Baltimore's going to spend this week talking about Lamar Jackson's ankle. Go ahead. It isn't why the Ravens lost 35-13 to Cincinnati on Sunday, and it isn't why this keeps happening to them.
Start with the number the AP dug up after the game. The Ravens have now blown a double-digit second-half lead 10 times since the start of the 2022 season. Ten times in four seasons. Jackson's ankle has cost him three games. You can't hang four years of fourth-quarter faceplants on three missed games, and anybody who tries is selling you something.
This season it even has a shape you can draw on a napkin. Baltimore has outscored teams by 65 points in first halves and been outscored by 70 after the break. Same roster, same coaches, same building. Before halftime they look like a team that belongs in January. After halftime they look like they've got a dinner reservation. They blew a double-digit second-half lead last week, too, and they've lost five of their last six at home.
Sunday was the whole problem in one afternoon. The Ravens had the ball for 22:20 of the first half. Tyler Huntley threw for 215 yards before the break, 120 of them to Zay Flowers, who opened the scoring on a 48-yard catch-and-run. And they went into halftime up only 13-0, because three trips inside the 20 turned into zero touchdowns and a pair of chip-shot field goals from 34 and 24 yards. Then Cincinnati took the opening drive of the third quarter 66 yards, Baltimore went three-and-out, and Joe Burrow hit Tee Higgins for the lead with 4:29 left in the quarter. The Bengals scored 35 straight. Burrow threw all four of his touchdown passes after halftime.
Here's the best case for the ankle crowd, and it's a fair one. The Ravens are 1-2 without Jackson, and Huntley isn't him. I'll grant that a healthy Lamar probably turns one of those red-zone trips into seven. The AP also noted the running game wasn't much of a factor without him, and Derrick Henry's 17 carries for 45 yards back that up. Fine. But Huntley had 215 yards at the half and a 13-0 lead. The quarterback got them ahead. Nobody got them to the finish.
I'll even defend the one aggressive call they made. Down 14-13, fourth-and-2 at the Cincinnati 12, they went for it and Huntley threw incomplete. Right call. I'll take that every time over another short field goal. The trouble is it came after a first half full of kicks that let a beaten team hang around, and then Cincinnati went 88 yards the other way like it had been waiting all day for the door to open.
Baltimore goes to Buffalo next Sunday. If the Ravens are up at halftime there, I don't need to hear about who's under center. I want to see a team that keeps playing like it's 0-0. And when Jackson comes back and they hand away another second half, which on this evidence they will, the ankle excuse goes in the drawer for good.
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