Baltimore (6-3) beat the Bengals in overtime a month ago at Paycor Stadium, but now Cincinnati (4-5) is looking to build momentum in the second half of the season to make a push for the playoffs.
“I just want to go out and win,” Stone said Monday. “That’s how I feel. I know the environment is going to be rocking. I know how it is there in night games, so I’m ready for the opportunity.”
The first meeting this season put the Bengals at 1-4 a week after they had collected their first win at Carolina, but they are 3-1 since and 4-2 since opening with three straight losses.
Cincinnati looks back at the home loss to Baltimore as one that got away. The Bengals had a 10-point lead with about nine minutes left, but the Ravens made it a three-point game and then tied it in the final two minutes after Marlon Humphrey intercepted Joe Burrow at the Baltimore 28-yard line.
In overtime, the Ravens got the ball first and had moved into Cincinnati territory when Germaine Pratt recovered a Lamar Jackson fumble to put the Bengals in long field goal range. Three straight Chase Brown runs got them just three yards, and Evan McPherson missed the 53-yard field goal. Derrick Henry, who had just 41 yards rushing in regulation, popped off a 51-yard run the next play from scrimmage, and Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker won the game on a 24-yard field goal.
Stone says Cincinnati is a different team defensively since that 41-38 loss. Thursday is a chance to show it.
“We’re playing with energy,” Stone said. “That’s one thing we were lacking a lot, guys actually enjoying being out there, making plays, everyone celebrating together. I feel like we turned it around a lot.”
The Ravens seem to be getting better, too, outside of a surprising loss at Cleveland on Oct. 27. They’ve won six of their last seven since back-to-back losses to Kansas City and Las Vegas to open the season, and Lamar Jackson completed 16 of 19 passes for 280 yards and three touchdowns Sunday in a 41-10 win over Denver.
Jackson is on pace for a career year, ranking second in the league with 2,379 passing yards and an NFL-best 9.3 yards per attempt for players with more than 36 pass attempts. He also has 20 touchdowns and just two interceptions, while adding 505 yards rushing and two rushing touchdowns.
“He’s playing as good as anybody in this league right now,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “What, did they score on seven straight possessions (Sunday)? ... They’re doing a lot of really good things. He’s playing with a lot of confidence. There’s a lot of things that are double-edged sword when you’re attacking him, whether you’re pressuring and he makes the extra guy miss and now you’ve got a whole world of problems, because he’s as unique as it gets in terms of athletic skill set, but his ability to beat you with his arm, creates a real challenge.”
Stone said defenses aren’t going to be able to stop both Jackson and Henry, and that proved to be the case in the first matchup. Jackson made plays even when it seemed the Bengals were getting enough pressure on him to get stops, and Henry wasn’t an issue until overtime.
Jackson finished with 348 yards rushing and four touchdowns and had 55 yards rushing on 12 carries. The Bengals sacked him just once.
“It’s definitely a hard one just because Lamar is going to be Lamar no matter what and so is Derrick,” Stone said. “You can’t stop both of them, so at the same time you’ve just got to limit one of them the best you can and you’ve got to live with the results of the other one. You’ve got to stop (leading receiver) Zay (Flowers) and all those other guys, Mark (Andrews). They’ve got a bunch of weapons now, so you’ve just got to do what you can and limit them as much as you can to get them off the field and get the ball back to Joe (Burrow).”
Henry is leading the league with 1,052 yards rushing and 11 touchdowns, and he’s got 12 rushes of 20 yards or more. The Bengals are one of just four teams to hold him under 100 yards rushing.
“Everyone swarming to the ball, playing their assignments,” Stone said. “I feel like if you see the film, we all did that the whole game, and it’s been the main thing the whole year is finishing and we can say the same thing with Saquon (Barkley) a couple weeks ago where we limited him and then he had a couple big runs at the end. The main thing is to play a full 60 minutes and be able to finish the game and get everyone off the field.”
THURSDAY’S GAME
Bengals at Ravens, 8:15 p.m., Amazon Prime, 700, 1530, 102.7, 104.7
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