Lamar Jackson did wonders by defeating Bengals, now what will happen on defense?

Paying homage to Steph Curry he made a touchdown pass to Rashod Bateman in the endzone while holding the ball like it was made ofndon for four straight till the Baltimore Ravens.

Arguably one of the few moments that Thursday night, young Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson could do nothing. Jackson placed his arm around general manager Eric DeCosta’s shoulder on the sidelines as they waited for the official to decide whether Baltimore had a fourth down stop or if the Cincinnati Bengals would get another set of downs to possibly tie or win yet again.

All together they waited for the result. Even after Bengals receiver Andrei Iosivas was flagged for the first down, it still took a few painful minutes.

Jackson finally could finally revel in his second-half heroics when Burrow, who was outstanding all evening, overthrow the end zone for a go-ahead two-point PAT pass to tight end Tanner Hudson with 38 seconds to play. When the Ravens got the ball back after an onside kick, for the last 3:19 of the game Jackson needed only one kneeldown to secure the 35-34 victory in front of 71,439 people at M&T Bank Stadium.

During the third quarter the spectators at home began to jeer Baltimore’s offence, that had stumbled for the first time in about a week. Jackson once again delivered a thrilling performance to his team: They had a terrible beginning in terms of offense, defense was not much better on Thursday, and even Justin Tucker failed making an extra point in the fourth quarter.

On the sideline, I was saying to my players, ‘We have to score.’ We must score if they do. We knew it from the first snap, but I’m pleased of my boys for finishing a tough atmosphere game. We succeeded.”

The Ravens are 7-3. Cincinnati has one win over Baltimore, Pittsburgh and Cleveland this season, the Thursday victory over the Bengals (4-6) giving the Ravens a sweep of their AFC North rivals and a dangerous spot in the playoffs. It also allows the Ravens an opportunity to claw their way up to first place by the time they take on the Pittsburgh Steelers on November 17.

With this beaming smile as they headed to the field from the locker room into an unusually warm Baltimore November night, the players immediately seemed to grasp that Thursday’s win is not good enough to get them to the Super Bowl. Jackson and the offense will require assistance even though he goes bonkers with 275+ yards passing for six consecutive games.

“Out there, no one was pointing fingers anywhere but I think we can and have to do better”, opined the Ravens coach John Harbaugh. “That’s not standard. The defensive guys have said, that in the locker room, that is not how it is done. We must improve greatly. We also need to reduce offense pressure that were mentioned above.

The defence does not need to overwhelm, but putting in a performance that forced more turnovers than were conceded on Thursday will suffice. Burrow passed for 428 yards and 4 TDs and Chase received 11 passes for 264 yards with additional 3 TDs. They both looked like they were doing what we call seven-playing-on-seven. The Ravens, who never had to scheme against Tee Higgins could not slow them down.

On his 70-yard touchdown that knotted the game with 5:37 left in the fourth quarter, Chase waited for a Ravens defender to get near him before crossing the plane. It was fitting since Baltimore’s defensive backs didn’t stick with him all night.

If we were confused, it would change. I can easily conclude that we do not perform to the level we practice. This is too late in the season, said the Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey. That’s made us the ‘little brothers’ of each other. Good that Jackson is carrying us. It’s not. And so, sometimes you hear or say a statement like, “I want to win that game defensively.”

The Ravens almost blew it when they had the Bengals down to the 2-point attempt and Burrow escaped a helmet hit from Travis Jones and Humphrey ran through Gesicki. Burrow, with the assistance of three penalties by Baltimore, took the Bengals 70 yards in less than 80 seconds proceeding to hit Chase for a five-yard touchdown to set up Cincinnati for the go-ahead attempt.

Burrow had some fantastic connection with Chase on a 67 yard touchdown in the start of the third quarter and a 70-yard touchdown empowering the group. Chase has 21 receptions for 457 receiving yards and five touchdowns in two league games against the Ravens this year.

Humphrey said, “These wins are getting tough to celebrate based off what we’re doing in the pass defense,” with the team ranked 32nd in pass defense. As for me, when I was a rookie, first-year, and a second-year man the norm set by the organization impressed me. Pass defense has dropped and mimics the average level. This is probably my doing. We’ll keep trying. We will keep working at it because I’m not happy with what I’ve established in the secondary, where it’s gone.

Humphrey made the play that most of the Ravens claimed shifted the equilibrium of the game. The Ravens were down 21-7 halfway through the third quarter. The offense that sulked off to boos as the punt team entered the field for a record fifth time this season. Baltimore had to shift gears. In one of the matches, Humphrey violently dragged the ball away from Chase Brown. Roquan Smith got it.

Hunting it again, five plays and a Jackson 10-yard run saw Derrick Henry get in for a score, making it 21-14 in favour of Cincinnati.

The Humphrey strip woke us up, according to Jackson. So generally, you know, maybe because we scored a goal, maybe we were a bit dozy that first half. We played flatly.”

Bateman said, “We have guys all over the place that can make plays and we continue to show that. Tylan did some really big things for us tonight, and that is how we need them to be all year. People liked that everyone contributed, as H said:

Jackson went 25 of 33 for 290 yards including four touchdowns and no interceptions. Jackson has thrown for 24 touchdowns in the current season and has only had two interceptions thrown by him. On the ground he carried the football seven times totaling thirty three yards.

Getting and element and Jackson didn’t run out on the field to end the game. He had to get the defence assist and this is proving costly to the ravens. Jackson’s career year is on the line if the defense continues to misbehave.

The trade deadline passed. DeCosta signed veteran cornerback Tre’Davious White as a backup. No one will come to the rescue of defense in the Ravens, ever again. It must decide for itself.