as he had four sacks, five quarterback hits, and five tackles for loss.
ESPN’s Jamison Hensley: "This is the second straight week that Jackson was out of sync. After throwing one interception in his first six starts this season, he totaled multiple interceptions in a game for the first time since 2023. The more troubling issue is finishing drives. Last season, Baltimore was the best in the red zone, scoring touchdowns 74.2% of the time. Over the past two weeks, the Ravens have scored three touchdowns on nine drives inside the 20 (33.3%)."
Press Box’s Bo Smolka: "Yet again, the toughest yards for the Ravens proved to be near the opposing goal line. They escaped this game with a win, but at some point, maybe when the season is on the line against a high-powered offense, 24- and 25-yard field goals won't cut it. Those were the distances of two of Tyler Loop's field goals in this game after Ravens drives stalled inside the Browns' 10-yard line. This is not a new phenomenon. The Ravens entered this game ranked 27th of 32 NFL teams in terms of converting red zone chances into touchdowns."
NFL.com’s Nick Shook: "Much of Jackson's bumpy afternoon can be chalked up to the pressure caused by Myles Garrett (six pressures) and the rest of Cleveland's defense, which worked in concert to create quite a challenge for Baltimore's offense. But don't be surprised if the morning sports talk shows spend some time worrying about how Jackson has performed over the last two weeks."
Goon: "The offensive line has tons of holes that make it hard for Derrick Henry to gain steam and Lamar Jackson to make easy throws. Myles Garrett teeing off is one thing, but the linemen are missing or whiffing on too many assignments to give this attack a consistent foundation for success. They have to be better, hard stop."
Quick Hits
This Weekend's Most Read: Clifton Brown's Five Thoughts on the Ravens Sweeping Cleveland to Get Back to .500
- ESPN’s Ryan Clark called out a Bleacher Report writer for saying Jackson is the most overrated quarterback in the league.
