Knee-Jerk Reactions: Browns 29 Ravens 24

The Ravens fell to the Cleveland Browns, 29-24, in Week 8. RSR staff react to the loss here.

Rob Shields

What an embarrassing and awful loss. The Ravens continued to drop ball after ball. How does Hamilton drop that pass?  That’s the end of the game and the ball was basically put in his hands.

That is a better Browns team than their record and they are now healthier and Winston is just better than Watson.

We also had a lot defensive players hurt but you can’t give up 400 yards to Cleveland and you can’t struggle on third down as much as we did.

Ultimately, this team continues to make mistakes.  Dropped passes, dropped INTs, ST errors, another missed kick by Tucker and ill-timed penalties. It is said about the Ravens all the time but no team beats the Ravens as well as they beat themselves.

And don’t get me wrong, they weren’t going to win 15 games in a row and go 15-2.  They are going to lose games but it’s how you lose and the constant nature of just shooting yourself in the foot over and over again.

Today, outside of them inexplicably not getting it to Henry more, this was the players being really dumb and not executing, as opposed to coaching being an issue.  The other thing I would mention about coaching was that awful 4th down call to snap it right to Henry and not have Lamar in there to have him as a threat. Not sure why they were trying to be cute there.

But that’s the problem right?  We can beat ourselves on the field or on the sidelines. It’s laughable to think we are the best team or can feel good about beating KC in the playoffs.

Derek Arnold

I was the only one to pick Cleveland in our bold predictions, and I wasn’t just being a contrarian. This one went exactly as I’d feared, from Jameis providing a spark to the entire stadium to the Ravens crapping themselves once again when given turnover opportunities. The final Kyle Hamilton dropped pick was the cherry on top, but there were several more throughout the day. To Cleveland’s credit, they also dropped some potential interceptions earlier on.

But if Hamilton catches that ball, it then glosses over everything else that went wrong along the way: the dropped passes from wideouts (including Rashod Bateman on a perfectly-placed 3rd-down bomb in the fourth and another that would have made Justin Tucker‘s miss a little closer), the laundry list of penalties yet again, the awful special teams play (including that missed Tucker kick and another near-miss), the WEIRD play calls on short yardage (a direct snap to Derrick Henry on the game’s opening drive, the fake tush push that resulted in a false start), and most glaring: the complete lack of a pass rush.

With a little over a week remaining until the trade deadline, and David Ojabo a healthy scratch, it’s become more apparent than ever that EDC needs to get on the horn for a pass rusher.

The Ravens have now beaten Joe Burrow, Dak Prescott, Jayden Daniels, and Josh Allen, yet lost to Gardner Minshew and Jameis Winston.

A loss forces them to look in the mirror. Let’s see what they decide they see.

Chris Schisler

The Ravens defense is a problem. The defensive line had almost no impact on the game outside of a couple tipped passes. The Ravens couldn’t bother Jameis Winston without blitzing. The Ravens dropped a bunch of interceptions including Kyle Hamilton’s drop on a play that would have won the game. Winston had all day to throw – the Browns established the run and the Ravens let Winston have anything he wanted. Winston had 334 yards and three touchdowns.

The Ravens offense needed a miracle at the end of the game and it just wasn’t that kind of a game. The Ravens had their least exciting showing of the season and the defense proved to be an embarrassing liability. The Ravens can’t win if Lamar Jackson and the offense are a bit off. They were 2-10 on third downs. They only had 62 plays. Jackson had a strong fourth quarter. He tried to will it into existence. It just wasn’t happening.

The Ravens literally let this game slip in between their fingers. Eddie Jackson dropped a couple picks. Kyle Hamilton’s drop was inexcusable and borderline infuriating. Rashod Bateman was wide open on a play that could have changed the game and it doinked off his facemask. The offense had an off day and the defense proved it’s a huge problem for the championship hopes of this franchise. What an awful and ugly day for the Ravens.

Brennan Stewart

When you pair arguably the best offense in the NFL with arguably the worst defense in the NFL, the result is apparently this: a 5-3 record with two losses against teams that had no business notching their wins. Trap games are gonna trap, and now Pittsburgh aims to remain at the top of the AFC North after what should be a lackluster win tomorrow night against the Giants.

The current state of Baltimore’s defense is bad. Very bad, like the worst it’s been in years. Is Zach Orr to blame? Has Dean Pees made any impact, or does he need to grab hold of the reins all together? Despite Kyle Hamilton’s dropped interception, he seems to be the only consistent difference maker week to week. The personnel today was just as big of an issue as the play calling, and now Michael Pierce may be looking at some injury time.

Once again, Lamar Jackson is let down by a team that plays down way too often. Surely this won’t happen next week against the Denver Broncos, right?

Nikhil Mehta

The Ravens once again put on a masterclass of playing down to their opponent, getting far too cute on offense against the Browns’ aggressive defense and dropping multiple picks from one of the most interception-prone quarterbacks in recent history. They had every opportunity to win this game – chiefly a wide open interception dropped by Kyle Hamilton – but refused to take advantage.

Benching Marcus Williams only brightened the spotlight on Eddie Jackson, and the veteran dropped multiple potential turnovers and committed too many lapses in coverage downfield. Injuries to the defensive line (plus a health scratch for David Ojabo) left the pass rush shorthanded and forced Zach Orr to dial up the blitzing in the second half to middling results.

On offense, Todd Monken seemed more concerned with tricking the Browns than sticking to the Ravens’ identity, with the ball out of Lamar Jackson’s hands on multiple high-leverage plays. Justin Tucker’s struggles with accuracy are a frustrating 2024 addition to the team’s greatest hits of penalties and drops on the offensive side of the ball.

