ANALYSIS: 5 takeaways from Bengals’ ‘sickening’ loss to Ravens

Joe Burrow’s pass to Tanner Hudson fell incomplete, and Baltimore escaped with a 35-34 win Thursday night at M&T Bank Stadium. Cincinnati falls to 4-6 as the margin for error grows tighter over the final seven games.

Here are five takeaways from the loss:

1. Risky decisions falter

The Bengals were aggressive all night, knowing what Baltimore’s offense was capable of, but in the second half, those decisions did not pan out for them.

After Baltimore cut a 14-point deficit to one early in the fourth quarter, Taylor elected to go for it on fourth-and-2 instead of going for a 51-yard field goal. McPherson has missed three 50-yard field goals this year but the Bengals continue to say they trust him. Burrow’s deep pass to Jermaine Burton fell incomplete, and the Ravens took their first lead the next drive.

Cincinnati never again had a lead. Both teams traded touchdowns the rest of the way, scoring two more each, and with the way the Ravens were moving the ball offensively, it wasn’t all that surprising when Taylor decided to go for two and try to win the game in regulation.

As Burrow’s pass fell incomplete, Bengals tight end Mike Gesicki tried to argue he was being held. It also appeared Burrow took a late hit that went uncalled for roughing the passer.

2. Missed tackles an issue

Cincinnati once again held Derrick Henry in check as he managed just 68 yards rushing and one touchdown on 16 carries, but the defense had trouble making tackles on the receivers. Of the 10 longest plays for the Ravens, nine of them were short passes that went for 11 yards or more.

None was worse than the 84-yard touchdown from Tylan Wallace, where Cam Taylor-Britt, Logan Wilson and Geno Stone all missed tackles.

Taylor-Britt had a chance to tackle him at the Ravens’ 22-yard line as he made the catch, but Wallace seemed to just step out of his arms. Wilson tried pushing him out of bounds 10 yards down the field, and Wallace managed to stay in bounds along the sideline. Stone missed him at the 50-yard line and that left a clear path to the endzone to make it a one-point game.

Jackson finished with 290 yards and four touchdowns on 25-of-33 passing (75.8 percent), and Wallace had three catches for 115 yards. It didn’t help the Bengals couldn’t effectively pressure Jackson. He wasn’t sacked at all and Joseph Ossai had the lone quarterback hit.

3. Chase beats Ravens’ secondary

Chase just loves playing the Ravens, as their secondary just has no solutions for him. He finished with 264 yards and three touchdowns on 11 catches and two of his scores were for 67 yards or more on the first play of those drives.

In the first meeting of the season, he had 192 yards receiving and two touchdowns, and the first 200-yard game of his career came against the Ravens in 2021 as a rookie. He now has three 200-yard games and two of them were against Baltimore.

His performance Thursday made him just the second player in NFL history with 175 yards receiving against the same opponent in the same season. He also extended his lead as the player with the most 60-yard touchdowns since 2021, moving that total to 12. Tyreek Hill is next with nine.

4. Mistakes on offense

Burrow knew the offense was going to put up points with how good the Ravens are this year, ranking as the top-scoring team in the league. Cincinnati’s defense has played better in recent weeks but hadn’t proved anything against a good offense yet, so the offense needed to play mistake-free football.

Chase Brown’s fumble in the third quarter was the start of the downfall. The Ravens took advantage of a short field, with Roquan Smith’s recovery putting them on the Bengals’ 31-yard line, and they scored the first of four touchdowns on consecutive drives.

Meanwhile, the Bengals had three straight possessions without any points with the fumble, a punt and a turnover on downs at the Ravens’ 34.

Burrow did just about everything he could despite facing pressure and taking hits all night. He was sacked three times by Nnamdi Madubuike, who had just 2.0 sacks through his first nine games, and the Ravens had 13 quarterback hits. The Bengals were without left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. for a second straight start.

5. Familiar feeling

Taylor described the second narrow loss to Baltimore “sickening” in his postgame press conference, Chase called it frustrating and Burrow referred to the team’s record despite strong performances as a “tough pill to swallow.”

The Bengals now have six losses, but three of those were by three points or less — to Baltimore (7-3) and Kansas City (8-0). They lost in overtime to Baltimore a month ago and lost by one at Kansas City in Week 2. All three of those games, Cincinnati lost leads in the second half.

Cincinnati now has a weekend off before beginning preparations for another primetime road game Nov. 17 against the L.A. Chargers. Burrow thought the Bengals would need 10 wins to make the playoffs, so that would mean they need to win six of the final seven games, and they are yet to play division leader Pittsburgh.

A win Thursday would have been huge.

NEXT GAME

Sunday, Nov. 17

Bengals at Chargers, 8:20 p.m., NBC, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7