The Ravens needed every last bit of their resilience Sunday night, because Mark Andrews gave them a mess to clean up.
Baltimore still walked out of Atlanta with a 4-1 record, but the path there was anything but tidy. Backup quarterback Tyler Huntley delivered a three-touchdown night in place of Lamar Jackson, and Andrews, despite a rough box score and a handful of costly errors, still ended up on the field for the two drives that mattered most.
It started badly for Andrews and never really let up. On Baltimore’s opening possession, he dropped a Tyler Huntley pass in the end zone on third-and-goal, forcing the Ravens to settle for a field goal instead of six.
On the next drive, he turned a short catch into a disaster, coughing up the ball and watching Falcons safety Jessie Bates III take it back for a touchdown. That alone swung the game hard Atlanta’s way.
Andrews wasn’t done misfiring. After Baltimore finally reached the end zone in the third quarter, the Ravens needed two points to pull even at 17, but Andrews dropped another Huntley throw on the conversion try. Late in the fourth quarter, he added one more missed opportunity, dropping a third-down pass that stalled a drive and helped set up an Atlanta field goal that pushed the lead to eight.
Even with all of that attached to his name, Andrews still found himself in the middle of Baltimore’s comeback. On the Ravens’ game-tying march at the end of regulation, he caught one pass for three yards. Then in overtime, he added two receptions for 16 yards on the drive that put Baltimore ahead for good.
The real rescue came from Huntley and the offense around him. Trailing 23-15 with 2:30 left, Huntley steered the Ravens down the field and threw a touchdown to Devontez Walker. Derrick Henry then powered in the two-point conversion to level the game.
Once overtime arrived, Baltimore took control of the clock and the game. The Ravens opened the extra period with a 14-play, 68-yard drive that burned more than seven minutes and ended with a seven-point lead, leaving Atlanta with less than three minutes to respond.
The Falcons still had one more shot, but Kyle Hamilton ended that threat himself. He intercepted Falcons quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, who entered after Michael Penix Jr. was injured, and that sealed Baltimore’s fourth win of the season.
In Other News...
Falcons Let A Winnable SNF Game Slip Away In Painful Fashion
Sunday night had the feel of a game Atlanta could and should have controlled, until Baltimore kept hanging around long enough to turn it into an overtime escape. Tyler Huntley, filling in at quarterback, guided the Ravens through a 30-23 win with a late rally that stunned the Falcons and wiped out what had been a winnable prime-time stage. Derrick Henry added 102 rushing yards, while Huntley was efficient throwing the ball, completing 24 of 32 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns.
The Falcons offense was already trying to close out the night when Michael Penix Jr. exited late in the fourth quarter with a rib injury, a shift that changed the feel of the final minutes and left Atlanta searching for answers. Baltimore then finished the job after Tua Tagovailoa took over in overtime, and the game slipped away in the kind of painful fashion that makes a loss linger well beyond the final whistle. [Read more 🡒]
Michael Penix Injury Suddenly Looms Over Falcons After Crushing Loss
A rib injury turned a wild afternoon into a much bigger concern for Atlanta, with Michael Penix leaving against the Ravens and briefly trying to tough it out late in regulation before the discomfort sent him back to the sideline. The Falcons turned to Tua Tagovailoa in overtime, but his interception helped close the door on a game that already felt like it had slipped away, adding a painful finish to a loss that carried a lot more than one result in the standings.
Penix is set to get further testing, and even with the added uncertainty, the early sense is that Atlanta may not be bracing for a long absence. The quarterback said he expects to be ready for next weeks matchup with the Bears, which would be a welcome outcome for a team suddenly watching its most important position much more closely than it wanted to after a crushing defeat. [Read more 🡒]
Jessie Bates Gave Falcons Fans The Prime-Time Spark They Wanted
The Falcons got the kind of early defensive jolt that can change the feel of a prime-time game at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, with Jeff Ulbrichs unit making its presence known against Baltimore on Sunday night. Atlantas defense had already shown it could make life uncomfortable for the Ravens, which were adjusting to life without Lamar Jackson and turning to Tyler Huntley at quarterback.
Jessie Bates then delivered the moment that really lit up the building, jumping on a Mark Andrews fumble and taking it back for a touchdown. It was the sort of splash play Falcons fans were hoping for under the lights, the kind that can swing momentum in an instant and give the home crowd something to hang onto as the night unfolded. [Read more 🡒]