The Bengals entered week 15 facing elimination. Needing to win out in the final four weeks of the season, along with some other help, there was no margin for error. The Bengals beat the Ravens in Baltimore a few weeks back. This game, however, had some different challenges. One included the weather, as it was one of the coldest games ever played at Paul Brown Stadium, now known as Paycor.
Cincinnati’s defence did well to get off the field on the opening drive, with a Myles Murphy sack on 3rd down being enough to send on Baltimore’s punting unit. The Bengals would go on a fairly long opening drive. As he did last week, Joe Burrow got Mike Gesicki involved early, with a couple of catches. Ja’Marr Chase also caught an 18 yard pass. However, on 3rd down, inside Baltimore territory, Burrow took a 15 yard sack to just push them outside of field goal range.
A Demetrius Knight sack was instrumental in Cincy’s defence forcing a three and out on the next drive. But this just led to a Bengals turnover on downs inside Baltimore territory.
Later, the two teams traded interceptions. Burrow’s pass, intended for Chase, sailed on him. It was picked off by Humphrey. But a few plays later, Jackson’s pass went off the hands of Flowers, and was intercepted by Jordan Battle. Unfortunately, this led to another punt.
The Ravens were the ones to open the scoring. It was a 5 play drive that went for 79 yards. Jackson got it going with a 14 yard scramble, before completing a 32 yard pass to Hopkins. He then found Ali, a backup RB, on a dump off. He found some space and went down the sideline for a 30 yard score.
7-0 Ravens.
Shortly after, the Ravens went on another 5 plays scoring drive, driving 80 yards down the field. Flowers caught a 26 yard pass, Andrews caught one for 14, and a 12 yard run by Jackson further aided in moving the ball down the field. Their drive was capped off by a 28 yard TD strike from Jackson to Flowers.
14-0 Ravens at the half.
To open the half, the Bengals again turned it over on downs inside Ravens territory. That makes three trips where they were relatively deep into opposition territory, only to have no points to show for it. The Ravens later sent out Loop to kick a 27 yard field goal, extending their lead to 3 scores.
17-0 Ravens after 3 quarters.
Unfortunately for the Bengals, things went from bad to worse. On a long drive that took nearly 8 minutes off the clock, they found themselves at the Ravens 7 yard line. However, for the second straight week, Burrow threw a bad interception that was returned for a TD. Van Noy was the one to pick it off. Prior to being tackled after returning the ball 11 yards upfield, he handed it off to the faster Gilman, who took it another 84 yards to the house.
24-0 Ravens.
By this point, the game was over, but nevertheless, the Bengals kept on. Again, they got pretty deep inside Ravens territory. To about the 30 yard line. But again, they turned it over on downs. That makes three turnovers on downs, a sack to take them out of field goal range, and a pick 6, all well inside Ravens territory. With that, the Ravens were able to run out the rest of the clock.
24-0 Ravens, final.
The Bengals get shutout at home, in a game where they had many opportunities to put points on the board. This surely won’t look good for Zac Taylor, who has got to be firmly on the hot seat.
Falling to 4-10, their elimination has officially been confirmed, but the Bengals do still have three remaining games. The first being next week on the road in Miami, where they will take on the Dolphins.
