Knee-Jerk Reactions: Bengals 32 Ravens 14

The Ravens fell to the Cincinnati Bengals on Thanksgiving 32-14, thanks to five turnovers by the offense. The Ravens are now 6-6, and a half game behind Pittsburgh in the AFC North.

RSR staff react to the loss here.

Derek Arnold

Well, the January Ravens showed up in November! A comedy of errors on offense, including…

— a fumble going into the end zone

— a ridiculous OPI that negated a long TD

— a WR stopping his route on another should-have-been TD

— the same WR dropping a pass at the 2-yard line

— a TE getting blown up in pass protection, resulting in a tipped pass interception where another TE was running WIDE open for a TD

— a stupid fumble by the QB at his own 2-yard line

— another fumble on a play that I swear has been ruled an incomplete pass for 20 years

— A fumble in basically garbage time as the cherry on top

…and all against a team that came in as the worst defense of all time!

Just a bang-up job by everyone involved.

Derrick Henry runs for a 20+-yard touchdown then completely disappears. Lamar Jackson shows the kind of quickness and burst he hasn’t in months, but is totally lazy with his mechanics and misses several easy throws. And everyone else on the offensive side of the ball does…well, see above.

The defense held their own until Nate Wiggins left with the unfortunate foot injury, but they were AGAIN on the field for much longer than they should have been thanks to the offense being unable to sustain anything.

Hopefully Buffalo beats Pittsburgh and you go into that game even in the standings. That’s the only potential upside here.

Chad Racine

You have pretty much no shot of winning with five turnovers, three of which certainly should have been avoided. The Ravens seem to be losing games this season the way they used to win: by controlling the ball and winning the time of possession. This mini-bye is needed. Lamar looked decent running tonight so maybe he’s a little healthier now. With Wiggins going out, stopping Chase seemed like an impossible task. This loss isn’t the end of the world. The Ravens are still in good position to win the division.

Jared Pinder

It’s tough to even put into words how big of an upset this is for the Ravens. Lamar and the offense are just broken. Five turnovers against one of the worst-rated defenses in the league? Really? The defense tried to keep it close, but the pass rush was awful tonight, and Wiggins going down kind of screwed them. I understand some fans are going to blame the refs and view this game as a rock bottom moment, but to me, that’s loser talk. This offense had to come out big tonight, and they pooped their pants on national television.

What a pathetic showing.

Jason Woolbert

A certain movie character once stated, “stupid is as stupid does.”  Tonight, the Baltimore Falcons were a stupid football team, and it started after the first possession for both teams.  The Falcons led 7-3.  After that, it was a cavalcade of the usual things which have become cliche for us fans.  Turnovers and penalties are at the forefront of that.  Wouldn’t you know, one of each negated a touchdown, for a minimum of 12 points left on the board.  The defense performed admirably, holding the Bengals to field goals, until they ran out of gas and began getting injured.  The Bengals kicked six of them by the way; and now, we have to regard Lamar.

Regardless of why – nagging injuries, bad blocking, bad play calls, or bad play – This has been Lamar Jackson’s worst stretch of games in a while, and tonight was a capstone performance.  People are going to point to the Bengals being on a historically bad pace on defense (not anymore) but this was all on the Ravens offense, including him.  He needs to extend fewer plays.  Throw the ball away more.  Protect the football way more.  He needs to play better if this team is going to go anywhere.

…because the team is now 6-6, and the AFC North is their only real path to the playoffs.  That means they must beat the Steelers next week.  The other games matter too, but not nearly as much as those two games.  Unless of course the Bengals win out, again, after their 8th loss.  In that case, they will somehow take the division.

Really though, there’s no way the Baltimore Falcons will make noise in the playoffs even if they get there.  They need to become the Ravens again.

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