5 things we learned from Ravens’ 29-24 loss to Browns

The Ravens’ defense could not come up with a clutch stop, and Lamar Jackson’s offense could not bail them out this time around in a 29-24 loss to the woeful Browns in Cleveland.

Here are five things we learned from the game:

The Ravens’ defense is a five-alarm fire

Kyle Hamilton was the one defender on the field a Ravens fan might have trusted to catch a falling baby. With his raggedy unit falling apart in its effort to protect a 24-23 lead, Hamilton saw Jameis Winston’s pass float tantalizingly toward his hands. An interception would likely mean sweet relief, an escape from ignominious defeat against a Browns team that was going nowhere. Instead, the ball squiggled out of Hamilton’s grasp.

On the very next play, Cleveland’s top receiver, Cedric Tillman, raced past safety Eddie Jackson like he was a stationary cone, pulling in Winston’s 38-yard strike to give the Browns a lead they would not relinquish.

A blown opportunity setting up blown coverage. That about sums up where the Ravens’ defense stands after eight weeks under first-year coordinator Zach Orr. It brings no one pleasure to criticize Orr, a bright, charismatic figure going back to his days as a Ravens linebacker. But his defense isn’t working, and Sunday’s disaster, against an offense that came in as the league’s least efficient, offered the most damning evidence yet.

Did any fan watching have faith the Ravens would protect that narrow lead with more than two minutes left for Winston to work?

With the ball in Lamar Jackson’s hands, the Ravens are a whirlwind — a team we can envision playing for the Lombardi Trophy in New Orleans on the second Sunday in February.

Right now, Orr’s defense isn’t nearly good enough for us to believe the Super Bowl is their destiny.

The Browns’ final touchdown is the one that will linger in the memory, but another score late in the third quarter offered just as potent an illustration of the Ravens’ failings.

Ravens vs. Browns, October 27, 2024 | PHOTOS

Baltimore defenders pointed at one another as they scrambled to line up on third-and-5. Amid all the confusion, Tillman somehow burst unchecked through the heart of the secondary to catch a 22-yard touchdown pass from Winston.

The Ravens did not seem to know what they were trying to accomplish and could not check the most basic box by covering the opponent’s most dangerous pass catcher. That’s on the coaches and on defensive leaders such as Hamilton and Roquan Smith.

The Ravens, going in shorthanded without cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey and Nate Wiggins, tried to shake up their secondary. They benched safety Marcus Williams, who was off to the worst start of his career, in what coach John Harbaugh described as a “personnel” decision. But that just meant more snaps for Eddie Jackson, who also has not played well.

Winston had plenty of time to throw when the Ravens rushed four. He had open receivers to target between the hashmarks. When he did take an inexplicable risk, the Ravens failed to turn it into an interception.

We’ve seen this formula for failure again and again from a team that defended the pass better than any other in 2023.

“There’s no big theory behind it,” said Eddie Jackson, who also failed to catch a pair of would-be interceptions. “We’re just in a funk right now that we have to get out of because a lot of those are big game-changing plays if we make those.”

The Ravens know there’s a problem. They showed as much by bringing in former coordinator Dean Pees as another set of eyes to help Orr. They did not play Williams, who had been on the field for 98% of their defensive snaps going into the Browns game.

They’re grasping, but the solutions are eluding them.

This time, the offense was too sloppy to bail them out

Over five straight victories, the Ravens had rightly come to believe their offense could blow past almost any setback. Send extra rushers? Jackson would coolly slice you up. Slow Derrick Henry for a half? Fine, but he’d break you by the end. From ahead or behind, they unleashed equal devastation.

The Browns didn’t exactly derail this machine. The Ravens averaged 6.2 yards per play and drove 91 yards for a touchdown to give themselves a chance to win. But this was not the offense that had executed so ruthlessly in the red zone and on third down. Receivers dropped passes at key moments. Jackson took risks that could easily have led to interceptions. Coordinator Todd Monken called odd short-yardage plays that did not work. They never built their usual crushing advantage on the ground and had to go away from Henry as they played from behind in the fourth quarter.

The Ravens wasted a 77-yard opening drive when they inexplicably called a direct snap to Henry on fourth-and-1, taking the threat of Jackson out of the equation. They blew another red zone chance on their next drive when Jackson sailed a pass well beyond the reach of a wide-open Zay Flowers.

They made error after error on third down, converting just two of 10 after they came in with a 50% success rate, second best in the league.

