Bengals Loss Might be Blessing in Disguise For Ravens

Winning is the ultimate goal across all sports. In team sports, it's often a cure-all, but it can also mask deficiencies and inconsistencies that could be costly down the road and prevent a team from reaching its full potential, because doing just enough in areas that need improvement the most was enough to get by.

The Baltimore Ravens came into the 2025 season as the most hyped up team in the NFL after assembling what many believed was the league's deepest on both sides of the ball. Following a surprisingly horrendous 1-5 start, the perennial playoff team clawed its way out of the abyss and rattled off five straight wins to get above .500 for the first time heading into their Week 13 AFC North matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals on Thanksgiving in primetime.

During their win streak, and especially since two-time league-winning quarterback Lamar Jackson returned to the lineup after missing three games with a hamstring strain, the offense wasn't the lethal juggernaut that had become expected during his era as the face of the franchise.

They struggled to sustain drives, capitalize in the red zone, convert in short-yardage, and the passing game was out of sync, with Jackson clearly still physically compromised and unable to threaten opposing defenses in the same dynamic ways.

A significant silver lining that allowed the other two phases of the game to propel them to victory was that they at least took care of the ball while their special teams won the battle for field position, and their revamped defense was busy giving extra chances to score points, forcing a turnover ratio of 10-3.

Going up against their lowly rivals who were clinging to a sliver of hope to stay alive in the playoff hunt, the Ravens' flaws on the offensive side of the ball proved to be fatal and were compounded by an historical outlier amount of turnovers with 5 in a stunning 32-14 home loss to the Bengals.

The greatest lessons are often learned in the wake of the most embarrassing and sometimes devastating defeats. It allows teams and individuals alike to take a step back and analyze what went wrong and come to the realization that the status quo is not good enough to operate at peak performance and emerge victorious in the situations that matter the most, such as the playoffs and big divisional matchups.

After the tragic comedy of errors that led to their demise against Cincinnati, the Ravens might've gotten the wakeup call on offense that they were desperately in need of. Even after winning their fifth straight over the New York Jets in Week 12, multiple leaders on that side of the ball admitted that the way they were playing would likely not lead them to realizing their ultimate goal of bringing home the franchise's third Super Bowl.

Ball security issues spelled doom for the Ravens during their rough start to the regular season and appeared to be in the rearview for a while before rearing their ugly heads against the Bengals, with four of their five turnovers being fumbles. The most pivotal was the one that occurred short of the goal line that resulted in a touchback instead of a touchdown.

Although winning in spite of mistakes is always preferred, the manner in which the Ravens' many blunders unfolded and snowballed will serve as a painful and somewhat timely reminder about how they need to be dialed in on the attention to details on both the macro and micro levels with five weeks left to play.

Get ready to witness a locked in and motivated Lamar Jackson

As bad as the turnovers were, three of which the three-time All Pro star signal caller, his performance as a passer against the Bengals, when it came to being inaccurate and indecisive with his decision-making, was one of the worst of his career. In his postgame press conference, Jackson admitted to being bewildered by the poor showing and is determined to rebound from it.

"I just have to be more consistent," Jackson said. "I have to make those throws. I don't miss them in practice, so I shouldn't be missing them in the game."

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) practices before a game against the Cincinnati Bengals at M&T Bank Stadium. — Nov 27, 2025; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson (8) practices before the game at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images | Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images

Even though his overall rushing total of 27 yards against the Bengals was still significantly lower than his career per game average of 57.5 yards, Jackson looked more mobile, nimble and explosive as a runner than he had since before his injury. If he can begin threatening opposing defenses again with his legs in addition to getting back to being his usual elite passing prowess, the Ravens offense could take off down the final stretch of the season.

In the aftermath of his lowest point of the season in a game where he didn't leave with injury, some pundits have questioned his ability to as close to his pre-injury form as possible. He recently responded on social media to a post by a Pittsburgh Steelers radio host about him being overrated with the phrase "Sayless," that was followed by a laughing emoji.

Sayless🤣
— Lamar Jackson (@Lj_era8) November 29, 2025

A pissed off Jackson, who is getting healthy at the right time and motivated to silence his critics again, can go on an absolute tear to close out the regular season. He could have the Ravens looking like one of the scariest teams in the league heading into the playoffs.

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