After their first offensive play last Sunday night the Baltimore Ravens appeared invincible. The opening handoff was to Derrick Henry and 87 yards later Baltimore had their first score enroute to a convincing 35-10 victory over the previously unbeaten Buffalo Bills.
Earlier that same day, another National Football Conference North Division team appeared challenged by the talent depleted Carolina Panthers at Bank of America Stadium. The Cincinnati Bengals did finally prevail over the Panthers for a road win over the team with the worst record in the league last season and only one victory in four starts this year, 34-24.
The result in Carolina last week was the Bengals first triumph of the year; the win by Baltimore evened their record at two wins against two losses. The way the Bengals played on Sunday one could imagine they had trouble in their three prior games against better competition, but how is it that the Ravens, who looked so dominant in their victory over Josh Allen and company, got beat twice to open their 2024 campaign?
It is all about motivation.
The Ravens opened in the toughest of all spots, against the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs at Arrowhead Stadium. In that game, the Chiefs and Ravens traded punches until a last play of the game produced what first appeared to be a touchdown that would have tied the game with a kicked extra point. Instead, Baltimore Head Coach John Harbaugh had already singled for the Ravens to go for the two-point conversion, win or lose the game by a point on that attempt.
But the replay showed Isaiah Likely’s toe was just on the white at the back of the endzone and the TD was not to be. No two-point conversion to decide the game, the Chiefs escaped with a 27-20 win. The Ravens left Kansas City confident they were good enough to beat the defending champs on their home field and certainly capable of dominating the Las Vegas Raiders in second week action in Baltimore.
It looked like that for much of the second week action at M&T Bank Stadium, but the Ravens allowed a couple ten-point leads to evaporate into a three-point home loss.
Now, with back-to-back defeats, the Ravens were looking down the gun-barrel of having only an 11% statistical chance of earning a postseason berth. That percentage is based on NFL teams that have advanced to the postseason after opening their campaigns with two losses.
Now the Ravens had to perform, a third straight loss and postseason hopes would be flickering like a candle in the wind.
With that motivational need, and a talented Dallas Cowboys squad on the road next on their schedule, Baltimore focused and got the job done. They returned home from Big D with their first win of the season. No time to relax, next on their schedule was the undefeated Buffalo Bills, and they would need a win here to get back into the thick of the playoff hunt.
Boom! Motivation against a quality opponent and the need to win resulted in the one-sided affair that had the Bills on their heels from the first play Lamar Jackson ran. Now, confident again that their preseason projections that had Baltimore one of the Super Bowl favorites were justified, the Ravens head to Cincinnati to meet a Bengals team struggling like an upside-down turtle.
The Bengals thought this would be a big year. Just three years removed from a Super Bowl appearance following a season in which they missed the playoffs while their elite quarterback, Joe Burrow, sat out the second half of the season with an injury, all pointed to good things this year for Zac Taylor’s team.
Then the season started.
A surprise opening day loss at home to the New England Patriots was followed two weeks ago with another home loss to the upstart Washington Commanders. Sandwiched between those two home defeats was a road contest against the Chiefs. In that game, the Bengals were within a late fourth down pass interference call of pinning Andy Reid's squad with their only loss of the season. But the late call led to a field goal and one point win for Kansas City, and a losing streak that would balloon to three games for the Bengals before last week’s win in Carolina.
So, what do we have here?
We’ve got a Baltimore team that responded to the need to win with a pair of victories after their opening losses. And we have a Bengals squad needing to win this week to avoid falling further back and buried at the bottom of the AFC North Division standings.
Did I tell you it’s all about motivation?
It is.
Qoxhi Picks: Cincinnati Bengals (+2½) over Baltimore Ravens