Ravens Insider: 5 things we learned from the Ravens’ 30-16 win over the Bears

[ExtremeRavens]

With a 30-16 win over the Bears, the Ravens avoided the worst start in franchise history and a loss that would have effectively ended their season. Here are five things we learned:

Hold off on writing the season’s obituary

John Harbaugh started to smile as he described what was a “joyous” postgame locker room scene. The Ravens are finally back in the win column, a feeling they hadn’t celebrated in 42 days. Their coach, who two weeks ago stood at that same dais groaning about how tired he was of having the same conversation about another underwhelming performance, could finally show some teeth.

Then he stopped himself. “We won one game,” Harbaugh said, allowing the emotion of a win to show for merely a moment before pounding his fist into the table to recenter on the bigger picture. That’s how many of his players felt. A convincing win over the Bears raised their playoff odds by a few percentage points. It stopped the bleeding of a four-game losing streak.

And it means this breezy late-October afternoon in Baltimore, with the leaves showing newly vibrant hues and daylight savings time still a week out, is, in fact, too early to write the season’s obituary.

Baltimore’s temperament showed a team keenly aware of where it stands.

Running back Derrick Henry walked off the field and hugged his coach with a straight face. All-Pro safety Kyle Hamilton scoffed at the thought of this being a “sigh of relief.” Rather, “we didn’t just win the Super Bowl,” he said. “We won a regular-season game against a good team.”

The Ravens have desperately needed a momentum swinger. Amidst the losing streaks, smart coaching decisions haven’t manifested into game-altering drives, and eye-popping plays haven’t snowballed. This time, with a narrow lead heading into the final frame, stadium speakers filled the bowl with the soothing sound of Bob Marley’s “Three Little Birds.”

Minutes later, Baltimore finally put the pieces together.

The Ravens were in plus-territory with a fourth-and-5. Tyler Loop told special teams coach Randy Brown that he felt ready to try what would have been a 57-yard kick. Harbaugh entertained the idea of going for it. He landed on a fake play, with an outside chance of drawing the defense offsides, then punting — an overt show of confidence in the defense, which Hamilton said they might not have deserved a few weeks ago. Jordan Stout’s leg pinned Chicago at its own 4.

Two plays later, cornerback Nate Wiggins undercut a throw to Rome Odunze for his second interception this season. Two plays after that, Tyler Huntley lofted an easy touchdown pass to tight end Charlie Kolar, stacking their lead from a field goal to two possessions.

Kolar said a few were joking before the game that this was either a “must-win” or a “can’t lose.” Semantics didn’t matter. “God, we needed a win,” he said.

Tyler Huntley outplayed his predecessor, Cooper Rush, and it wasn’t particularly close

Huntley found out Saturday that he would be the starting quarterback for what many considered to be a win-or-go-home-caliber Ravens game. Thinking back to the emotions of finding out, the career backup shrugged, “Shoot, let’s do it,” he said.

Such calm confidence translated fairly quickly to the big stage. So much so that, with the benefit of hindsight, it’s hard not to think about what might have been while watching Huntley orchestrate a Ravens offense with a pulse. Baltimore’s third-stringer, replacing the injured Lamar Jackson and benched Cooper Rush, threw for 186 yards and a touchdown on 17 of 22 passing. He was nearly perfect at the break. The Ravens took a lead into halftime for the first time since Week 2 versus Cleveland and walked off with their first win in the same time frame.

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Harbaugh called it “one of those all-time great performances.”

The kind that raises an eyebrow about the decision to stick with Rush for eight grueling quarters. Baltimore’s defense didn’t match Houston’s pace, so it probably wouldn’t have mattered who started under center. But a similar performance could have influenced the Rams’ loss.

Either way, Harbaugh said starting Huntley this week, after finalizing Jackson’s status, “wasn’t a hard decision.” That was the contingency plan heading into bye week preparation. Huntley proved why — even if it came against a Bears defense missing its top three cornerbacks. They still fielded a proven safety duo responsible for half of their league-leading 11 interceptions.

Nonetheless, Huntley overcame an ugly three-play first quarter to close out a must-win. He spread the ball around to seven pass catchers, picked up 53 yards on the eight rushing attempts and did the thing Rush couldn’t, which is not turn the ball over.

The details of Huntley’s return to Baltimore have been largely swept over, for no reason other than the long shot he’d ever actually start a game from the practice squad.

In short, Huntley was at home working out at the start of training camp when he texted his former coach, “I know you’re in camp, give me a call when you get a chance.” Harbaugh rang him right away, much quicker than the quarterback expected, he said with a laugh. The two daydreamed about a potential reunion. Huntley joined Baltimore’s practice squad weeks later.

“We talked about if it does come to fruition, [I said], ‘You could win a football game for us,’” Harbaugh said. “And here we are. It’s one of those things that you just really could never predict, but it’s the way things work sometimes.”

From ‘bend-then-break’ defense to ‘bend-but-don’t-break’

For much of the game’s opening drive, and in short spurts throughout the win, Baltimore’s defense looked no different than it had for the better part of this season. The Ravens were a rudderless ship in tempestuous waters, incapable of slowing down even the most middling of offenses, on the ground or through the air. Caleb Williams, a former first overall pick who isn’t the reason for Chicago’s four-game win streak, looked like a seasoned starter the way he picked apart this lost group. Fifteen-yard pass here, 10-yard rush there.

Then Baltimore’s defense came alive, walling up in the red zone on back-to-back first quarter drives.

Cornerback Nate Wiggins, right, defends Bears wide receiver DJ Moore, who fails to catch a pass during the fourth quarter of the Ravens' 30-16 win. Wiggins and the defense have held consecutive opponents under 20 points. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)

Asked about those two, which limited Chicago to six first-quarter points rather than 14, Harbaugh said simply, “That was massive,” and “that gave us life.” Chicago didn’t score another point until the fourth quarter.

