The Ravens’ Week 7 loss in Cincinnati had a little bit of everything going wrong, and by the end of the 35-13 beatdown, Baltimore was staring at a second straight defeat with plenty of ugly tape to sort through.
There was one bright spot in the wreckage: Zay Flowers. He was electric from the jump, opening the game with a 48-yard touchdown and finishing with 8 catches for 137 yards and a score.
Baltimore got some useful plays from other receivers, but Flowers was the one player who kept making defenses pay. He’s now at 40 receptions, 608 yards and 3 touchdowns, which puts him fourth in receiving yards despite missing a game and a half with injury.
Everything else, though, was a different story.
Derrick Henry had another rough afternoon without Lamar Jackson. Against Cincinnati, he managed 17 carries for 45 yards and didn’t come close to carrying the ground game the way Baltimore needs him to.
His longest run was 9 yards, and the Ravens’ rushing attack never found traction. Over the last two games, Henry has 34 carries for 104 yards, a 3.1 yards-per-carry average, no touchdowns and one fumble.
The defense also unraveled in a way that’s hard to ignore. Jesse Minter’s group started fast and held Cincinnati to just 59 yards of offense early, but the second half was a complete collapse.
The Bengals scored 35 straight points and reached the end zone on five of their six second-half possessions. Minter’s unit never found a way to slow the bleeding.
Baltimore’s issues went beyond scheme and execution. The team’s overall mindset came under the microscope after the game, from Marlon Humphrey’s joking comment on Thursday about not wanting to face Ja’Marr Chase so often to the way the Ravens reacted once the game started slipping away. A 13-point lead disappeared fast, and the postgame tone sounded resigned.
Derrick Henry said the Ravens all need to look in the mirror and called his own performance "terrible."
Ronnie Stanley acknowledged that the Ravens lose focus when things are going bad.
"We're too caught up in what is happening in the game."
Jesse Minter was asked if he's worried that blown leads are becoming a psychological issue: "Yeah, but only we can change that. That's clearly ... a little bit of that, but we have control of that. And that's what we need to understand."
That mental unraveling was especially obvious in the second half for Nate Wiggins and Marlon Humphrey. Baltimore needed both corners to hold up against Cincinnati’s top receivers, and for a while they did.
Then Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins took over. Chase beat Humphrey after the catch and also got Wiggins on a two-yard touchdown.
Higgins followed by making plays on both defenders, including a 43-yard strike from Joe Burrow. After being held to 0 catches on 1 target in the first half, Higgins finished the game with 5 catches for 105 yards and a touchdown in the second.
The performance brought back a familiar and frustrating theme for anyone who used to watch Ravens defense at its peak. Former Baltimore defenders didn’t stay quiet after seeing what unfolded.
Ed Reed called out the coaching. Terrell Suggs blasted the team for allowing 35 unanswered points.
Roquan Smith also addressed what it means to play for a franchise known for defense, but the current product hasn’t matched that standard.
By the end of the afternoon, the Ravens looked like a team that let one bad moment snowball into a full breakdown. And that, more than anything else, is what made this loss so hard to watch.
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Chase then did his part in the Bengals win, catching five passes for 62 yards and a touchdown while Baltimores defense struggled to slow the game down. Humphrey finished with three tackles and a pass defended, and the criticism online came quickly after the final whistle, with fans using the result to question how the veteran cornerback handled the matchup. [Read more 🡒]