Chants of “MVP! MVP!” began to break out midway through the fourth quarter early Sunday evening at M&T Bank Stadium. Only they weren’t for the NFL’s reigning and two-time Most Valuable Player, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson.
In a possible Super Bowl preview and battle between Jackson and Eagles running back and NFL rushing leader Saquon Barkley, the latter delivered a knockout punch that would have made Rocky Balboa blush. With Philadelphia clinging to a 14-12 lead midway through the fourth quarter, the 27-year-old former New York Giants star who signed with the Eagles in the offseason finally broke Baltimore, galloping to a 25-yard touchdown run and sparking approval from the visiting faithful.
The Eagles went on to extend their winning streak to eight and improve to 10-2 with a 24-19 victory while the Ravens fell to 8-5 to drop further behind the first-place Pittsburgh Steelers in the battle for the AFC North. It was just Jackson’s second career loss to an NFC team, dropping his overall mark to 23-2.
A big part of the blame was Baltimore’s special teams, which was again a disaster.
Kicker Justin Tucker missed field goals from 53 and 47 yards, both in the third quarter, and an extra point. The Ravens also had three fumbles, including two on punt returns, though they recovered them all.
In the end, they couldn’t overcome the missed kicks — or Barkley.
The last time a running back won the MVP Award was in 2012 when former Minnesota Vikings star Adrian Peterson took home the honor. The Eagles’ standout bolstered his case, chewing up the Ravens’ stingy run defense by the chunk.
Baltimore entered the week second in rushing yards allowed (77.9) and first in yards per carry (3.5). But Barkley battered the Ravens with 107 yards and a touchdown on 23 carries with the visiting Philadelphia fans among the 71,344 making their presence known.
Jackson, meanwhile, was held to 23 of 36 passing for 237 yards and two touchdowns — the last of which came with three seconds left and the game well out of reach — and was sacked three times.
For the first 30 minutes, it was about as even as a game could be.
Baltimore owned the first quarter, Philadelphia the second and the Eagles led 14-12 at the half. Each team had 10 first downs, the Ravens had 169 yards to the Eagles’ 164, and both teams had 30 plays with the Ravens averaging 5.6 yards per play and the Eagles 5.5.
Though it didn’t look like it would go that way early on.
In the opening quarter, Hurts was just 1 of 5 passing for 5 yards with the Eagles managing a measly 22 total yards while Baltimore’s offense couldn’t be contained.
After Tucker staked Baltimore to an early 3-0 lead on a 34-yard field goal, the Ravens got rolling with Henry rumbling 16 yards on a screen then Flowers finding an open spot in the zone for another 20.
Following a 19-yard run by Henry, Jackson threw into a crowd in the back of the end zone, where Andrews wrestled it away for a 14-yard touchdown. The only thing that didn’t go right was Tucker missing the extra point, setting an ominous tone for the future Hall of Famer.
And the Ravens could only keep Hurts down so long.
He got rolling in the second quarter, and thus so did the Eagles. Hurts was 8 of 9 passing for 99 yards with a 17-yard touchdown pass to tight end Dallas Goedert and then gave Philadelphia the lead with a 1-yard scoring run, despite fumbling the snap from under center on Philadelphia’s tush push.
After struggling mightily, the Eagles rolled up 142 yards in the second quarter and cleaned up their penalties, too, with just one for 5 yards.
The Ravens, meanwhile, will be left to wonder what went wrong after an impressive start on Sunday and squandering a 9-0 lead. They’ll have plenty of time to think about it with a bye this week before they return to action against the Giants at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Dec. 15.
This article will be updated. Have a news tip? Contact Brian Wacker at bwacker@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/brianwacker1.
Week 15
Ravens at Giants
Sunday, Dec. 15, 1 p.m.
TV: CBS
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
