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GOOD, BAD & UGLY: Ravens Grate Packers 41-24

Sunday, December 28, 2025 12:33
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“A Heart-Defining Win”

Full disclosure, I didn’t know what to expect from the Ravens on Saturday night at Lambeau Field. Playing without their alleged leader, Lamar Jackson, I wondered if the team would just roll over, make business decisions to circumvent injury and essentially, punch the time clock in defeat as they watched playoff hopes vanish into the breezy Wisconsin night. But those thoughts proved to be a discredit to the intestinal fortitude of all players not wearing No. 8.

“It was just a heart-defining win is what that was; the type of win that makes you proud to be a Raven, makes you proud to be with these guys every single day, starting with Derrick Henry and Tyler Huntley and everybody else that led the way to this victory.” ~ John Harbaugh following the Ravens 41-24 win.

The Ravens came to play – well, at least their offense did. They played power football against a defense that coming into the game was the league’s 6th best unit. Without Lamar in the lineup, the Ravens seemed to play to their strengths. Monken called the game for the offense that they have. With Lamar, they seem to regularly call games for an offense that they aspire to have. Why did it take 16 weeks for them to figure it out? Now, we’re left to root for Shedeur Sanders and the Cleveland Browns to upset the Steelers in Cleveland.

It’s frustrating when pondering what could have been. Had the Ravens called on their closer last week against the Patriots, we might not have to dip ourselves in dirty Lake Erie waters and hope for a Factory of Sadness miracle. But it is what it is and now we’ll have to tune in at 1PM and hope that the following trends continue work in the Ravens favor:

So, brace yourselves RavensFlock. On the call for the Steelers at Browns is Jim Nantz and Tony Romo, the latter of which will be slobber-knocking all over Aaron Rodgers. Hopefully the cheerleader will have little to get excited about.

Tony Romo a Steelers homer

THE GOOD

Offense

The Ravens had an offensive plan, and they stuck to it. The blueprint was obvious – run the football; play physically; minimize mistakes; avoid obvious passing situations. It was nearly as effective as proposing to J-Lo.

The offensive line has been much maligned throughout the 2025 season. This game was an example of what they should have been doing all along to get the most out of the talents across the offensive front. I’ve been riding Daniel Faalele the entire season – even in the dog days of August during training camp. In Green Bay, he was a force, a road grader. The entire front was like tractor plows working in unison. Think about it. The Packers knew that Derrick Henry was going to be the bell cow. All the signs were there – the failures against the Patriots and Tyler Huntley getting the start. Yet they couldn’t stop the big diesel wearing No. 22.

As if to make a statement, the Ravens won the coin toss and elected to receive. Then they proceeded to put together one of their best drives of the season – 13 plays, 75 yards, while chewing up 8:05 of clock all capped by a 3-yard run from Henry who had 48 yards on the drive. That’s impressive. That creates an offensive identity which they’ve sorely lacked.

Back to Huntley, he was a highly effective game manager. One play that may have gone unnoticed, really jumped out for me. The Packers closed a 27-14 halftime Ravens’ lead to 27-24 by the 2:02 mark of the third quarter. The evaporating lead had a familiar feel. Here we go again, right?

On the ensuing kick, the Ravens were flagged for holding during the return. The momentum had swung wildly in favor of the hosts. But the Ravens stuck with their plan. Later during the drive, they faced a 3rd-and-4 from the Green Bay 35. Huntley didn’t like the look, so he checked out of a play and handed it to Henry who ran for 7 yards to pick up the first. Five plays later, Huntley calmly hit Zay Flowers from 10 yards out to put the Ravens up by two scores, 34-24. There was no looking back. Over the course of his two starts, both wins against teams with winning records (Bears, Packers) Huntley has a QB rating of 103.7 and didn’t turn the ball over. He also subbed for Lamar on the fly against the Patriots and gave his team a chance to win, something the Ravens play callers failed to do.

Huntley orchestrated an excellent drive to end the first half. The Packers closed to 20-14 with 1:24 left in Q2. The Ravens took over at their own 35 following a touchback. Seven plays, 65 yards and 1:14 later, the Ravens took a 27-14 lead. Huntley showed poise while managing the clock and timeouts. The explosive plays in the passing game were missing, but overall efficiency was spot on.

The outstanding team blocking wasn’t just that of the offensive front. The tight ends, Patrick Ricard and the receivers were also vital cogs in the extreme running effectiveness that produced an eye-popping 307 yards. Special flowers for blocking prowess go to Isaiah Likely. Think about this for a moment. Likely is playing for his next contract. During the previous two games, Likely not only didn’t get a single catch, but he also wasn’t targeted in either game. Yet he comes out on Saturday night and blocks his ass off. That’s a guy I want on my team in perpetuity.

[Related Article: Ravens Report Card]

Defense

Packers head coach Matt LeFleur looked to make a statement. He kept his offense on the field down by 7 and facing a 4th-and-inches from his own 35. He failed thanks to excellent plays from Roquan Smith and Tavius Robinson…Travis Jones for my money, was the Ravens best defender against the Packers. He finished with 4 tackles and 1 ½ sacks and was a huge contributor to making the Packers offense one-dimensional.