“It honestly goes back to execution. Whatever the play, somehow, someway, no matter what it [was], we beat ourselves,” wide receiver Rashod Bateman said. “I don’t know what [better] position [we] could have been in. It could have been the receivers, it could have been [the] O-line; you never know. But we are a team, and I just feel like we all failed when we should excel.”

With the Ravens in Cleveland territory on their first drive of the second half and needing to answer a Browns touchdown, Nelson Agholor dropped a strike from Jackson.

Early in the fourth quarter, it was Bateman who dropped Jackson’s on-target throw, setting up Justin Tucker to miss short and left from 50 yards. On the Ravens’ next drive, Bateman lost his footing, then lost the ball in the sun, squandering a potential 40-yard gain that would have put them in scoring position. The performance was a setback for the 2021 first-round draft pick coming off the best three-game stretch of his career.

We covered the direct snap to Henry. In the third quarter, tight end Charlie Kolar lined up to take a direct snap on third-and-1 and instead set the Ravens back with a false start. Again, why the overthought gimmicks in short yardage when Jackson or Henry could have carried the ball? Jackson rendered that one moot by slipping away from pressure to find Isaiah Likely for a first down. He threw a strike to Mark Andrews for a touchdown two plays later. But even on a successful drive, the Ravens made their lives unnecessarily difficult.

They nearly rallied anyway against one of the tougher defenses on their schedule. There’s no reason to doubt the Ravens will roll up yards and points in the weeks to come. They just came up with too few too late on this frustrating afternoon.

They weren’t first to blame, but this was also a rough day for the Ravens’ offensive line

They have been the happiest surprise on the team — the unit that evolved from supposed Achilles heel to rock-solid foundation for the Ravens’ offensive brilliance.

That happy narrative took a turn against Cleveland’s talented defensive front.

Reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett finished with just one quarterback hit, but his modest statistical line belied the pressure he imposed. In part because of Garrett’s presence, left tackle Ronnie Stanley, who had played at a Pro Bowl level through seven games, set the Ravens back with a holding penalty and a false start.

Former Raven Za’Darius Smith, the subject of rampant trade rumors, had his way with rookie right tackle Roger Rosengarten, piling up a sack, two tackles for loss and 10 hurries, according to Pro Football Focus’ initial charting.

Center Tyler Linderbaum wiped out a 22-yard Lamar Jackson scramble with a holding penalty in the second quarter.

Cleveland finished with three sacks, seven quarterback hits and seven tackles for loss, and the damage could have been worse if not for Jackson’s wondrous scrambling.

Kyle Hamilton was oh so close to playing savior

If Hamilton had pulled in that final interception, the day would have belonged to him. He had saved the Ravens’ bacon with two huge plays in the first half and had perhaps been the team’s best run defender and pass rusher. The final twist — a ball Hamilton would probably catch nine out of 10 times — was cruel.

So it goes at times, even for the sharpest and most gifted among us.

Hamilton was gone from the postgame locker room by the time reporters arrived, so we’ll have to wait to hear his thoughts on the matter.

Prudent quarterbacks don’t throw screens to Hamilton’s side of the field. Winston had driven the Browns 91 yards on their opening possession when he called an audible in the red zone, dumping the ball to Tillman to counter a Baltimore blitz. Hamilton read the chess board and raced upfield to destroy the play before Tillman could take a step. His bold move saved four points.

With Cleveland up 6-3 and facing third-and-15 in the two-minute drill, Hamilton came swooping in from Winston’s blind side to strip the ball. Trenton Simpson recovered it, and two plays later, Jackson threw an 11-yard dart to Agholor to give the Ravens a halftime lead they probably did not deserve.

Hamilton was the reason for it on a day when so many of his defensive comrades could not suit up because of injury or illness. Sometimes, a team has to fall back on its superstars in tense moments, and if we needed a reminder that Hamilton is one of the three or four most important Ravens on the roster, he provided it.

It’s still true, even with that final drop overshadowing everything else he did in Cleveland.

This loss doesn’t have to mean much in the long run

It’s striking that the Ravens have now fallen to two of the NFL’s worst teams because of their own head-smacking errors. It’s tempting to say a real contender would never crumble against the likes of the Browns and the Las Vegas Raiders. But of course that’s not true. Real contenders lose to inferior opponents in head-scratching ways every season.

The Ravens did it last season when they dropped every pass under the sun in Pittsburgh. The eventual Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs lost to the Raiders on Christmas, scoring just 14 points in their Yuletide misery. The eventual runner-up San Francisco 49ers lost three straight last October.