OTL: Ravens Embrace Spirit of Giving on Thanksgiving

What a mess we have to sort through today, ladies and gentlemen. After an absolutely embarrassing loss, we are now left with so many questions and so few answers.

This was a straight-up disaster on Thanksgiving night: the Ravens got embarrassed by the Bengals. It was one thing to underwhelm against the Jets or the Vikings. This is the historically awful 2025 Bengals defense without their best Edge Rusher. We have reached a new low in a season full of them:

The Bengals defense coming into Week 13

– 31st in rush yards allowed
– 32nd in points allowed
– 32nd in yards allowed
– 32nd in pass yards allowed
– 32nd in points per drive
– 32nd in yards per drive

The Ravens’ offense allowed them to force five turnovers and dominate

— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) November 28, 2025

Look at those numbers, man. What a joke last night was. This offense has been garbage for multiple games now. It’s one thing to struggle to score against the Browns with Myles Garrett or even against the Jets; it’s a whole other dimension of incompetence to struggle against the 2025 Cincinnati Bengals defense.

Another issue is that there really isn’t one thing to blame; everyone struggled last night. Lamar Jackson was awful and generally looks terrible – inaccurate and indecisive. Then these stupid turnovers. Like, come on, didn’t we learn anything from watching Zay Flowers fumble on the goal line in the AFC Championship game? In addition to giving us all flashbacks, how about Isaiah Likely‘s terrible pass-blocking rep that led to another turnover? You know, usually when Ravens players enter contract years, they perform better to get priced out of Baltimore. We are seeing the inverse now with Likely. I am not even sure what to do at this point, nor do I think he should even be back next year for cheap. He wasn’t alone with the poor ball security of course, as Zay’s fumbling issues are also becoming a concern, and Lamar coughed it up twice, including inside his own five.

These fumbles are a reflection of bad coaching at this point as well. Like, how can these guys just keep making the same mistakes over and over again with little to no change? That’s coaching, and Harbs rightfully took responsibility for those after the game. Obviously, he isn’t the one making the mistakes, but he needs to preach ball security to his players, and it just seems like he doesn’t.

Losing this game is also going to have some consequences because this was the team’s final “easy” matchup going forward. The rest of the schedule:

Steelers

at Bengals

Patriots

at Packers

at Steelers

No more Dolphins or Jets on this upcoming schedule. That is a brutal stretch of games, and what have they shown lately that says they are ready for it?

If you lose one game in the next three, you are basically screwed out of the division and maybe even the playoffs. Not winning the division would be a massive disappointment; not making the playoffs should cause a huge shakeup in the Ravens organization.

This team is in deep, deep trouble right now, but at least the one good thing is that Nate Wiggins is not out long-term:

Harbaugh said that Wiggins could miss time but not a long term thing. Chandler Martin has a significant knee injury. He said that Justice Hill has a disc issue in neck.

— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) November 28, 2025

Even in the trying to find a glimmer of hope, there are still some negatives. If Nate can’t go next Sunday against DK Metcalf, we are so cooked. Marlon Humphrey has really struggled against physical receivers like Metcalf, and if Wiggins is out, that might be the 2025 season ending in December.

Was it all just a fake run during that five-game win streak? That was my biggest fear going forward: that it was all just smoke and mirrors against bad teams with bad quarterbacks. Last night confirmed my worst fears, with an offense that is just broken and a badly schemed defense with no pass rush.

This is a mess, and they may need a year like this to move the organization forward on some long-overdue issues.

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