The Baltimore Ravens won the AFC North division match against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 5 19:17. In the end, it was kicker Justin Tucker who decided the game in favor of the home side with a last second field goal.
Ravans vs Bengals: At a Glance
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Both sides robbed each other of their opponent’s strengths for long stretches of the game. With a disciplined defensive line, the Bengals made sure that Lamar Jackson hardly got a chance to break out of the pocket. The Ravens, on the other hand, mostly played zone coverage with two deep safety’s that largely signed off Ja’Marr Chase.
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While wide receiver Tee Higgins was active with the Bengals, he was mostly on the sidelines with an ankle injury that has been a handicap for some time. He was then kept out of the game and was noticeably absent as an alternative to Chase.
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Kicker Justin Tucker was once again perfect for the Ravens and scored more points (13) than his team’s offense (6).
Baltimore Ravens vs. Cincinnati Bengals: Die Analyse
While the Bengals took a while to get into the game, the Ravens got off to a good start. Their first series of attacks only ended at the edge of the red zone. Justin Tucker put Baltimore ahead with a 37-yard field goal.
This was followed by punts and sacks from Ravens newcomer Jason Pierre-Paul on one side and Trey Hendrickson’s tackle on Lamar Jackson on a running attempt on the other. In the second quarter, the Ravens made it 10-0 with Jackson’s 11-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mark Andrews. It was the result of an unsuccessful coverage, because his assigned cornerback Tre Flowers didn’t go with the shallow crosser and probably expected safety help. But this didn’t come, so Andrews had a clear path towards the end zone.
The game then threatened to tip over completely after linebacker Josh Bynes blitzed through the A-Gap untouched to Joe Burrow for a sack. But shortly thereafter Jackson made his first serious error, knocking over Demarcus Robinson on a deep crossing route and right behind was safety Vonn Bell for an interception. A little later, the guests hit back – burrow on tight end Hayden Hurst for a 19-yard touchdown on a simple in-breaking route.
Before the break, Bengals kicker Evan McPherson equalized with a 40-yard field goal seconds before halftime.
Ravens vs. Bengals: Turbulent start of the second half
The second half started turbulently. McPherson opened with a kickoff into touch, after which the Ravens marched into the opposing half and played a fourth try. Jackson, however, threw a deep ball over a completely open Tylan Wallace – he had previously threw over Devin Duvernay.
Directly in return, Burrow threw an interception to his former LSU teammate linebacker Patrick Queen. Tucker then put Baltimore back in the lead with a 56-yard field goal.
The Bengals’ response? A long drive deep into the red zone, where the creativity got a bit overdone. 2nd and Goal tried their version of the “Philly Special” with Tyler Boyd in the backfield, but he was brought down by Marcus Peters for a long sack. You then returned to the 2-yard line with a completion to Ja’Marr Chase, but from there Burrow attempted a hopeless shovel pass through the middle – incomplete! Turnover on downs late in the third quarter.
The Ravens then marched 90 yards and took about 8 minutes off the clock before Tucker sunk a short field goal to make it 16:10 for the Bengals. There were less than 10 minutes to play. Almost 8 minutes later, the Bengals responded in the form of a 1-yard touchdown sneak by Burrow shortly after the 2-minute warning to 17:16 for the guests. The extra point was a hair’s breadth, the ball went right over the right upright.
The Ravens had 1:58 minutes and all three timeouts to turn the game once more. Ultimately, that was far too much time for Jackson, who finally found his way out of the pocket and got the important yards out with his feet. The Ravens advanced to the 25-yard line and then Tucker made a comfortable sink from 43 yards to win.
Baltimore Ravens (3-2) – Cincinnati Bengals (2-3)
Result: 17:19 (3:0, 7:10, 3:0, 6:7) BOXSCORE
Ravens vs. Bengals – the most important statistics
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In his second game for the Ravens, edge rusher Jason Pierre-Paul was allowed to let off steam, especially at the beginning, before he played less as the game went on. He ended up seeing 42 snaps and 2 tackles for 1 sack and 1 stuff.
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The Ravens relied on the tried and tested passing game – Crossing Routes by Mark Andrews. He made his 11-yard TD on such a route. As of 2018, he now leads the NFL with 1,131 receiving yards on crossing routes, according to Next Gen Stats.
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Jackson’s misthrow over Wallace’s head in the second quarter was particularly painful because the pass would have a 65 percent chance of completion. It was the fifth most likely completion on a pass thrown at least 30 yards downfield since 2016.
The star of the game: Marcus Peters (cornerback, Ravens)
Peters himself was relentless and only allowed 3 completions on 7 targets (41 YDS), he managed a stuff, he managed a sack – against Boyd, but that counts and was important – and had a total of 5 tackles. He is representative of the home side’s outstanding secondary, which especially took the wind out of Chase’s sails.
The Flop of the Match: Joe Burrow (Quarterback, Bengals)
Burrow struggled with the Ravens’ zone coverage and as a result mainly threw very short passes that regularly led his receivers to their ruin. His interception was also a serious and unnecessary mistake. Ultimately, he suffered a lot from the fact that Chase hardly came into his own, so he didn’t play any big plays. The virtual failure of the active tee Higgins (ankle) did the rest, because the playmaker was missing at Chase’s side.
Analysis: Ravens vs. Bengals – the Tactics Table
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The Ravens surprised the Bengals early on with zone coverage, which the Ravens defense doesn’t typically play. This caused some adjustment problems and early, very short passes from Burrow. Only after a few fruitless attacks did the Bengals find a few answers, for example with crossers and in-breaking routes.
- Chase’s radius of action was limited by these mostly 2-high looks, which Burrow usually only carefully sought. If the Ravens switched to single-high looks, Burrow Chase almost automatically looked for classic one-on-one duels. However, this is not a new finding, it is simply standard with Chase and Burrow.
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The Bengals, on the other hand, tried a disciplined defensive line that tried to keep Jackson in the pocket as much as possible, which they did well. There was also heavy blitzing – the Bengals sending extra rushers on more than half of Jackson’s dropbacks. In contrast, the Ravens Burrow only blitzed once – and thus managed a sack early in the game.
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The Ravens had to do without wide receiver Rashod Bateman due to an injury and accordingly relied even more on the run game. That one was sometimes very creative with the remaining established WR Duvernay in the backfield as a deep tailback or with a jet sweep from the side.
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For their part, the Bengals reacted to the attacking efforts of the home side with variable coverage. For example, they frequently switched between man and zone and, especially early on, often had cornerback Awuzie against tight end Andrews.