Kyle Hamilton didn’t hide how he felt after the Baltimore Ravens’ overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons in Week 5. The All-Pro safety was fired up in the locker room, and his message seemed to point straight at the old way of doing things.
“Ever since I’ve been here, that’s a game that we lose. This win right here, I feel like it’s us,” said the perennial Pro Bowler.
Hamilton repeated that theme once he got to the press, expanding on what he meant without backing off the edge of the original comment.
"I just said it in the locker room, just to give you the gist of it," Hamilton said via ESPN Ravens reporter Jamison Hensley.
"But saying like over the past few years, and I feel like I get up here and say this so much, but like that's a game that we've lost like many times. And whether it's, you know, some fluky stuff happening or whatever. Yeah.
"It's just like us getting over some sort of hump or dark, dark cloud. And I'm excited for the future."
Hamilton has played his entire pro career in Baltimore, and he was on the roster last season when the Ravens finished 8-9 under John Harbaugh. The source material points to those tight, late-game miscues as part of the pattern Hamilton was referencing.
Now the Ravens are 4-1 through five weeks under first-time head coach Jesse Minter, and the early returns look different. Baltimore has allowed 30 or more points just once, in a Week 3 game against the Dallas Cowboys, and still came away with a 34-31 win thanks to solid work from Derrick Henry and a strong performance from Zay Flowers.
The Falcons game fit that same theme of toughness. Baltimore had to grind through overtime while playing without two-time MVP Lamar Jackson, and Hamilton finished the job with the play of the night. He intercepted Tua Tagovailoa’s pass intended for Drake London, notching his first pick of the season in a moment that sealed the victory.
The Ravens now turn to a Week 6 matchup with the Cleveland Browns. With the division lead on the line, Baltimore will be watching to see whether Lamar Jackson and Trey Hendrickson are fit enough to play.
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 🡒]