• Playoff chances increase: The Ravens now have a 96% chance to make the playoffs, per PFF's power rankings.
• Odafe Oweh’s career year continues: The third-year edge defender registered a sack for the fourth time in five games.
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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes
The Baltimore Ravens moved to 8-3 with a win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Thursday Night Football in Week 11.
While the team increased its AFC North lead, star tight end Mark Andrews suffered a suspected season-ending injury.
Here are the five things we learned from the 34-20 victory.
Odafe Oweh remains on track for a career year
The 31st selection in the 2021 NFL Draft, Oweh had another nice night as a pass-rusher. He generated pressure on 35% of his pass-rushing snaps and produced a 28.6% pressure rate, registering a sack and six hurries.
He has now generated 31 total pressures from 172 pass-rushing snaps this season, and his 80.5 PFF pass-rushing grade is tied for the 16th-best mark in the NFL among edge defenders. His 20.3% pressure rate ranks fourth. While the Ravens' defensive scheme has rightly received a lot of praise, the 24-year-old Penn State product is coming into his own.
The Ravens are finding chunk plays everywhere
As they have grown more accustomed to Todd Monken’s offense, the Ravens are getting chunk plays out of most of their skill-position players. Both Keaton Mitchell and Gus Edwards broke off 20-plus-yard gains on the ground against Cincinnati, something they also accomplished in a win over the Seattle Seahawks. It also marked the third straight game that Mitchell had a 20-plus-yard run.
In the passing game, Odell Beckham Jr., Nelson Agholor and Zay Flowers each had 30-plus-yard receptions, and Flowers would have had a second big play had a dubious holding call on Beckham not negated a 68-yard touchdown on a screen pass. Unlike Ravens offenses of old, this team has some serious depth in both the run and pass games.
Mark Andrews‘ injury will require Isaiah Likely and Charlie Kolar to step up
Head coach John Harbaugh confirmed after the game that tight end Mark Andrews will likely miss the rest of the season after suffering a serious ankle on the opening drive against the Bengals. Replacing Andrews with one player is very unlikely, so this is where the depth of the Ravens' skill positions will be tested.
Backups Charlie Kolar and Isaiah Likely shared three targets after Andrews exited. Likely has impressed in the past, though he has just nine receptions for 89 yards so far this season. Kolar saw just his second target, and recorded his first reception, of the season, though he had a nice game at the end of last season against the Bengals on a limited workload.
Both players will see an uptick in usage, but the vacated target share will likely go more to the trio of Zay Flowers, Odell Beckham Jr. and Rashod Bateman down the stretch.
Patrick Queen struggles again
Patrick Queen, the 28th overall selection in the 2020 NFL Draft, endured a tough start to NFL life but looked to have put things together in the second half of the 2022 season and the first half of 2023. However, he has earned a 63.5 PFF grade or worse in his past five games, with just two games above 53.5.
His 53.3 PFF grade against the Bengals was his third-worst mark of the year, and his 41.4 PFF coverage grade was a season low. On the field for 36 coverage snaps, he allowed catches on all seven passes thrown into his coverage for 76 yards, both season highs. After missing just three tackles in the first six weeks of the season, Queen has missed 10 in the past five.
Playoff and AFC North expectations rise again
The win over the Bengals puts the Ravens at a 96% chance to make the playoffs and a 65% chance to win the AFC North ahead of the rest of the Week 11 slate, per PFF's power rankings. It also all but dashed the Bengals' hope of winning the AFC North for a third straight season, dropping them to just a 2 percent chance. Their chances to make the playoffs are now at 27%.
The Ravens have a tough final six-game stretch, with four games against teams ranked inside the top 13 of PFF’s power rankings. Their other two games come against the Los Angeles Rams and Pittsburgh Steelers. They likely need to win at least three of their remaining six games to feel comfortable about taking home the AFC North crown.
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