What Will be the Deciding Factor in Bengals-Ravens?
d morning football. So Peter we don’t we won’t do it so deciding factor do that. Yeah I think the story out of Cincinnati is the health of the team obviously Higgins and now the rookie out of Princeton Romanian rocket what’s his Andre yeshiva Andre yeshiva they’re both going to be out and it’s like how are they going to get going? And that’s Cincinnati story and obviously Hubbard and Hendrickson, a miracle is going to play Baltimore. It’s like what happens to us in the fourth quarter? Yeah. Why do we Stink Get into it in the fourth
quarter? And that’s a lot of the buzz in Baltimore right now. They have three losses this year. All of them were in games that they led the entire way and then gave it away at the end. Take a look at this. This stat that our wonderful producer, Rich Gilbert, on Unearthed and has been making the rounds online in the history of the last 40 seasons of the NFL, only two teams have led for more time through ten games in football than the Baltimore Ravens of this season. The Times we’re looking at theirs, the times they’re
behind in a game. Yes. And at the bottom, that’s the 18 and zero Patriots like their way above them. These are all Super Bowl contending teams, teams that went to
the Ravens have led late in the fourth quarter and somehow weren’t able to come out as victors. This was on on week ten, but how do you explain the rest of the two losses? You look at the Steelers game, they were dominating that game the entire way. Pickett could not do a thing. And then George Pickens emerges at the very end and it’s like, touchdown, goodbye, We’ll win. We’ll take it. Just ripping their soul out. This. Okay, fine. Division rivals. That happens. I still can’t get over their loss to the Colts early this year. Yeah,
they were beating the Colts the whole game. They go to overtime with the Colts in the rain at home and a Colts team that was without out. Anthony Richardson comes in here and Minshew is working it in overtime and works them all the way down the field The three losses all of them ripped from them in the final seconds. I think this is going to be very close. I think this game is going to come down to the end. Are the Bengals are going to take it from the Ravens in the fourth quarter? Because I’ll
tell you what horrible. I talked about Lamar and how there’s no quarterback. I want in the fourth quarter more than what Harbaugh is talking about the Messageboards right now. What are they what are the message, the talk here, It ain’t about the quarterback they’re talking about. It’s about the coach. How about the H.S? What’s up, dude? Like, how is this happening? And it’s not a one year thing. It’s not. It happens year after year. So we’re not there yet. It’s seven and three. They win tonight. They’re eight and three. They’re sitting good. Everything’s fine. But
you better believe I’m watching in the fourth quarter if this thing gets close, how the Ravens handle the final minutes of this game. To your point, Schrags nine losses since 2021, up seven plus points in the fourth quarter. Come on nine. They find ways to lose games over these last few seasons. So to your point, that is spot on of what’s been happening in Baltimore and they’re trying to figure that thing out. I’m going to look to the other side. I’m looking at Joe Burrow. And the reason is he’s been on fire. But you go
back to that first game against Baltimore law, and this was the massage gun game where he’s on the sideline, the calf is bothering him. He’s hitting it with the massage gun, trying to figure it out. And then at the end of the game is when he gingerly walked off the field. And I remember us coming in that Monday and the questions were, do you sit, Joe Burrow and come back to him in a few weeks and see if he’s all healed up and if he’s all ready to go? He threw an interception in the red
zone to Geno Stone in that game. That was a crucial turnover for them. So you look at Joe Burrow and this Bengals team at the beginning of the season and he said it this week. Joe Burrow said the last time I wasn’t playing with a full toolbox. Well, he has a full toolbox now himself. His ability to get outside the pocket. You look at what he’s been able to do as of recently and we talked about the last two games, over 340 yards passing. He’s been unbelievable. As you look at his numbers since week five.
