Quick Hits: Bengals Waste Two Epic Efforts, Blow 14-point Lead In Another Loss To Ravens, 35-34

BALTIMORE — Turns out Joe Burrow and Ja’Marr Chase can’t do it all for the Bengals. But they came awfully close Thursday night.

Lamar Jackson completed 25-of-33 passes for 290 yards and four touchdowns in rallying his team back from a 14-point second-half deficit and lead the Baltimore Ravens to a 35-34 win over the visiting Bengals at M&T Bank Stadium.

Jackson led the Ravens on four consecutive touchdown drives in the second half to help the Ravens win their seventh game in eight tries.

Just like they did on Oct. 6 at Paycor in Week 5, the Bengals blew a double-digit lead against the Ravens because their defense forgot how to tackle and they committed a turnover that gave Baltimore a lifeline when they were down 21-7.

Burrow completed 34-for-56 for 428 yards and three touchdowns. Chase caught touchdown passes of 67, 70 and five yards and finished with 11 catches for 264 yards for the Bengals (4-6), who couldn’t convert a two-point conversion to win with 38 seconds remaining.

The numbers for the two players are astronomical. Burrow has nine touchdown passes in five days and 24 in 10 games against only four interceptions. Chase has 66 catches for 981 yards and 10 touchdown catches.

“Incredible. That’s a good defense. They’ve got a ton of talent over there,” Zac Taylor said. “I thought Ja’Marr [Chase] stepped up in a major way anytime we could find ways to get him the ball, [and] I thought [Joe Burrow] did a great job of that. Ja’Marr finished all those plays for us. I thought [Chase and Burrow] played excellent.”

Chase now has 12 career touchdowns of at least 60 yards, breaking Isaac Curtis’ team mark of 10 in just his tenth game of his fourth season. Burrow is on pace for over 4,300 yards passing and 41 touchdown passes in a season against only seven interceptions.

The Cincinnati offense took advantage of three Baltimore miscues on the opening drive. On first-and-goal from the Ravens 5, Baltimore challenged a completed pass to the 2 and lost, costing them a timeout. On third down, Baltimore spent another timeout to avoid 12 men on the field, and on fourth down, the Ravens forced an incomplete pass but Brandon Stephens was called for holding in the end zone.

On the next play from the one, Chase Brown ran it in for a 7-0 Cincinnati lead. But it was Brown’s third-quarter fumble with Cincinnati ahead by 14 that changed the momentum of the game.

The Ravens tied the game on a Jackson six-yard touchdown pass to Nelson Agholor two minutes into the second quarter.

The Ravens suffered a key defensive loss on Cincinnati’s final drive of the second quarter when safety Kyle Hamilton turned his right ankle on a non-contact play with a minute left in the half. On the next play, Joe Burrow was picked off by Stephens in the end zone but the interception was overturned by replay. Two plays later, Burrow found Tanner Hudson for a 14-7 halftime lead.

Facing their biggest deficit of the season at 21-7, Marlon Humphrey forced a Brown fumble with seven minutes left in the third quarter and Roquan Smith recovered at the Cincinnati 31.

With the ball at the Cincinnati 21, Jackson raced over to the right sideline in the backfield for several seconds before taking off down the sideline before being tackled at the Cincinnati 1. Derrick Henry ran it in from the 1 for the touchdown.

On Baltimore’s next drive, Jackson completed a pass on the near sideline to Tylan Wallace. Three Bengals then missed tackles, including linebacker Logan Wilson who shoved Wallace down the sideline on his way for an 84-yard touchdown.

Lamar Jackson found Mark Jackson for an 18-yard touchdown before Burrow hit Ja’Marr Chase in stride for a 70-yard touchdown down the middle of the field on Cincinnati’s next play from scrimmage to tied the game, 28-28, with over five minutes left.