Bengals blow it in Baltimore

Baltimore (7-3) erased a 14-point deficit in the second half and took its first lead with 5:50 remaining.

Cincinnati (4-6), which squandered a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter of the first matchup with the Ravens a month ago, never regained an advantage.

The Bengals had all the momentum early and had chances to put the game away and couldn’t do it, while the defense broke down in the second half to the point Zac Taylor felt safer going for two rather than letting Lamar Jackson lead a fifth straight touchdown drive in overtime.

After going into halftime up 14-7, the Bengals forced a three-and-out on the opening drive of the second half, and Chase turned a catch down the middle into a 67-yard touchdown the Bengals’ first play from scrimmage to build some cushion.

However, it was downhill for too long after that.

Chase Brown fumbled and Roquan Smith recovered to put the Ravens on Cincinnati’s 31-yard line, and just like that, Baltimore was within one point with touchdowns on back-to-back drives. The only thing separating the teams, following a poorly defended 86-yard touchdown reception for Tylan Wallace, was Justin Tucker’s missed PAT that kept it a 21-20 with 13:30 left.

Burrow’s fourth-down pass deep to Jermaine Burton fell incomplete the next drive, and Baltimore took advantage of the momentum to gain its first lead. Jackson connected with Mark Andrews on an 18-yard touchdown pass to make it 28-21 after a quarterback keeper for the two-point conversion.

Chase stopped the bleeding for the Bengals and scored on a 70-yard touchdown pass from Burrow the next play from scrimmage to tie the game with 5:37 remaining, but the Ravens responded with an almost four-minute drive to run down the clock and regain the lead, 35-28, on Rashod Bateman’s touchdown catch.

Burrow gave the Bengals a chance on the final drive when he converted a fourth-and-10 to Andrei Iosivas, who just barely reached the first-down marker. A series of penalties helped move the ball into the redzone, and Chase came up with another big play for his third touchdown. He finished with 264 yards receiving on 11 catches, just two shy of his career high yardage, and Burrow had 428 yards passing and four touchdowns.

Cincinnati was without Tee Higgins for a third-straight game, and left tackle Orlando Brown Jr. was inactive for the second straight week. The Bengals also lost running back Zack Moss and tight end Erick All Jr. to injured reserve this week.

The Bengals had taken the first lead the opening drive after benefiting from a defensive holding penalty that extended a redzone trip on fourth-and-goal from the 2-yardline when Burrow was looking for Chase and had to instead turn to Brown short of the goal line.

Brown ran in the touchdown on the next play to put Cincinnati on the board the opening drive, and the defense forced a three-and-out on the Ravens’ first series but couldn’t hold onto the lead after the Bengals then turned the ball over on downs. Jackson found Nelson Agholor open with extra defenders rushing the passer, and Agholor scored on a 6-yard touchdown reception.

Cincinnati added a score before halftime with a little luck that Baltimore cornerback Brandon Stephens was unable to get both feet down on an interception in the endzone. The pick, on which Stephens fooled Burrow into thinking he had Mike Gesicki open, was overturned upon review, and three plays later the Bengals scored on a 3-yard touchdown pass to Tanner Hudson.

Mike Hilton’s tackle on Jackson ended the half as he was trying to move Baltimore into field goal position with about six seconds left in the half.