The Baltimore Ravens (5-2) continue their dominant start to the 2024 season, stifling a hot Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-3) team by edging out a 41-31 victory on the road. At 5-2, the Ravens enter a tie with the Pittsburgh Steelers atop the AFC North and a four-way tie with the Houston Texans and Buffalo Bills behind the Kansas City Chiefs in the race for the AFC’s top seed.
In a game plagued by injuries, however, the Bucs saw wide receiver Chris Godwin go down on the final drive of the game. Godwin sustained an ankle injury and was carted off the field.
Bucs coach Todd Bowles said postgame that early indication of Godwin’s injury is a dislocated ankle and that it “doesn’t look good.”
Bucs WR Chris Godwin was carted off the field with 43 seconds left in the game. pic.twitter.com/6Ip0ikHdGZ
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 22, 2024
The Buccaneers started the game off strong, with Baker Mayfield orchestrating a drive that ended in Mike Evans’ 100th career receiving touchdown. Evans became the 11th player in NFL history to hit 100 receiving touchdowns and the fifth to catch all 100 with the same team.
That’s where the run ended for Tampa Bay. On their third drive of the game, Evans went down with a hamstring injury while losing track of a pass in the end zone and was ruled out of the game. Three plays later, Marlon Humphrey picked off Mayfield in the end zone to regain possession for the Ravens an another pick on the ensuing drive gave the CB his first career multi-interception game.
It was all about the Ravens offense from there.
Jackson finished the night with his fifth career game of at least five passing touchdowns. Since entering the league in 2018, only Patrick Mahomes (six) has more. Derrick Henry finished the night with 169 rushing yards on 15 carries and tacked on a 13-yard touchdown reception for good measure. Rashod Bateman led the team with a career-best 121 receiving yards, while Mark Andrews’ two-touchdown performance put him in sole possession of the Ravens’ franchise receiving touchdown record.
While Tampa Bay clawed back to bring the game within 10 points, recovering an offside kick to score touchdowns on back-to-back drives, the comeback was cut short.
The Ravens offense has never been this good
Lamar Jackson, Henry and others spent all week downplaying questions about how well the Baltimore offense was playing. They insisted there was another level that the Ravens could get to if they just cut down the mistakes they were making. The Ravens still made a litany of mistakes Monday, but in scoring 34 unanswered points, they also reached a new level.
Jackson was terrific in throwing for five touchdown passes. Shut down early, Henry got going in the second half and finished with 169 yards rushing and also caught a 13-yard touchdown pass. The Ravens have an ability to attack teams in so many different ways and nobody is playing the quarterback position better than Jackson is right now. — Jeff Zrebiec, Ravens beat writer
Losing Marlon Humphrey would be huge blow for Ravens
The Ravens secondary struggled for most of the season, but Humphrey’s return to form after an injury-plagued 2023 season has been a positive.
Humphrey was in the middle of the first multi-interception game of his career when he sustained a knee injury. He left the game late in the second quarter and did not return. Rookie first-round pick Nate Wiggins stepped in for Humphrey. The Ravens do have some cornerback depth and they should get veteran Arthur Maulet back this week, but Humphrey would be a hard guy to replace. — Zrebiec
Bucs struggled to recover from Mike Evans’ departure
Mayfield and the Buccaneers offense were rolling. Mayfield hit Evans for a touchdown on their first drive. On the second drive, the Buccaneers had a touchdown called back on a holding penalty, but settled for a field goal. The Buccaneers were in the process of scoring on a third consecutive possession, when Evans went down in the back of the end zone. He aggravated a hamstring injury and had to leave the game. Mayfield’s next pass was intercepted. In fact, two of his next four pass attempts were picked off.
Evans wasn’t going to help the Buccaneers chase Jackson or tackle Henry, but the game got away from Tampa after Evans went down. — Zrebiec
(Photo: Julio Aguilar / Getty Images)
