INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Quarterback Lamar Jackson didn’t campaign to the sideline to go for it, as he often does. Instead, he slowly walked off the field and headed to the bench without trying to state the offense’s case to head coach John Harbaugh.
At that point, why bother?
The Baltimore Ravens know how aggressive their coach is, but they also understand that going for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 16 in the second quarter would require quite a leap of faith, particularly in a three-point game. So as the offense trudged off the field, the punt team gathered to head onto it.
“I thought we were going to punt the ball,” Jackson said.
So did everyone else, including probably the Los Angeles Chargers. However, at some point during the two-minute warning, Harbaugh decided he wanted to go for it.
He called it a “group decision.” Conversations with offensive coordinator Todd Monken during the delay on what play the Ravens would run — a direct snap to Mark Andrews with all 547 combined pounds of running back Derrick Henry and fullback Patrick Ricard pushing the tight end from behind — apparently sealed the call.
“I just thought we could get it,” Harbaugh said. “It was the right thing to do.”
Word got to some members of the offense quicker than others. The offensive linemen were already seated. They jumped off the bench and hustled onto the field. Henry strode on a little later.
The Ravens didn’t need much, and the truth is they didn’t get much, either. Andrews probably was short until Henry’s shove from behind helped him pick up 2 yards. Three plays and one pass interference penalty later, the Ravens were in the end zone as Jackson hit an interfered with Rashod Bateman for a 40-yard score. Momentum at cavernous SoFi Stadium had shifted to the visitors, who sleepwalked through the first quarter on “Monday Night Football.”
LAMAR GOES 40 YARDS DEEP TO BATEMAN.
Ravens take the lead before half!
📺: #BALvsLAC on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/pXhCIVBRFC— NFL (@NFL) November 26, 2024
“That (fourth-down play) changed the game,” Ricard said.
It took a while for the Ravens to show up for the third annual “Harbaugh Bowl,” won again by older brother John by a 30-23 margin. It was the aggressiveness of Baltimore’s head coach, who also watched his team pick up two fourth-and-shorts on a key touchdown drive spanning the third and fourth quarters, that helped the Ravens wrestle control after falling behind by 10 points in the second quarter.
When they did find their footing, scoring points on five straight drives with four touchdowns and a Justin Tucker field goal, it became a vintage Ravens performance. Jackson was good, throwing two touchdown passes and not putting the ball in harm’s way with another high-quality performance in prime time. Henry and the running game were great, totaling 212 yards on the ground, controlling the clock and seemingly breaking the Chargers’ will in the second half.
GO DEEPER
Henry powers Ravens past Chargers 30-23 in ‘Harbaugh Bowl’: Takeaways
The defense, playing without leading tackler and signal caller Roquan Smith, allowed a long touchdown drive on the game’s first possession, but it was otherwise solid with usually unheralded players such as Malik Harrison, Chris Board and Ar’Darius Washington occupying lead roles.
After their 70-yard, game-opening scoring drive, which ended with a Justin Herbert touchdown run, the Chargers didn’t get in the end zone again until old friend Gus Edwards scored from 1 yard out with 46 seconds remaining. That made it a touchdown game, but Isaiah Likely pounced on the ensuing onside kick to curtail any further drama.
This was a game the Ravens, now 8-4 and a half-game behind the Steelers (8-3) for first place in the AFC North, badly needed after a discouraging loss to Pittsburgh in their last outing. It would have been a major missed opportunity to lose after the Steelers dropped a Thursday night game in the snow to the last-place Cleveland Browns.
It also would have revved up even more pressure on the Ravens with the red-hot Philadelphia Eagles, who looked like world-beaters in this same building 24 hours earlier, coming to town on a short week for a showdown on Sunday.
It wasn’t looking good early, either, after the Ravens’ first two offensive drives ended in punts and the Chargers scored on two of their first three possessions.
“We just don’t flinch,” said Harrison, who had a game-high 13 tackles as part of a three-man committee that replaced Smith. “Lean on each other and just tell everybody, ‘Let’s go.’ It (was) still early. We’re still going to buckle up our chin strap and go out there and play.”
The game was meaningful to many Ravens players, but perhaps none more so than Harrison. He didn’t know what role he’d play coming in, because there was some optimism that Smith, who had never missed a game to an injury as a Raven before Monday, was going to be active. Smith had an extended workout before the game and clearly wanted to go. The Ravens played it safe and entrusted Harrison, Board and Kristian Welch to man the inside linebacker spot as part of a rotation.
Harrison, in particular, has garnered plenty of criticism this season for his defensive struggles. Yet, he walked into the interview room clutching a game ball after playing what Harbaugh called the best game of the versatile fifth-year linebacker’s career.
“A lot of people doubted me coming into this game, so I’m happy I was able to ball out and show them that I can be in this league, and I can play at a high level,” Harrison said.
Harbaugh got a game ball, too. He spent much of the week downplaying the matchup with his brother and the litany of former Ravens who are part of the Chargers’ front office, coaching staff and roster. He was still downplaying it after the game, but Harbaugh is far too competitive to not gain extra satisfaction from this win, particularly when he pushed so many of the right buttons along the way.
“Coach ‘Harbs’ didn’t make that too much of a thing. It’s just the type of person he is,” said Andrews, who gave the Ravens some breathing room with a tightly contested 6-yard touchdown catch in the back of the end zone early in the fourth quarter. “When you think about it and that family, it’s really incredible — just how they’re wired and everything they’ve done. For us, it’s just having our coach’s back. We know that he’s got ours, and we’ve got his, too.”
Mark Andrews leaps for SIX.
📺: #BALvsLAC on ESPN/ABC
📱: Stream on #NFLPlus pic.twitter.com/m4qwWlasdp— NFL (@NFL) November 26, 2024
Andrews and players pointed to Harbaugh’s decision to go for it on fourth-and-1 from their own 16 as further proof of just how much the head coach believes in the team. To Jackson, it brought back memories of the 2019 victory over Seattle, when Harbaugh decided to go for it on fourth-and-2 and Jackson responded with a touchdown run.
“Right there, I believe he just had faith we’re not really getting stopped,” Jackson said. “It’s just small, little things that we just need to clean up.”
Per ESPN Stats & Info, the Ravens were the first team to convert a fourth down in the first half that deep in their own territory since the 2012 Rams. Andrews nearly was stopped, too, which would have made for plenty of second-guessing in Baltimore all week.
“I told Mark, I said, ‘I’m going to push the s— out of you, so, they’ll be ready to get this work,’” Henry said. “He said, ‘I felt you.’ I said, ‘You’re damn right.’ I had to give him a shove for us to get it.”
The rest of the Ravens’ 212 rushing yards — they were the first group to ever eclipse 200 yards on the ground against a Jim Harbaugh-led team — came more conventionally. There was a lot of Henry left, Henry up the middle and Henry right. He didn’t score a touchdown in a game for the first time as a Raven, but he did rack up 140 yards and average 5.8 yards per tote.
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Ricard said the Ravens were basically just running the same running play over and over in the fourth quarter, albeit to different sides, because the Chargers were having so many problems stopping it.
It, however, was Justice Hill’s 51-yard touchdown sprint down the sideline that all but put the game away. The score gave the Ravens a 30-16 lead and finalized a stretch where Baltimore scored touchdowns on four of five drives.
Suddenly, the Ravens looked like the Ravens again. It all started with a bold fourth-down call and continued with them regaining their offensive identity: a few big plays in the passing game and a whole lot of productive runs.
“We just have to keep our foot on the gas,” Jackson said. “We can’t come up for air. We have to stay down and just stay locked in.”
(Photo of Rashod Bateman: Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
