Report Card: Ravens 30 Bears 16

In a game that mattered far more than most of us imagined an out-of-conference October game could possibly matter, the Ravens kept alive their hopes to revive their 2025 season for at least a few more days.

There were some inspiring efforts in all three phases, solid game plans and a pretty-darn-special showing by an old face at quarterback. It was a good day. And a critical one. Let’s get to the grades.

Offense Overall: A

It wasn’t one filled with fireworks, but this was a really good performance by this unit. After a three-and-out to start the game, and facing an early 6-0 deficit, the Ravens offense did this their next seven drives: touchdown, field goal, field goal, field goal, punt, touchdown, touchdown. They had no turnovers, were 4-for-10 on third downs and 1-for-1 on fourth. They also averaged 7.4 yards a pass and 5.1 yards a rush.

Consider this, as well: With 5:00 left, and the Ravens holding a seven-point lead, they took over on their own 34. It ended with Derrick Henry bouncing outside for his second touchdown of the day to give the Ravens a commanding lead. It was a big-league drive in crunch time.

Quarterback: A

It’s not just the 17-for-22 for 186 yards and a touchdown with no picks. It wasn’t even the 53 yards on the ground. Tyler Huntley made big plays when it mattered, and threaded in several passes in between levels of the defense. The throw he made to Rashod Bateman to open the second half was a dime, and the third-and-seven back-shoulder throw to DeAndre Hopkins with 3:30 left was a big-league throw. He got lucky to avoid a fourth-quarter pick, and he missed a throw to Bateman in the third quarter that could have been a score. But that’s nit-picking. He was good today, and not “for a backup.” He was really good.

Running Backs: A-

Derrick Henry earned every one of his 71 yards on 21 carries, with a long of only 10 yards. But he cashed in two touchdown runs, including that highlight-reel bounce in the fourth quarter. Keaton Mitchell reminded the world of his speed with a 25-yard run, and totaled 43 yards on four totes. Patrick Ricard made his presence known on a few blocks.

Receivers: B+

It wasn’t a hugely-prolific game numbers-wise, but the pass-catchers made some big plays when called upon. Zay Flowers showed a good chemistry with Huntley all game. Mark Andrews hauled in a big 24-yarder that gave several fans heart palpitations when the ball popped out, but replay showed he caught it. Bateman had two catches, but one was that 36-yarder to start the second half, and his other was a great snag on a low ball. Hopkins showed his vet savvy to get separation on that monster third-down conversion, and Charlie Kolar did a nice job to spring open on his touchdown catch.

Offensive Line: B

It wasn’t easy for the running backs today, but they won as many fights up front as they lost, and I thought Ronnie Stanley put on a gutsy performance, obviously still hampered by the ankle, but leading the way on both of Mitchell’s big runs, and Huntley’s late explosive run. Tyler Linderbaum stood out on a few third-quarter runs, and Roger Rosengarten got across a few linebackers on run plays. Andrew Vorhees got pushed like a lawnmower on a third-down sack in the red zone. It wasn’t a dominant showing, but I thought they mostly held their own.

Defense Overall: B

The end of the game kind of left a bad taste in the mouth, with 10 points allowed and a wild goal-line stand preventing that from becoming 17. Oh, and it started out fairly poorly, with the Bears moving down the field fairly easily while building an early 6-0 lead. But there were also some big plays, including a third-down sack by a rookie, and a pick by the second-year corner who had some issues early in the game, and a pair of intentional grounding penalties from quick pressure. They mostly did well against the run, outside of a few explosives. This was their second pretty-darn-ok-game in a row.

Defensive Line: B

They had a few plays where they got beat on cut-backs in the run game, but it looked like the Ravens were making their living on the Bears’ side of the line most of the game. Travis Jones was only credited with one tackle, but he changed Bears’ backs’ directions on a few plays. Mike Green had a huge sack in the red zone to kill off the Bears’ opening possession, and also forced another incompletion with pressure. Kyle Van Noy forced an intentional grounding at the end of the first half with pressure, and stuffed a run on the final play of the third quarter. David Ojabo had a really good pursuit tackle to stop a run for one yard in the third quarter, and set a strong edge on several short Bears’ runs. CJ Okoye can get some good push inside, and John Jenkins won many of his match-ups.

Linebackers: A-

Roquan Smith was really good in his return, with 12 tackles, seven of them solo. He had a tremendous open-field tackle on D’Andre Swift in the third quarter that looked like it was going to be an explosive play. Teddye Buchanan looked good again to me for a second-straight game. He had six tackles, two for loss, and had a great stuff on a Caleb Williams sneak at the end of the game. Jake Hummel had a violent collision on a goal-line run stop in the fourth quarter.

Defensive Backs: B

There were some really big plays by this unit in the game, and we’ll get to them. But there was some stuff early that concerned me — particularly when it came to covering Rome Odunze. Marlon Humphrey got beat by him for 17 on the opening drive, and Nate Wiggins got beat by him twice. Wiggins also had an illegal contact penalty that gave the Bears a third-down conversion. Alohi Gilman also got shaken by DJ Moore on a third-down screen in the first quarter, and Kyle Hamilton got beaten by Moore late in the game, while also giving up a big screen play when he spun inside.

Now, there was also some really good. Wiggins got back at Odunze by beating him to his spot on a route on a gigantic fourth-quarter interception to set up a touchdown. Wiggins and Malakai Starks also combined to blow up a third-quarter screen. And Humphrey almost had a play-of-the-year candidate on a big hit he made on a short completion. Hamilton also blew up a third-down play in the second quarter and forced an intentional-grounding call. They got beat some today, but they did some beating, too.

Special Teams: B+

They gave up that big kick return by Devin Duvernay in the second quarter, and Tyler Loop flirted with that right pipe of the goal post a few of his kicks, but he still made them, and the rest of the special teams were pretty darn good. Jordan Stout booted a 55-yarder to the sideline on his first punt, and faced a pretty high-pressure punt on his second attempt, with the Ravens at the Chicago 44-yard line with 10 minutes left and nursing a three-point lead. He lofted it high in the sky, and Tylan Wallace caught it inside the 5-yard line to pin the Bears deep. It was a clutch kick at that time. Both Mitchel and Rasheen Ali had big kick returns, and Keondre Jackson had a thunderous hit on a fourth-quarter kick return. Jay Higgins nearly caused a turnover when he knocked out a kick-return fumble in the third quarter, but the Bears recovered. Kolar had a big hit on Duvernay on a second-quarter return.

Coaching: B+

They needed to come out of the bye, with the majority of their roster back, and win this game. They did. The offensive game plan seemed just about perfect, mixing in the running backs, utilizing Huntley’s legs and ability to throw on the run and not “turtling.” They went for it when they needed to, and let Huntley try to make plays. There were still some head-scratchers in the red zone, but there was also some good. The touchdown pass to Kolar was well-schemed and called at the perfect time, creating an easy score. Defensively, they made adjustments against the run game, and did a good job generating pressure in big moments. I agreed with the challenge on the Humphrey play, even though it looked like probably the right call. Anything involving “what is possession” continues to astound the general public, so why not take a shot on what would have been a gigantic moment if they won?

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Source: https://russellstreetreport.com/2025/10/26/report-card/report-card-ravens-30-bears-16/