And we knew it. He went in with the calf. He was playing through it. And I feel like a dummy for saying, yeah, you go ahead, put Joe Burrow on I.R, let him get healthy and come back. He worked through it and now he is rolling in. This offense is rolling. You said it, Schrags, they’ll be without Higgins. They’ll be without Andre. Yeshivas There’s no Marlon Humphrey on the other side. Possibly doubtful in this game. Can he get things going? Can he have, like a classic Joe Burrow performance on the road at TD Bank Stadium
against the division rivals of the Baltimore Ravens in order for Burrow to do so, though, they’re going to have to hold up offensive line wise. We’re watching Sheldon Rankins last week for the Houston Texans and I showed it in Uie yesterday where he slamming Joe Burrow to the ground. He had three sacks in that game. And for Baltimore, they get after the quarterback you talked about Jadeveon Clowney and him getting after Justin Matta BC has been unbelievable. Eight and a half sacks for him on the interior. So I’m looking at what Joe Burrow is able
to do, his ability to move around the pocket, make things happen, getting the ball to Jamaar Chase I think that decides his game tonight. I think you’re there. I don’t think the Bengals can win if Chase doesn’t have a big game like I think this is going to be a Jamaar Chase game or at least it has to be interesting history versus the Ravens. Some wild stuff as a rookie like just absolutely tore them apart. Play them earlier this year. Not special not big numbers but it’s an up and down thing with the Ravens. I
think it’s sitting right there. You’re saying that Joe Burrow has his full toolbox? He does personally with himself, not with the tools he needs to use. I feel like tonight he’s going to have to put this whole bookshelf together with just one of those Allen wrenches, those little tiny. And it can be done. Believe me, I’ve done it. But Chase against the Ravens has been awesome. Sometimes he’s been not awesome. Sometimes. I think if we look up tonight and it’s the end of the game and Jamaar Chase has six catches for 54 yards, I think
they lose. I think they may lose by double digits, you know, unless of course, Peter, the Ravens collapse in the fourth quarter. But this is not this is not this team we’re seeing here. This is a couple of years ago. This is Higgins is on fire. Boyd is on fire. Chase is arriving. That’s not showing up at the game tonight. I think we need an 11 catch 128 receiver with a touchdown from Chase or I just don’t know if Burrow has enough weapons. You said yeshivas, Higgins. Like, you know. I know Boyd wants to make
amends for his big drop last week, but I have to bring it back to the Ravens thing at the end because I was a familiar with this. This thing where at the end of the game, what is the teeth of the complaint So it’s easy to say they’re losing these games. It’s the coach. It’s the coach. We need a little bit more than that. John Harbaugh has been around long enough. We need to respect it. Are we talking time management? Are we talking psychological or are we talking leadership? Like what is the teeth other than
just blaming the head coach with no reason? Yeah, there’s not one thing to go through all of those. But you look at the game last week, they had turnovers late in the game. One of them bounced off somebody’s hand and it gets intercepted for a pick six, which is tough to say, but when you look at them, it seems to be in the fourth quarter, you kind of take your foot off the gas and they’re a team that runs the ball really well. So you allude to running the ball defensively. They’re a team that will
bring pressure. Are you still bringing that pressure throughout the fourth quarter when you’re up? I think those are the things you look at from a coaching standpoint of are we still aggressive late in the game? Are we playing to go win this thing or are we looking at our lead and saying, hey, we just can’t lose it at this point? And I do think there’s some psychological when you look at three seasons in this continuing to happen in the fourth quarter, now you’re just like, all right, what are we doing wrong? There’s a little bit
of possibly panic. So it’ll be interesting to see, to your point, too, because once the fans start feeling it and it’s a feeding frenzy and then you’re in the building and there’s this tension in the building and you said it on Tuesday morning like, you know, Buffalo on Monday night just didn’t feel like the same. But when you start giving up leads in the fourth quarter and you start feeling it and it’s that tension and it’s like everyone’s just tense. You can’t play football that way. And I think that’s the fear that we get to
December, in January. And if this is a thing, well, we’re in the playoff
