Knee-Jerk Reactions: Ravens 23 Browns 16

The Baltimore Ravens evened their record at 5-5 with an ugly 23-16 win over the Cleveland Browns in Week 11. They remain one game behind the 6-4 Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North, with a home game against the lowly New York Jets in Week 12.

RSR staff react to the win here.

Kevin McNelis

This is the angriest I’ve been after a win in a while. I know that division games are always tough, especially on the road, and Cleveland was playing like a team with nothing to lose. That said, the Ravens have plenty to lose hinging on every one of their games, and they played one of their sloppiest performances of the year. They’re exceedingly lucky that they escaped this one.

Baltimore straight-up handed Cleveland thirteen points off of mistakes in the first half, and somehow in my mind, the most egregious was Jake Hummel letting Cleveland have a fresh set of downs to end the half on a bone-headed offside play. He’ll have a quiet plane ride back.

Steve Bisciotti might have to double-check that he’s still the sole owner of the Ravens, because Myles Garrett owns at least the O-line. They got whooped all game long, and the concerns about their ability to function against top-tier defenses are perhaps the biggest concern the coaching staff should have, and yet Emory Jones sits inactive.

Thank the football gods for the franchise receiving leader Mark Andrews.

Derek Arnold

The Ravens put on an absolute clinic on how to lose a football game that you’re supposed to win for the first 45 minutes or so. A muffed punt, a pass that bounced off Keaton Mitchell‘s hands for a pick-6 (reminiscent of the big Deshaun Watson comeback game in Baltimore a few years ago), Jake Hummel jumping offsides on a 4th-and-4 punt to hand Cleveland a first down, Lamar Jackson bouncing a pass off his lineman’s helmet one play after a Nate Wiggins pick set him up in the red zone…just a complete comedy of errors.

And yet, we’re talking about a win. All credit to the Ravens defense, who – while not exactly facing Patrick Mahomes or Josh Allen in Dillon Gabriel and Shedeur Sanders – dominated third down, got pressure to rattle the young quarterbacks, and allowed only field goals.

Todd Monken was decidedly NOT in his bag…until he was. The fake tush push to Mark Andrews was a thing of beauty. Lamar was not himself – inaccurate and jittery, but it’s hard to not think a lot of that is due to the fact that Myles Garrett was in his face all night.

It wasn’t pretty. But under those conditions, in that stadium, against that team, it was never going to be. The ultimate “survive and advance” game.

Rob Shields

I knew this was going to be a really tough game.  I didn’t expect the Ravens to hand Cleveland points like they did but I did expect them to struggle to win.

Lamar looked terrible today and the missed practices and lower leg injuries look like they are taking a toll on his play.

Harbaugh has to consider some o-line changes. It feels like it’s getting worse. The defense continues to look better although that Cleveland offense is horrific.

Just needed to win today and they did. Tough conditions, 3rd straight road game and division game. They found a way.  Now, they are home for three straight games.

Jason Woolbert

Another one down, one to go to get above .500.  This one wasn’t easy, and most of us expected that. What I didn’t expect was how much the Ravens made it hard on themselves.  We were supposed to be past this, people.  The first half featured all the usual hits – turnovers, bad penalties, dumb plays.

But, the Ravens talent is simply superior to Cleveland’s, aside from that devastating Browns defensive line.  They slowly got their collective head screwed on right, kicked FGs when needed, and then Todd Monken had the call of the season with the Mark Andrews bootleg, which the announcer called the “Baltimore Breakout.”

The defense showed up all day.  They had over 10 plays for negative yards, I forgot how many exactly.  When Cleveland switched to Shedeur Sanders the team didn’t let up.  Chidobe Awuzie made a huge play to prevent a game tying TD and Roquan Smith sealed the deal with a pass defended on 4th down.  The only worry we have is Kyle Hamilton, who finished the game with one good arm.  Can the Ravens afford to sit him for the Jets?  We’ll see about that.

Chad Racine

The Ravens get an ugly win on the road in the division. Considering their record in Cleveland in recent years, this win is significant. Especially with another pedestrian performance by Lamar and the offense. Costly mistakes throughout the game kept them behind on the scoreboard until the brilliant play that sent Andrews to the end zone. Speaking of uninspiring plays,  can we see less of Derrick Henry up the middle in short yardage getting stuffed?

Kyle Hamilton once again is all over the field leading the defense and is the biggest problem for offenses to overcome. All going back to the trade for Alohi Gilman to allow him to play closer to the line of scrimmage. Now of course this was not a potent offense the Ravens were facing, but this defense has come a long way.

Nick Polinsky

Sometimes you just have to win ugly in the AFC North. This game was a huge stressor but in the end Baltimore came out as the victors.

The offense looked really, really ugly today. The pocket was collapsing way too quickly and Lamar Jackson really couldn’t do much. As Charles Davis mentioned on the broadcast, it also seemed like he didn’t make much of an effort to escape the messy pockets in the first place. The red zone offense continues to be a massive problem and seriously needs to get figured out. If we run one more rollout in a short-yardage situation I might break my television. While there were some ugly playcalls, credit to Monken for the creativity on the tush push bootleg that ended up winning the game.

On the defensive side, Zach Orr called a great game and knew exactly what to do once Shedeur Sanders came in under center. The pressure he sent led to multiple mistakes that ultimately changed the momentum of this game entirely. The entire defense was flying around today, and the unit allowed just nine points. That’s now four straight games the Ravens defense has held their opponent under 20 points. It’s a shame it takes until six weeks into the season to get it figured out every year.

With the Steelers’ win today, it was imperative that the Ravens won They handled business on the road and get the Jets next week with a great chance to get over .500.

Jared Pinder

Despite a four-game winning streak, this team still doesn’t look like they should. This offensive line is a unplayable unit, and they showed their true colors today. The red zone offense is also completely inept, whether due to the terrible offensive line or just bad play calls by Monken. I will give the Ravens defense and Zach Orr some credit, even though they haven’t faced a death row of QBs. This special teams unit is also terrible, by the way.

I really wish the Ravens wouldn’t play down to bad Browns teams and allow Myles Garrett to put up elite numbers every year, yet here we are once again.

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