Ravens Have Staggering 4th Quarter Collapse in Loss to Dolphins
BALTIMORE — The game couldn't have started any better for the Ravens when Pro-Bowler Devin Duvernay returned the opening kickoff 103 yards for a touchdown against the Miami Dolphins.
However, Baltimore had a monumental collapse in the fourth quarter, giving up four touchdown passes, including two long strikes from Tua Tagovailoa to Tyreek Hill, that allowed Miami to tie the score.
Tagovailoa's sixth touchdown pass of the game, a 7-yard pass to Jaylen Waddle, with 14 seconds left gave the Dolphins an improbable 42-38 victory.
It was the largest blown lead in Ravens franchise history.
"I told the guys in the locker room, ‘How we respond to this, that will be the story.’ We have a 17-game season, this is the second week of the season," coach John Harbaugh said. "What we do from here on out, everyone taking a hard look at what we did; coaches, players, everyone. Calls that we made, plays that we made, plays that we didn’t make, and let’s come out of here a better football team for it and get to work and get ready for the next game against New England in New England."
The Ravens wasted another dominant performance by Lamar Jackson, who threw for 318 yards with three touchdowns and had a career-high 79-yard scoring run. He finished 119 yards rushing and set an NFL record for games with 100 or more rushing yards for quarterbacks at 11.
“It’s not the Ravens of the past no more," Jackson said. "This is the NFL; it’s a new era. We’ve got to play ball. We’ve got to know that if the passing is working, we’ve got to keep passing it – if we’re doing it. We had some success running the ball, because we did score on the long one – we aren’t going to say that – but we’ve just got to finish. That’s the main thing, because we were up. We’ve just got to finish, man – all phases.”
The Ravens led 35-14 after three quarters before the Dolphins rallied.
Tagovailoa threw a short touchdown pass to River Cracraft and then hit Tyreek Hill for a 48-yard bomb that made it a one-score game.
Tagovailoa then found Hill for another 60-yard touchdown pass that tied the game 35-35 with 5:19 left in the game.
Tucker hit a 51-yard field goal allowing Baltimore to retake the lead 38-35 with just over two minutes remaining.
That was not enough as Miami answered with the winning touchdown.
Tagovailoa threw for a staggering 469 yards with the six touchdowns and two interceptions. He joined Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks in franchise history with at least 400 passing yards and five passing touchdowns in a single game.
Hill caught 11 passes for 190 yards with two touchdowns.
Waddle also had 11 receptions for 171 yards with two scores.
Rashod Bateman caught four passes for a career-high 108 yards with a long touchdown.
Ravens safety Marcus Williams had two interceptions and he now has three in two games.
The Ravens were 53-0 when leading by 21 or more points over the past 20 seasons, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
After Duvernay ran back the opening kickoff, the Ravens put together an 18-play, 10:52 drive but failed to score from the 1-yard line four consecutive times. A bad snap by center Tyler Linderbaum to Jackson on fourth down killed the drive.
That was the Ravens' longest drive since at least 2001 and tied for their longest by plays, according to @Stathead
That proved costly as the Dolphins moved the ball with a 59-yard gain on a pass from Tagovailoa to Waddle. The two hooked up again for a 6-yard pass that tied the game 7-7 with 10:54 left in the half.
Jackson made up for the offense's previous gaffe by throwing a 75-yard touchdown to Bateman to regain the lead.
Jackson ran for 19 yards and threw a 25-yard pass to tight end Mark Andrews that gave the Ravens the ball at Miami 1. This time, there were no mistakes and Jackson threw a short pass to Andrews for a 21-7 lead.
Williams' second interception led to a 12-yard touchdown pass from Jackson to Demarcus Robinson, boosting the margin to 28-7 at the half.
The Ravens dropped more defenders back with the big lead to start the second half. Miami took advantage and put together a 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive capped by a 14-yard pass from Tagovailoa to Mike Gesicki that pulled cut the score to 28-14.
However, Jackson broke a 79-scoring run that seemingly put the game out of reach, but the Dolphins rallied.
