The Cincinnati Bengals beat the Baltimore Ravens 34-23 in half-time one and take the lead in the AFC North with a second win in the second game of the season. AJ Green dominated in the end zone, Joe Flacco and Co. made too many serious mistakes offensively.
Presented with a very good field position by a flacco interception, the Bengals completed their second drive with a touchdown pass from Andy Dalton to AJ Green and were practically unstoppable from that point on. Without Linebacker CJ Mosley, who was missing the Ravens early due to a knee injury, Dalton played especially well. The three subsequent drives completed the Red Rifle with touchdown passes to Green, Green and Tyler Boyd. Meanwhile, the guests scored only once: Javorius Allen ran from the one-yard line to the touchdown.
At 28:7 the Ravens actually got the ball back from the Bengals despite a missed fourth-down conversion due to questionable time management. Favored by penalties against the hosts, Baltimore marched to the Cincinnati Goal Line just before the break, where Flacco Tight End found Mark Andrews with a pass in the End Zone.
After the break, the Bengals open without Joe Mixon, who was treated on the sideline, faltered noticeably. However, the guests could hardly capitalize on this. Justin Tucker hit in his usual manner from 55 yards away, but otherwise only a little collided. First the Ravens failed by a hair’s breadth in their second fourth-down attempt, later a flacco pass under pressure from Carlos Dunlap landed directly in the arms of Bengals-Safety Shawn Williams.
With a monster touchdown catch from John Brown in one-on-one with Dre Kirkpatrick, the Ravens shortened to a one-score game in the last quarter, but could not exploit the two-point conversion and thus only shorten it to five. In return, Cincinnati marched down the field, but the Baltimore defense managed to score a field goal at Third and 12. With three minutes on the clock, the Ravens needed a touchdown drive and a two-point conversion. In a rollout to the right, however, Williams forced a Flacco fumble and secured Cincinnati victory.
AJ Green (5 matches, 69 yards, 3 TD). Three touchdown catches speak for themselves. Green’s fourth catch was delayed until the end of the third quarter, but as a Red Zone target, the videout from the Ravens Cornerbacks in one-on-one could not be defended and brought his team into position early in the game to drive home the victory. Also strong: Quarterback Andy Dalton (24/42, 265 yards, 4 TD, 0 INT), who also benefited from good pass protection and was rescued from interception by Tyler Boyd on a bad throw towards Marlon Humphrey.
Joe Flacco (32/55, 376 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT) started with a three-and-out and a nasty interception and didn’t get better afterwards. The Ravens quarterback was extremely inaccurate throughout the game, missing a fourth-down conversion at the end of the first half with a terrible throw with receiver Willie Snead with no chance of the ball. Even on the Ravens’ first touchdown drive, Flacco was rescued from a missed interception by Jessie Bates and then from the referees and a questionable pass-interference call on two clearly defeated balls. In half-time two, the second interception and the costly fumble followed, albeit under pressure. Also weak: Pass-Rusher Terrell Suggs and Cornerback Tavon Young.