Usually taking away a facet of an opponent’s offense works in favor of the defense. But in a weird way, stopping the run forces opponents to throw more and when they do, given the Ravens awful pass rush, quarterbacks cook a secondary that so often looks clueless.

Special Teams

Tyler Loop had a perfect night connecting on all PATs and hitting from 22 and 34 yards out. He also did a nice job placing kickoffs and his coverage teams were fast and physical, limiting the Packers to an average start on 7 kickoffs (excluding the intentional touchback at the end of the game) from the 27 yard line which in the modern NFL, is a good day…Jordan Stout’s only punt was for a net of just 42 yards but it pinned the Packers at their own 14-yard line.

THE BAD

Offense

Roger Rosengarten was exposed by the athleticism of Kingsley Enagbare during one rushing attempt in the 3rd quarter, dropping Henry for a 5-yard loss. The Ravens committed three pre-snap penalties.

THE UGLY

Defense

The Packers had just 2 plays from scrimmage in the first quarter, yet the game was tied, 7-7 thanks to secondary blunders by Nate Wiggins and Kyle Hamilton. Wiggins was particularly pathetic in coverage and then later in the game he bit on a naked bootleg from Malik Willis resulting in a score – the same bite given by Marlon Humphrey earlier in the game for Willis’ first TD scamper. Some players never learn. Wiggins was supposed to be an upgrade over Brandon Stephens. On Saturday night, he had me missing the former Raven.

According to NextGenStats Wiggins was targeted 7 times allowing 6 receptions for 146 yards. The incompletion was a drop. On the Packers first possession of the second half, they faced a 3rd-and-18 from their own 18-yard line. They converted. Guess who the beat?

It seemed as if any time the Packers made a big play on offense, 2 and 44 were the culprits. Marlon Humphrey was the benefactor of a fortuitous INT but he looked slow and rigid.

The Ravens’ secondary is a sieve. They made a backup quarterback look like Patrick Mahomes. They probably made said backup QB a lot of money last night too. Willis is a free agent following the 2025 season.

Despite taking just 44 snaps (a couple of which were non-competitive), the Packers produced 363 yards of offense, 284 by air. Imagine what accomplished playoff quarterbacks might do. This is a defense that has four 1st-round picks in the secondary and they look so discombobulated that they resemble a collection of street free agents discarded by everyone else. Wiggins looks like a bust. I pounded the table for Cooper DeJean but instead the Ravens drafted Wiggins who at times doesn’t even look like he’s all that interested…Humphrey is washed…Malaki Starks has been a big nothingburger this season and Hamilton, in his Swiss Army knife role, blew a coverage that resulted in the Packers first score.

We were led to believe it would be better than the first half of 2024. We thought with the addition of Chuck Pagano the Ravens might see results from a secondary that aligned with their collective draft status. That hasn’t happened. It has been just more of the same. Granted, they could use a better pass rush but the Packers receivers were WIDE open, as in 5 yards of spacing between the pass catcher and defender.

Even if the Ravens get some luck today thanks to the Browns, setting up a do or die game in Pittsburgh next week, can we really expect the defense to suddenly tighten up? And if they do back into the playoffs and fail, will they just reboot and bring back the same level of coaching competency?

Paige Spiranac Award goes to Derrick Henry in the Ravens 30-23 win over the Commanders

Paige Spiranac Player of The Game

Eric DeCosta has had his fair share of swings and misses when it comes to the draft and free agency in recent years. You know the failures and there’s no need to beat that dead horse on a victory Sunday. But the one signing he’s made, and a relatively economical one at that, considering his production, is Derrick Henry.

Water under the bridge is just that but The King’s production in a must-have game on the road makes Harbaugh’s or Todd Monken’s or Willie Taggart’s decision to keep Henry off the field for most of the 4th quarter last week, mind-numbingly idiotic. Damon Amendolara’s take says it all.

But back to the man who has saved the Ravens season, at least for the next few hours. These tweets about The King tell the story, and a great one it was. Do yourself a favor and take time to enjoy these.

ODDS & ENDS

If the Browns pull off the upset today in Cleveland (they are 4 ½ point dogs and descending), look for the Ravens at Steelers game in Week 18 to be flexed to another Sunday Night outing. Here are the league’s rules for flexing:

• The notice required to flex an NFL game varies by the day of the week, but generally involves 12 days for Sunday Night Football (Weeks 5-13) shrinking to 6 days later in the season, 12 days for Monday Night Football (Weeks 12-17), and 21 days for Thursday Night Football (Weeks 13-17), allowing the league to move Sunday afternoon games to primetime slots to ensure big matchups, with Week 18 having its own unique short-notice rules.

• A network can “refuse” in the sense that they have the right to protect one game per week from being flexed out of their Sunday afternoon schedule (CBS/Fox), but the NFL ultimately has the final say, especially in later weeks, and can override these protections for better matchups

The post GOOD, BAD & UGLY: Ravens Grate Packers 41-24 appeared first on Russell Street Report.


Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2025/12/28/gbu-paige-spiranac/packers-get-grated-by-the-ravens/


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