AFC North Report: Ravens hot while Bengals blown out in Week 2

by Christina "Tina" Rivers (3Rivers_Writer) on September 16, 2019

Steel City Underground’s AFC North Report wraps up the result of each game played by rivals in the division and how the Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, and Cleveland Browns fared against their opponents each week during the NFL regular season.

Because the Cleveland Browns play on Monday Night Football, and the Pittsburgh Steelers lost their home game against the Seattle Seahawks by two points, this NFL Week 2 report focuses on the play of the Baltimore Ravens and Cincinnati Bengals.

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Ravens (23) – Cardinals (17)

If anyone wondered when Lamar Jackson would make the Ravens ‘his’ team, they should be aware after back-to-back weeks with outstanding performances. After posting a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3 against the Miami Dolphins in Week 1, Jackson became the first player in NFL history to throw for at least 270 yards and run for 100 yards in a game on Sunday.

Yes, Baltimore played a Miami team that is at the barrel’s bottom and Arizona who had the worst record in the league last season (and one of the youngest rosters). That shouldn’t necessarily take anything away from how Jackson performed the past two weeks, however. “When you can run it like that and throw it like that, it’s really hard to stop,” Cardinals head coach Kliff Kingsbury said.

“He’s applying his gifts… He’s a super-competitive person. He wants to win.” – Ravens coach John Harbaugh

Arizona rallied in the fourth quarter after Baltimore handed them a 17-6 halftime deficit, but Jackson and the Ravens offense weren’t done. On a third-and-11 from their own 44-yard line, Jackson found Marquise Brown matched up one-on-one with Tramaine Brock Sr. and dropped a perfectly thrown pass that became a 41-yard completion.

Lamar Jackson dropped it in the bucket 💯 pic.twitter.com/qv51q0GsCu

— The Checkdown (@thecheckdown) September 15, 2019

The Ravens will face the Kansas City Chiefs next, on the road. While the offense looks like it is operating fairly well, the Baltimore defense will have their hands full. Against the Cardinals, the Ravens got a break when their opponent abandoned the run game. The Ravens didn’t bring much heat against Kyler Murray and that allowed Arizona to get back into the game. Linebacker Matthew Judon did finish the game with four tackles (one for a loss), a sack, and three quarterback hits. Pernell McPhee logged two tackles for a loss as Patrick Onwuasor had four tackles as the linebackers were all over the place when dropping into pass defense.

If the Ravens want to have a competitive game with the Chiefs, they’ll need to clean up their defensive backfield as well. There were plenty of miscues that might have been converted into points for the Cardinals but weren’t. They played soft zone at times that meant a Ravens defender wasn’t within ten yards of an Arizona receiver. Against Kansas City, that will be a game-killer.

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Bengals (17) – 49ers (41)

Remember when everyone was looking at the San Francisco 49ers and feeling they weren’t a very competitive team heading into the 2019-20 NFL regular season? Well, the Bengals got to see what happens when Jimmy Garoppolo is on-point. The Niners put together more than 200 rushing yards and 300 passing yards as they dominated a bland Bengals defense. Allowing 8.4 yards per play due to a bevy of missed tackles and getting beat in the trenches, the Bengals found themselves in a hole too deep to dig out of.

The Niners shut down Joe Mixon and Giovani Bernard, forcing Andy Dalton to turn to the passing game. Mixon had two nice gains called back due to penalties by his teammates. With a very weak offensive line, Bernard and Mixon were meeting defenders in their own backfield.

Dalton finished the day with 26-of-42 passes completed with two touchdowns and an interception. Tyler Boyd finished the day with 10 receptions in as many targets for 122 yards. His ability to create separation, freeing himself and running good routes has been needed without A.J. Green in the lineup. Dalton connected with Boyd on a nice 47-yard pass. That set up a pass later in the series to Tyler Eifert for the first Bengals touchdown from the red zone this season.

After having a breakout in Week 1, John Ross III was nearly shutout in the first half of the game but showed his speed on a nice slant route that turned a first-down catch into 34 yards. Later in the game, Ross caught another short pass from Dalton and raced down the field for a 66-yard touchdown with just 45 seconds left in the game.

The Bengals fell to 0-2 and will look for a way to get into win mode on the road against the Buffalo Bills in Week 3.