“Throughout the season,” Hamilton said, “we’ve been a bend-and-then-break team. We gave up long drives and then touchdowns. And I feel like just growing up throughout the season as a defense, we have become a bend-but-don’t-break team.”

Roquan Smith led the Ravens in tackles (12) in his first game back from a Week 4 injury. Wiggins intercepted his second pass this year, Baltimore’s only picks in seven games. Mike Green logged his first career sack. A pair of near-sacks from Hamilton and Kyle Van Noy that forced Williams to chuck the ball aside, both times flagged for intentional grounding, all but dissolved a pair of second-quarter drives.

Complementary football was a sticking point in Ravens meeting rooms this week. On Sunday, they did just that. Creating some semblance of a pass rush, while down multiple starters because of injury, was the “main focus” of Baltimore’s bye week, defensive coordinator Zach Orr said. They hit on that, too.

Ravens coaches showed as much confidence in their defense as they have all season with the choice to take a delay of game penalty and punt, which yielded the Wiggins interception. “It feels good, just running on the field, knowing our head coach trusts us,” Wiggins said. “It just makes us want to go out, play harder, and get a stop.”

For weeks, this defense has bemoaned their own inability to translate high-level practices to game day. Leaders diagnosed the issue as mountainous pressure from a wretched start, siphoning all the fun. On Sunday, Green said, “We just went out there, had fun, and that led to the victory.”

Patrick Ricard had a ‘gut-wrenching’ rehab. He was a clear offensive boost.

Patrick Ricard is like a snowplow. When the Ravens run the ball, the 300-pound All-Pro fullback and one of the last of his kind in the NFL, clears the roadway of other-jersey-colored obstructions. Without him, Baltimore’s run game more often looked like a car skidding through nasty conditions and ramming into barriers. 

At one point in the first half, he put a Bears linebacker on his butt. Ricard, who made his season debut after nursing a calf injury that put him out in mid-August, said that play “was worth everything.”

Ricard acknowledged it has been “challenging” getting back on the field. He was gearing up to play Week 1 in Buffalo, then reinjured it. His rehab took longer than expected. Ricard did his best to stay patient. “If I tried to push through it when it was healing,” he said, speaking with reporters for the first time this season, “I maybe would’ve re-injured it again, and then maybe my whole season was over.”

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Without Ricard to help clear a path amidst Baltimore’s middling offensive line, Henry was held to 50 yards rushing or fewer in four games. Since Week 1, the Ravens collectively haven’t reached the 200-yard mark, a benchmark they cleared seven times last year. Ricard called it “gut-wrenching” to watch his teammates fall short. Sunday’s 177 yards on the ground marked their third-best showing of the year. Henry had 71 yards on 21 carries with two scores. And Keaton Mitchell broke off 43 yards with only four carries.

The touchdown that extended Baltimore’s lead to double digits in a crucial spot was a perfect encapsulation of how Ricard can affect the game.

Huntley lined up under center. Ricard was a step back and to his right. Henry was another step behind. When Huntley turned back to show handoff to Henry and Ricard stormed upfield looking for someone to block, Chicago’s entire defense bit. Four defensive backs stepped in that direction, Huntley turned back and tossed it to a wide-open Kolar the other direction.

The Ravens ran for over 150 yards with fullback Patrick Ricard, shown warming up, back in the lineup after missing the first six games of the season with an injured calf. (Karl Merton Ferron/Staff)

“Words can’t describe how good it felt to be back [with] the boys today,” Ricard posted on X. “[Shoutout Charlie Kolar] on the tuddy!!”

Emotions piled up in the win. Ricard, again and again, reminded himself to be confident in the stability of his calf and to “just let it rip.” Center Tyler Linderbaum called Ricard’s physical presence a “game changer.”

For a team that so often relies on the run game and expects to return their superstar dual-threat quarterback from injury in a few days, Ricard’s return is a major boost.

Jackson’s injury designation snafu didn’t come back to bite Baltimore. They should have him back this week.

Leading into Sunday’s game versus Chicago, folks inside and out of the Ravens practice facility in Owings Mills invoked the playoffs to convey the urgency of a win, avoiding a 1-6 pit so far beneath the Earth’s surface that no team in the last half-century has clawed out to reach the postseason. Much of the discourse spotlighted Baltimore’s two-time Most Valuable Player. Would Jackson play? Would the hamstring injury that limited him in practice be too much to overcome by the weekend?

Harbaugh explained the team’s decision to retroactively change Jackson’s practice designation, which might have given more clarity on his availability a day prior, was “an honest mistake.”

“I can tell you this; nobody is trying to hide anything,” said Harbaugh, who said it falls on the medical and public relations staffs. “There’s no advantage to be gained with that. He practiced, his status was what it was. … But, questionable or out? We weren’t going to say out because he wasn’t out until Saturday when that conversation was had on the medical side.”

Kolar said to combat the challenge of not knowing for sure who the quarterback might be, they try to be present. “Who is the quarterback taking the rep right now? And then work with that,” he said. “We believe in that whole room.”

The discourse loses steam when a third-string quarterback pilots 30 points of offense in a double-digit win. Either way, Harbaugh said he’s “hopeful” they’ll return Jackson for Thursday night in Miami. Beating Chicago settled the tide. They still have a long way to go.

Any true shot at a season-saving run requires a healthy Jackson.

Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn.

Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson, center, congratulates teammate Tyler Huntley, left, in the fourth quarter. The team is hopeful Jackson can return to play Thursday against the Dolphins. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff)

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