I don’t like always talking about my favorite team. I’m sorry, it was arguably the best game of the season complete with a weird lateral safety play at the end sending gamblers spinning, a professional athlete leaving his team in the height of the game to take a shit, Baker Mayfield owning the last few minutes of a game, Marquise Brown actually getting some separation; it had everything. The Browns came into this game on a tear, with only three losses on the season and none in their past four games. Their rushing attack led by Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt is completely unfair as both those guys legitimately could make claims as top ten running backs, a sporadically good defense led by DPOY candidate Myles Garrett and for once, a coach with some foresight and vision. The Ravens, after looking shaky early in the season, though pulling out wins, were on a skid, finally succumbing to COVID, injuries and lack of offensive ingenuity, something they’d been a vanguard for with their work with Jackson. But come on, it’s the Browns. I felt confident coming into this game with Lamar at least seemingly fully recovered from COVID and like I said, it’s still the Browns. They’ve sucked or not existed my whole life and the Ravens are literally the ex-girlfriend who married the guy way better than you and made two lovely children, though spaced apart, in 2000 and 2012.
Fortunately for those without a rooting interest, this game provided a back and forth key characteristic of great games, where regardless of the record each team is playing as hard and smart as the other. This game was our 2020 version of the Rams-Chiefs from two years ago that projected the future of football (this game wasn’t far behind in points) except that the amount of rushing touchdowns in this game (9) tied a record set twice in 1922. Innovation often looks to the past for lessons and both of these teams learned that smaller coverage based linebackers can’t handle Patrick Fucking Ricard or Nick Chubb hitting them on draw plays. Each team played on the whims of modern NFL offenses and the defenses that finally caught up by swinging the opposite direction, catching off guard the sheep, trendy defensive schemers of the NFL. The best part of each team’s modern take on three yards and a cloud of dust offenses is the much more enriching knowledge we as viewers have watching the line play and defense of each of these teams given our resources for knowledge. It’s intimately more interesting to be given the freedom to enjoy a game that also featured the highest total points total of the season (89), but also barely got over 500 passing yards total, something Patrick Mahomes threatens almost every week. It was a throwback game with each team’s offensive and defensive units putting the best of themselves (maybe not as much defense) out on the field. On defense, I really don’t think each defense failed like the Rams Chiefs game, the offensive talent both from a play calling and talent perspective were just in their perfect Platonic forms, not to be overcome by only sound defensive play calling and talent.
The teams traded blows throughout the first half, keeping pace with each other, with Baker Mayfield’s essentially pick six (the Ravens got the ball inside the 5 yard line) as the only real blemish in the game other than the shitload of penalties, some warranted, that were called against both teams. The Ravens had seemingly put the game out of reach towards the end of the third quarter at 34-20, but Baker came to cook last night and spent the first half of the fourth quarter doing a masterful job, like we thought he could two years ago, to put the Browns up by one point as Lamar Jackson left with reported cramps early in the fourth quarter. Trace McSorley, the severely underdeveloped Lamar clone, couldn’t get anything going offensively and with almost 2 minutes left, fell injured leaving the Ravens without a quarterback. Then, out of nowhere, Lamar came back on the field, like a fucking pro wrestler (maybe the Undertaker? I don’t follow wrestling) and promptly hit North Hollywood Brown for a long touchdown to take a 7 point lead with less than 2 minutes left. Now we were faced with Baker having to complete a comeback against a still very talented, though depleted Ravens team, something no one thought could happen. Then it did; Baker engineered a clinical drive, ending with a Kareem Hunt touchdown to tie the game, offset when both teams missed extra points earlier in the game. Just comical. It seemed a Lamar Jackson loss special, a player long maligned for his poor record coming back in games, something fair given his status as the MVP and as we all watch, possibly one of the five most dynamic quarterbacks ever. Lamar didn’t fail and put on his own clinic, completing intermediate passes in the last minute to set up the greatest kicker in NFL history with a 55 yard field goal, an exceedingly difficult kick for even Justin Tucker. He of course nailed it, because he’s clutch as fuck leaving 2 seconds the clock. I’d spent the last few minutes pissed that I’d have to wake up late tomorrow with an overtime game so I assumed things were done, struck by sheer glee that my team was still in the playoff race with a win. Then, because this game wouldn’t quit, we were treated to the reverse Miami Miracle as only the Browns could, taking a dump, pissing off/elating bettors as they took a safety. It was perfect.
I often believe these types of game say little about the teams playing them because it’s clear almost everyone there had an out of body experience for either the competent or incompetent. The Ravens defense has looked dominant at times this year, especially in the first outing of this season in this matchup, blanking the Browns for 6 points, but other than a colossal collapse against the Titans and a Chiefs game that was closer than the final score, only gave up more than 20 points three other times. We have seen this Browns game before against the Cowboys, but Baker wasn’t asked to do nearly the work he did last night, putting the team on his upper arm at least, still leaning on the run game, but still charged with winning the game in the last 2 minutes. Lamar, after definitely pooping a lot as his body recovered from COVID, played better than he has all year, throwing in a vintage rushing game, going for 124 yards on the ground with two touchdowns. He hasn’t ever really asserted himself either like he did last night, playing from behind, trading blows with a hot offense that had better skill position talent than he did. Again, these teams were the best version of themselves last night, something they haven’t been most of the season. I don’t feel worse about the Browns, I don’t feel better about the Ravens, I just know that last night, those teams went out there and gave us something weird and special that I’ll certainly never forget.
Bo's Gamut 