5-3 isn’t damning, but two of those losses have come to clearly inferior teams. You can’t be the best team in the NFL if you can’t beat the worst ones.

Nick Polinsky

It really is incredible seeing how many times the Ravens can get in their own way in one game.

Eddie Jackson dropped two interceptions, Kyle Hamilton had the game in his hands uncontested and dropped it. Rashod Bateman dropped a wide open target 40+ yards downfield. Justin Tucker kicked a duck and missed a 50 yard field goal.

Whenever the Ravens are in peril in the late 3rd and 4th quarter, it seems like the offensive game plan and play calling turns to crap. It becomes a hero-ball scramble, where it’s Lamar run, after Lamar run, after Lamar run. Against an athletic defense like the Browns, that’s not going to fly. The Ravens failed to establish Derrick Henry even after he began to pick up steam in the second half; Henry finished with a season low 11 carries.

The defensive woes continued, and without Humphrey and Wiggins it only got worse. The pass rush gave Winston entirely too much time to operate in the pocket, and the soft defense coverages once again made it wayyyyy too easy.

The Browns have consistently been worse than Baltimore for as long as I can remember, yet they always trouble the Ravens. I guess that’s just AFC North football for ya.

Tanner George

Well that’s Ravens football for you.

It seems that, every year, this team runs into a trap game where they just can’t get out of their own way. The coaching was just bad in this one, as Baltimore failed to capitalize on an opportunity to get to six straight wins on the year.

Let’s start with the offense. Todd Monken’s gameplan just stunk. He let his unit get away from everything that had been working during the win streak, and Lamar & Co. simply looked out of sync at times. What I find dumbfounding is the fact that the running back screen completely disappeared this afternoon. Getting it to Justice Hill in the passing game had been effective all season, but he finished with just one catch for 14 yards to go along with two carries for five. The offensive line looked lost against some of Cleveland’s blitz packages, which forced Jackson to run for his life way too much. Rashod Bateman and Nelson Agholor had some pretty bad drops, and I’ve had enough of the cute playcalling (see Charlie Kolar’s failed QB sneak).

Defensively, I’m starting to worry about Zach Orr. Yes, he was missing some of his top players, notably Marlon Humphrey, but I found the play selection very concerning. I’ve preached patience with Orr all season, noting how Mike McDonald also struggled at the outset of his tenure, but what deeply concerns me is the fact that we haven’t really seen any growth out of this defense. Without bringing Kyle Hamilton down, the defensive front was unable to get any pressure on Jameis Winston, and McDonald’s signature simulated pressure looks have almost completely disappeared from the playbook. Sure, it doesn’t help that the defensive backs have forgotten how to catch the football, but Orr’s unit has simply become a liability. Should the Ravens be lucky enough to get another crack at Kansas City in the playoffs, I’m nowhere near confident that this group would be able to stop Patrick Mahomes in a clutch situation.

What Ravens fans are used to relying on as automatic are nowhere near that in 2024—not Justin Tucker and certainly not the defense. And, when the offense isn’t firing on all cylinders, it will be very, very difficult for this team to win football games.

It’s just one loss, but this was definitely a contest that could’ve—and should’ve—been won. If Baltimore is serious about getting a ring this year, they better add some defensive pieces… and fast.

Jared Pinder

Everyone in the fanbase and the entire NFL should have known this was a trap game. A new QB with a new playcaller with the missing peices on defense? Give the Browns moneyline all day. There isn’t really much to say at this point, this team is lost and yes I know they had won five in a row before this week.

However, the issues that continue to kill this team were showing up even when they won, so this isn’t something new. That Belicheck quote about the Ravens is going to live rent free in my head all year and it is there mantra for this year: “the only team that can beat the Ravens are the Ravens.”

You are talking about a team that hadn’t scored 20 points all year that just crushed your highly-paid defense. No, don’t say that Winston was the difference because he played awful today and he should have had multiple picks if the Ravens could catch. Zach Orr’s grace period is over and no I don’t care if they didn’t have Marlo or Wiggins today or that they lost Urban and Pierce. This Browns offense was generational-levels of awful and a QB change shouldn’t affect that.

Beyond that this was easily the worst called game from Monken this year. I mean what in the world was he doing on crucial downs today? That awful 4th down play? Or the Kolar sneak? Why are trying to get cute?

This wouldn’t have mattered if the Ravens could actually catch a football.

Chad Racine

When the Ravens scored their final touchdown I knew there was too much time on the clock with this defense.  There was over two and half minutes and this defense isn’t stopping anyone right now. Not to mention this offense was hardly unstoppable today. However the offense should bounce back, the defense on the other hand needs some major adjustments.  I appreciate that they benched Marcus Williams today but it’s not not Eddie Jackson is an upgrade.  I wish they had a bye week this week to fix these major issues now.

Kevin McNelis

All week, this game felt like it was inevitably going to be an ugly one. I was just hoping it would go the other way.

It was truly a perfect storm between the top CB pairing being down and Jameis confident in airing it out. Combine that with losing two interior pass-rushers mid-game, and an already maligned defense was in serious trouble all day. In a game where they HAD to have a few plays, those plays hit them right in the hands and fell to the turf. I can’t even be that upset at Kyle Hamilton on what would’ve been a game-clinching interception; he absolutely carried the secondary today.

Offensively, they gave it a shot at the end, but it just felt too cute all day. They’re going to have to get right against the Broncos with division opponents up after that.

The post Knee-Jerk Reactions: Browns 29 Ravens 24 appeared first on Russell Street Report.

Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2024/10/27/knee-jerk-reactions/knee-jerk-reactions-browns-29-ravens-24/