The Baltimore Ravens lost their 2023 NFL Playoff opener in a nail-biter on the roadway versus the Cincinnati Bengals. That’s great; this was mostlikely neverever going to be a Super Bowl season for a flawed group.
But Sunday night’s defeat doesn’t simply end the group’s season. It will extend into 2023 — and what the Ravens do at quarterback next fall and beyond.
Lamar Jackson will be a totallyfree representative this spring. He didn’t play Sunday, which was anticipated; he’s been out consideringthat Week 13 due to a leg injury. He likewise didn’t even make the journey to Ohio which, while explainable, still appears uncommon. The leader of this group’s offense wasn’t even on the sideline? That definitely feels like a message about the group’s future at quarterback.
Whatever occurred on the sideline clearly faded in contrast to what occurred on the field. Tyler Huntley, playing togetherwith a diminished corps of targets such that Andy Isabella and James Proche had to be subbed onto the field in a desperation 4th quarter scoring drive, finished 17 of 29 passes for 226 backyards and 2 goals. He included 56 backyards on the ground and 4.6 points of anticipated worth as a passer.
He likewise tossed an interception and awkwardly led to at least a 10-point 4th quarter swing by trying to reach the ball over the objective line from almost 2 backyards out, leading to one of the mostconvenient fumbles Logan Wilson has ever required and a 98-yard Sam Hubbard goal.
NO WORDS.#BALatCIN | 📺 NBC pic.twitter.com/pAFTy1yqpS
— Cincinnati Bengals (@Bengals) January 16, 2023
There are 2 lenses through which this loss can be seen for the Ravens as they evaluate the future of their quarterback position. The veryfirst is that Lamar Jackson wouldn’t haveactually made that error and mostlikely would have won this videogame — much like he did when he dealtwith the Bengals back in Week 5. This is the view tailback JK Dobbins took after the videogame and, in sincerity, the one on which most objective observers would land.
J.K. Dobbins stated he’s wornout of not getting the ball, exhausted of being held back. Said Huntley oughtto have neverever been in that p