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Jamison Hensley, ESPN Staff Writer
BALTIMORE — The Ravens were in a predicament Thursday night against the Cincinnati Bengals, facing a 14-point deficit in the second half with a struggling defense.
So what gave them any hope of a comeback? Lamar Jackson is playing his best football ever.
Jackson produced the best fourth quarter of his career in leading the Ravens to a 35-34 victory. In recording a perfect 158.3 passer rating in the fourth quarter, he threw for 197 yards and three touchdowns — both personal highs in the fourth quarter — to record a season sweep of the Bengals and save the NFL’s worst pass defense once again.
It didn’t matter that the Ravens defense allowed 470 yards and five touchdowns. There was always a belief that Jackson was going to will Baltimore to victory.
“He’s special, but we’re like the little bros right now,” Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey said of the defense. “He’s carrying us.”
The reigning NFL Most Valuable Player had to shake off his worst start of the season. After throwing for 71 yards in the first half, Jackson began to click once Baltimore trailed 21-7 early in the third quarter.
Jackson threw touchdown passes of 84 yards to Tylan Wallace and 18 yards to Mark Andrews before connecting with Rashod Bateman for the winning, 5-yard score with 1:49 left.
Since 2021, Jackson has three wins when trailing by 14 or more points in the fourth quarter. That’s the most in the NFL over that span.
“He brings a different level of intensity and carries the team on his back week in and week out,” Andrews said. “And for us, again, it’s belief, it’s not quitting and understanding that we have the best player in the world on our team and we’re never out of it.”
It was only last month when Jackson rallied the Ravens from a 10-point deficit in the fourth quarter to deliver a 41-38 overtime win in Cincinnati. This extended Jackson’s dominance over the Bengals, improving his record to 10-1 against them.
Jackson also became the only player in NFL history with five touchdown passes and no interceptions in the fourth quarter against an opponent in a single season, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
“I just think he took that game on his shoulders like he does,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said.
The Ravens are 7-3 with the NFL’s No. 1 offense (440.2 yards per game) and the league’s No. 27 defense (367.9).
“I was telling my guys on the sideline, ‘We have to score. If they score, we have to score — that’s the type of game it’s going to be,'” Jackson said. “We’ve seen that from the first snap, but I’m proud of my guys because we finished [and] we came through.”
Baltimore plays at the Pittsburgh Steelers (6-2) on Nov. 17 in a battle for first place in the AFC North. If the Ravens get behind in that game, they know they can come back because of one reason.
“We’ve got Lamar Jackson,” Bateman said. “I [am not] going to lie to you — if [he’s] on the field we got a chance to win the game, period.”