Halfway through the season, the Baltimore Ravens are officially in the driver?s seat for the AFC North.
The Ravens put the Cincinnati Bengals two games in the rear view mirror, after beating their division foe, 26-20, before 70,792 fans at M&T Bank Stadium.
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“You pick your head up halfway through and say ?Okay, we control our own destiny.? That?s all you can really ask for,” Ravens linebacker Adalius Thomas said. “We?ve got to our head back down. We?ve got a tough opponent coming up in Tennessee.”
In their eighth game of the season, the Ravens looked like a serious playoff contender, improving to 6-2 on the season. The Bengals are 4-4.
The game opened with the Bengals? Chris Perry fumbling the kickoff.
The Ravens converted the turnover less than three minutes later when running back Jamal Lewis scored his first touchdown since the opening series of the season.
“We came out and executed well up front and we knew what to expect,” Lewis said.
Just two minutes later, the Ravens scored again when cornerback Samari Rolle intercepted a Carson Palmer pass and handed the ball off to safety Ed Reed. Reed ran 20 yards for the touchdown.
Palmer was held in check by a heavily criticized Baltimore secondary. Palmer connected on just 12-of-26 passes for 195 yards. One of those passes was a 71-yard strike to Chris Henry.
“It?s a long season, we have a secondary that we knew could make plays when we?re supposed to,” Reed said.
The Ravens were able to stretch their lead to 17-0 during the second quarter, thanks to the first of four Matt Stover field goals.
Stover has now successfully connected on 34 consecutive field goals, but almost had his streak snapped during his third 25-yard attempt. The ball ricocheted off the left bar of the field goal post before going through.
“I know that early leads don?t mean squat,” Stover, a 17-year veteran, said. “That means there?s a lot of time left, especially with an offense that has Palmer and (Bengals head coach) Marvin Lewis, and the way he gets that team going as you saw.”
Stover was right. The Bengals cut the lead to 17-7 in the first half with a Palmer touchdown pass to T.J. Houshmandzadeh.
Eventually, the Bengals were in position to attempt to win the game in the second half, thanks to a Rudi Johnson four-yard touchdown run and two Scott Graham field goals.
Still, the Bengals turned the ball over on downs with less than two minutes remaining in the contest, giving the Ravens breathing room.
“You know I think we?re sitting where we need to sit,” Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis said.
Ravens head coach Brian Billick said the importance of the win could not be understated.
“[It is a] huge win, huge win for us in the division,” Billick said. “We?re 6-2. It puts us in a position to go forward and do some good things.”
