Even when the Cleveland Browns offered the Ravens a gift, they didn't accept it.
Kyle Hamilton dropped a potential game-winning interception on Cleveland's final drive, which will be a lasting image of Baltimore's 29-24 loss that ended a five-game winning streak.
On the next play after Hamilton's drop, Jameis Winston found Cedric Tillman for a 38-yard touchdown pass that was the game-winning score.
Cleveland (2-6) had lost five straight entering this game and the Ravens had won five straight, but Baltimore (5-3) simply didn't play well enough to win.
Here are my thoughts on a game that the Ravens literally let slip through their fingers:
There's appears to be no quick fix to Baltimore's defensive problems.
The Ravens' struggles against the pass continued after they entered Week 8 ranked last in the NFL in pass defense.
Baltimore's secondary was shorthanded without Marlon Humphrey (knee) and Nate Wiggins (shoulder/illness), and the Browns took advantage, scoring more than 20 points for the first time all season.
The Ravens went with a different rotation at safety, as Marcus Williams watched the entire game from the sideline while Eddie Jackson and Ar'Darius Washington handled the snaps at safety next to Hamilton.
"It was a personnel decision," Head Coach John Harbaugh said of Williams not playing. "We're kind of working through some things there. I feel very confident Marcus is going to be out there playing great football for the rest of the season."
Yet, Baltimore's issues defending the pass continued. The Ravens have played some top quarterbacks this season, but Cleveland's Jameis Winston was making his first start since 2022. Yet, he shredded the Ravens for 334 yards, and Jackson and the secondary had several plays he's like to have back. Cedric Tillman (seven catches, 99 yards, two touchdowns) and Elijah Moore (eight catches, 85 yards) consistently found holes in Baltimore's defense.
On Tillman's first touchdown, there was confusion on the Ravens' defense before the snap and he was left wide open on slant pattern across the middle. That's an area of the field where Baltimore has struggled all season and it's concerning that issue has not been solved yet.
Hamilton was the Ravens' best player on the field in this game, so it was a cruel twist of fate that he dropped what could've been a game-winning interception. However, dropping the ball was nothing new for Baltimore's defense. Letting potential interceptions get away has been a problem for Baltimore's defense all season. The Ravens are not playing well enough defensively to squander those missed opportunities and paid for it in this game.
The Ravens can't always count on Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry to dominate.
The Browns' aggressive defense deserves credit for keeping Jackson (23-of-38, 289 yards) and Henry (11 carries, 73 yards) from dominating the game.
Henry had a 39-yard run, but the Browns won the battle at the line of scrimmage led by reigning Defensive Player of the Year Myles Garrett. Jackson was sacked three times and pressured often, while Henry had difficulty finding running lanes and didn't get enough carries to find a rhythm.
When Henry, who took a direct snap, was stopped on fourth-and-1 on Cleveland's 6-yard line on the game's opening drive, it was a sign of things to come. The Browns were the more physical team up front in this game, and the Ravens didn't have enough answers to overcome it.
No victory in the NFL is guaranteed.
Call this a trap game if you want, but this loss was more about execution than effort.
The Ravens played hard but didn't play nearly as well as they can. They got some bad breaks, like Rashod Bateman dropping a long pass when he lost the ball in the sun or Browns kicker Dustin Hopkins doinking in a late field goal off the uprights. They made some bad decisions returning kickoffs they should have left alone in the end zone.
Overall, they just weren't sharp, and when that happens in the NFL, even a team that had lost five straight like the Browns is capable of winning, especially when they're at home. The longer the Browns stayed in the game, the louder their fans got, knowing this was a game Cleveland could steal.
Jackson wasn't sharp early but was at his best in the fourth quarter, engineering a six-play, 91-yard drive that gave the Ravens a 24-23 lead with 2:41 left to play that their defense couldn't hold. After the Brown's final touchdown, Jackson needed just 38 seconds to drive Baltimore from its 30-yard line to Cleveland's 24-yard line with 14 seconds left.
However, Jackson's final two heaves into the end zone were incomplete to end the game. The Ravens didn't play like one of the NFL's top teams today and paid for it.
"We've just got to play better," Jackson said.
This loss could come back to haunt Baltimore in its quest to repeat as AFC North champs.
The defeat dropped the Ravens a half-game behind the Pittsburgh Steelers (5-2), who will host the New York Giants on "Monday Night Football." The Steelers have a challenging schedule in the second half of the season, but the Ravens can't count on Pittsburgh stumbling down the stretch.
The Ravens finished 13-4 in 2023, but they have already lost three games this season. Losing this AFC North game could haunt Baltimore later if the race comes down to the wire.
Extra Points:
- Defensive end Brent Urban (concussion) left the game in the first quarter, and defensive lineman Michael Pierce limped of the field with calf injury in the second quarter and did not return.
- Justin Tucker slipped on his 49-yard field goal in the second quarter, but his kick made it over the crossbar with little to spare. However, Tucker missed a 50-yarder early in the fourth quarter.
- Outside linebacker David Ojabo was a healthy scratch for the first time all season.
- The Browns have defeated the Ravens in four of their last six meetings.
