Ravens’ Lamar Jackson delivers career-best 4th quarter, tops Bengals

On By Littum

  • Jamison Hensley, ESPN staff writerNovember 8, 2024, 2:48 AM ET

    Close

      Jamison Hensley is a reporter covering the Baltimore Ravens for ESPN. Jamison joined ESPN in 2011 and covered the AFC North before focusing exclusively on the Ravens beginning in 2013. Jamison won the National Sports Media Association Maryland Sportswriter of the Year award in 2018 and authored a book titled: Flying High: Stories of the Baltimore Ravens. He was the Ravens beat writer for the Baltimore Sun from 2000-2011.

BALTIMORE – The Ravens were in a bind Thursday night against the Cincinnati Bengals, facing a 14-point second-half deficit with a struggling defense.

So what gave them hope for a comeback? Lamar Jackson is playing his best football ever.

Jackson produced the best fourth quarter of his career in leading the Ravens to a 35-34 victory. Recording a perfect 158.3 passer rating in the fourth quarter, he threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns — both personal highs in the fourth quarter — to record a season sweep of the Bengals and save the NFL’s worst pass defense once again.

It didn’t matter that the Ravens defense allowed 470 yards and five touchdowns. There was always a belief that Jackson would win Baltimore.

“He’s special, but we’re like the little brothers right now,” Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey said of the defense. “He carries us.”

The reigning NFL Most Valuable Player had to shake off his worst start to the season. After throwing for 71 yards in the first half, Jackson started to click when Baltimore trailed 21-7 early in the third quarter.

Jackson threw touchdown passes of 84 yards to Tylan Wallace and 18 yards to Mark Andrews before connecting with Rashod Bateman for the game-winning 5-yard score with 1:49 left.

Since 2021, Jackson has three wins when trailing by 14 or more points in the fourth quarter. That’s the most in the NFL in that span.

“He brings a different level of intensity and carries the team on his back week in and week out,” Andrews said. “And for us, again, it’s faith, it’s not quitting and understanding that we have the best player in the world on our team and we’re never out of it.”

It was only last month when Jackson rallied the Ravens from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to deliver a 41-38 overtime victory in Cincinnati. This extended Jackson’s dominance over the Bengals, improving his record to 10-1 against them.

Jackson also became the only player in NFL history with five touchdown passes and no fourth-quarter interceptions against an opponent in a single season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

“I think he just took that game on his shoulders the way he does,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said.

The Ravens are 7-3 with the NFL’s no. 1 offense (440.2 yards per game) and the league’s no. 27 defense (367.9).

“I told my guys on the sideline, ‘We’re going to score. If they score, we’re going to score — that’s the type of game it’s going to be,'” Jackson said. “We’ve seen it from the first snap, but I’m proud of my guys because we finished (and) we came through.”

Baltimore plays at the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2) on Nov. 17 in a battle for first place in the AFC North. If the Ravens fall behind in that game, they know they can come back because of one reason.

“We have Lamar Jackson,” Bateman said. “I (won’t) lie to you – if (he’s) on the pitch we have a chance to win the game, period.”