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This matchup was often an overlooked one in the AFC North, but that didn't apply to the 2021 iteration of the bout, and the Cincinnati Bengals sent a powerful message in their 41-17 pummeling of their AFC North rival in Week 7. Lamar Jackson had the Baltimore Ravens again in contention for a Super Bowl, and were sitting at 5-1 on the season and setting league records in the process, while Joe Burrow and his former LSU teammate Ja'Marr Chase ignited their reunion at the NFL level by putting the rest of the division on notice that the Cincinnati Bengals would not be ignored -- entering the matchup at 4-2 and only one game back of the Ravens.
And then football happened. By stealing the upset on the road, the Bengals moved the Ravens aside to claim the top spot in the division. It's also the manner in which they did it, because a game that began as a drag-out fight ended with the Ravens bloodied, beaten and unsure of how to spell their own name. They'll remember this game for the rest of the season, because they haven't been dominated like this by the Bengals literally ever.
Jackson had never lost as a starter to the Bengals, and never in the month of October. Both of those things changed on Sunday.
Why the Bengals won
It wasn't an easy go for either offense for much of the first half, which is a nod to just how lights-out both defenses were to begin the fight. In a game pegged as a potential barn burner, neither Burrow nor Jackson were able to get going -- the clubs mustering only one field goal a piece and looking wholly out of sorts offensively, that was until Burrow drew first blood with a 55-yard touchdown pass to tight end C.J. Uzomah to regain the lead. It suddenly became a heavyweight bout with Burrow and Jackson throwing and countering haymakers from the middle of the second quarter onward. But with another explosive game from Chase, it felt more and more like it was the Bengals' game to lose.
Chase went ballistic on the Ravens en route to a career-high 201 receiving yards and one TD on eight catches and, at one point in the fourth quarter, he was responsible for more than half of the Bengals' total yardage in the game. By the time running back Joe Mixon, who had been bottled up for much of the game, delivered a 21-yard touchdown to make it a 34-17 game with under 10 minutes to play, the Bengals made it clear they intended to take the top spot in the AFC North by punching the Ravens into submission; and it was fitting they saw Uzomah add two touchdowns to the mix on National Tight Ends Day.
Toss in a 46-yard uppercut by Samaje Perine in the waning minutes of the fourth quarter and message received: the Bengals are the real deal in 2021.
Why the Ravens lost
Jackson is still Jackson, and that means the Ravens weren't going down without a fight. He's come back from more than a seven-point deficit to steal a win already this season -- just ask the Indianapolis Colts -- as the former league MVP answered Burrow's aforementioned second-quarter bomb to Chase with a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown drive of his own to again knot things up ahead of halftime, before seeing Chase wake up with under two minutes remaining in the second quarter, and the problem for the Ravens was they couldn't figure out how to put him back to sleep.
The Bengals were able to ride Chase to field goal range before tacking on another three points, retaking the lead going into halftime, but the Ravens answered with a 39-yard touchdown from Jackson to Marquise "Hollywood" Brown to grab the lead in a tug-of-war stretch of football, but it was all Burrow and Co. from that point forward. They had no answer for Uzomah or Chase in the passing game orchestrated by Burrow, and when they began focusing solely on them, Mixon made them remember he's capable of impacting games as well. The hits came from every possible direction, including defensively, as the Ravens did all they could before heading to the locker room with a noticeable black eye -- courtesy of a Bengals team that isn't what they once were.
On their own field, they were outclassed by a team that refuses to continue being the laughingstock of the division.
Turning point
Uzomah had a day against the Ravens, and his second touchdown not only gave the Bengals a 20-17 lead, it did something much more important. It showed the Ravens there wasn't a punch they could throw that would TKO the Bengals, with the latter never losing the lead again in the game.
Play of the game
The two teams were exchanging punches at a feverish pace, but with a three-point lead in their grasp, the Bengals looked to Chase to blow the roof off of M&T Stadium, and he did just that -- catching a pass from Burrow and bursting forward for an 82-yard touchdown that gave Cincinnati a 17-point lead it would never look back from.
Cinci is the real deal
"It's a new day in Cincinnati." -- CBS Sports NFL insider Jonathan Jones
What's next
The Bengals will visit the hapless New York Jets while the Ravens enter their bye week looking to reload.
