The Baltimore Ravens had little good news after their awful 35-13 Week 7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals.
Baltimore allowed all 35 points in the second half. The Ravens’ offense did not fare any better, failing to score a point in the final 30 minutes.
Fingers are pointing in all directions for the Ravens as everyone tries to figure out who to blame for the loss. What caught a lot of people’s attention, though, was one Baltimore player being called out for a defining play.
Baltimore Ravens CB Called Out By Ja’Marr Chase in the Loss
In the fourth quarter, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow connected with wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase for a two-yard touchdown to make it 28-13. Ravens cornerback Nate Wiggins was on coverage.
After the game, a reporter asked Chase about the touchdown catch. He got honest about how badly Wiggins got beat on it.
“That was man. What about it? He got killed, he got killed. It don’t matter.”
The Ravens’ secondary had a bad game overall, allowing 292 yards and 4 touchdowns in the loss. Wiggins finished with 4 tackles and 1 pass deflection, but struggled in coverage with the rest of the corners.
This season, Wiggins has racked up 22 tackles, 4 pass deflections, and 1 tackle for loss. He has allowed 21 completions and a 103.3 passer rating.
Pro Football Focus grades him 62.6 overall, ranking him 48th out of 103 eligible cornerbacks. He also has a coverage grade of 61.7 (ranked 53rd) and a run-defense grade of 64.4 (ranked 47th).
Ravens Must Bounce Back After Another Second-Half Collapse
That loss was just the latest in 18 losses since 2018 in which the Ravens blew double-digit leads at halftime. Ravens head coach Jesse Minter shared his message with the team after the game.
“You know, the message is that I think in every game we’ve proven that we’re good enough to be the type of team that we want to be, and we’ve proven that we’re bad enough to be not a very good team as well. So there’s a consistency level that we need to find where it’s, where it’s less riding the wave of momentum and more about staying even keel and finding a way to have each other’s back and finding a way to pick each other up. You can look at really all three phases in the second half of completely momentum-losing type of plays. And so that is what it is. In the first half, I thought there was really some good in all three phases. And then again, some, some opportunities where it’s where you can create even more that I didn’t— that we didn’t take advantage of. And then in the second half, it was just we let the game kind of snowball on us once it got going. And obviously we’ve got to find a way for that not to happen.”
The Ravens have to refocus on the Buffalo Bills in Week 8. They will need Wiggins and Marlon Humphrey to step up in the secondary against one of the best offenses in the NFL.
Ja’Marr Chase Put Ravens First-Round Pick on Blast After Epic Second-Half Collapse