BALTIMORE — Facing his largest deficit in three years, Lamar Jackson led Baltimore back with another dazzling display.
He danced along the sideline on one scramble, turning a potential 20-yard loss into a 10-yard gain. He left his feet while throwing the winning touchdown pass, finding Rashod Bateman in the end zone with a flick of a wrist and a follow through that looked almost like a basketball player’s.
Jackson threw three fourth-quarter touchdown passes, and the Ravens stopped Cincinnati on a 2-point conversion with 38 seconds remaining to hold off the Bengals 35-34 on Thursday night. The Ravens rallied from a 21-7 third-quarter deficit, overcoming a huge game from Cincinnati receiver Ja’Marr Chase.
“It starts with Lamar, and oftentimes it ends with Lamar,” Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. “But in between Lamar and Lamar, there’s a lot of great players out there that are surrounding him. I think that’s kind of where our offense is at right now.”
Baltimore had 231 of its 389 total yards in the fourth quarter.
Chase finished with 11 catches for 264 yards and three touchdowns, including a 5-yarder in the final minute to bring the Bengals (4-6) within one. Cincinnati — which lost to Baltimore in overtime last month — decided to go for 2 and the lead, and Joe Burrow’s pass for Tanner Hudson sailed high.
“We had our opportunity,” Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. “We got down there, went for two and just didn’t work out for us. This team is going to continue to put us in good positions, and there’s going to be a point in the season where that turns.”
The 14-point deficit was the largest for Baltimore (7-3) since the finale of the 2022 regular season at Cincinnati — a game Jackson missed because of an injury. The last time the Ravens trailed by 14 with Jackson on the field was exactly three years earlier. On Nov. 7, 2021, Baltimore rallied from a 24-10 deficit to beat Minnesota 34-31.
Cincinnati actually had the ball while up 14 in the third, but a fumble by Chase Brown gave the Ravens a short field, and a nifty scramble along the sideline by Jackson set up Derrick Henry’s 1-yard touchdown run. With the ball at the 11, Jackson dropped back and retreated all the way to the 30 before outrunning a couple rushers to the sideline, turning upfield and managing to stay in bounds all the way to the 1.
“Just trying to make something happen. That’s all that was,” Jackson said. “I was going to throw the ball away, but when I turned I had room.”
In the fourth, Tylan Wallace turned a short pass into an 84-yard touchdown, barely staying inbounds himself as a couple of Cincinnati defenders failed to stop him. Justin Tucker missed the extra point, but the Ravens were within one.