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The Ravens' glaring mistake flares up as the biggest looming problem compared to the Bengals

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BALTIMORE – John Harbaugh wanted to congratulate Ja'Marr Chase on his great game Thursday night.

“I looked for him after the game, but I couldn't find him,” the Baltimore Ravens coach said shortly after his team earned a 35-34 victory over Chase's Cincinnati Bengals.

Then, in a weird moment of collective self-awareness, Harbaugh paused ever so briefly before adding, “I think that was appropriate.”

The reaction brought laughter from reporters in the M&T Bank Stadium press room after a hard-fought victory. But Harbaugh also knows his team's glaring mistake may be no laughing matter.

With the win, the Ravens became the third AFC team to achieve seven wins this season. Their offense entered the night averaging 7.13 yards per play – the second-most in NFL history through nine games – and delivered with 28 second-half points and four touchdown passes from quarterback Lamar Jackson, who won his latest MVP award. CV further polished, another show from .

But a game the Ravens promoted with the theme “Purple Rising” — a nod to their new alternate helmets — turned out to be quite fitting for a defense that was battered, battered and perhaps even exposed by the Bengals.

Chase, clearly Cincinnati's primary offensive weapon – especially on a night when fellow wideout Tee Higgins was inactive with a quadriceps injury – constantly ran through and past Ravens defenders, racking up 11 catches for 264 yards and three scores, including a 67 and 70 yarder. Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow passed for 428 yards and threw a fourth TD pass to tight end Tanner Hudson.

“That’s just not our standard on defense and we know that,” Pro Bowl defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike said.

“We're going to find ways to improve and get better in practice, and I know the guys in the locker room feel the same way I do, and we'll get there.”

But this wasn't just a bad night at the office. It's a worrying pattern. The Ravens entered Thursday's game ranked last in the league in pass defense. Then the Bengals racked up 421 yards through the air — 50 more than Baltimore's worst performance so far in 2024.

Cincinnati attacked without fear, Burrow continually targeting Chase and often connecting with him with long-range shots. The Bengals scored touchdowns on all three occasions in the red zone, scored four times on fourth down, and totaled 470 yards on offense.

The Ravens' penchant for self-sabotage included extending Cincinnati drives with early penalties, including a defensive holding on cornerback Brandon Stephens on fourth-and-2 on the game's first possession. Running back Chase Brown scored a touchdown on the next play.

Stephens had a particularly rough night as he narrowly missed an interception in the end zone when his foot hit the sideline. He also tried to cover Chase on the 70-yard touchdown, but didn't seem to get the inside safety help he expected. To his credit, Stephens answered every question asked of him after the game.

“We’ll have to watch the film and see what it was, but just a breakdown of the coverage,” he said of Chase’s biggest play.

“Honestly, man, we can’t afford any mistakes. We cannot afford failures in reporting and communication – they cost us a lot of money. They expose our mistakes.”

Making matters worse, All-Pro defenseman Kyle Hamilton suffered an ankle injury late in the second quarter. He was in street clothes after halftime, although Harbaugh didn't seem particularly concerned about the injury after the game.

However, the downward trend in defense may concern him.

These Ravens can score almost at will, their average of 31.8 points per game being the best in the AFC. But Thursday's win was still their fourth to come within one point.

But as Baltimore starts facing better defensive teams than Cincinnati — and the Ravens face the Pittsburgh Steelers and Los Angeles Chargers in their next two games — they will likely find that the offense can't save them in every turn , as much as it failed against the defensive-minded Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs in last season's AFC championship game.

“We have to turn over every stone as a defensive team and find a way to prevent these plays,” Harbaugh said, “because they shouldn’t happen.”

To be fair, this is a unit with a rookie coordinator in Zach Orr that lost several key pieces during free agency – not to mention Orr's predecessor, Mike Macdonald, who is now head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. It was probably never realistic to expect Baltimore to give up the fewest points in the league again like it did in 2023.

And there were positive signs on Thursday.

Madubuike constantly harassed Burrow and sacked him three times after entering the game with just one pair on the season. Trailing 21-7 in the third quarter, cornerback Marlon Humphrey picked off Brown for a crucial fumble that led to an ensuing touchdown and sparked Baltimore's comeback. And with the game on the line, the Ravens held strong in the final minute – and one could argue the officials held their own as well – when Cincinnati failed to convert what amounted to a two-point conversion were.

But if these are building blocks for improvement, Harbaugh and Co. know they still have a lot of work to do if they want to overtake the Steelers for first place in the division and potentially wrest the Lombardi Trophy from Kansas City.

“That’s not the standard,” Harbaugh said, sounding like Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin. “We have to do a lot better. We also have to take the pressure off our offense. We have to do that defensively. But the fact that they continue to fight like before and find a way to win the game – that’s really the most important thing in the end.”

Especially if the Ravens don't want to miss another spectacular chance at immortality.

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Follow USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis on X, formerly Twitter, @ByNateDavis.

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