BALTIMORE (AP) — Baltimore has climbed all the way out of its hole, even if this season still looks laborious for Lamar Jackson, Derrick Henry and the rest of the Ravens.
Henry scored two third-quarter touchdowns and the Ravens recovered from a sleepy first half to beat the New York Jets 23-10 on Sunday for their fifth straight victory. Baltimore has gone from 1-5 to 6-5, and Pittsburgh's loss to Chicago left the Ravens in a first-place tie with the Steelers in the AFC North.
“It feels great, but it's halfway done. It's not over,” Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said. “Season's not over.”
It wasn't a terribly convincing performance by the Ravens, who have struggled to beat the Browns and Jets (2-9) the past two weekends. Jackson went 13 of 23 for 153 yards and didn't look as mobile as usual after dealing with knee and ankle issues recently. Henry was held to 64 yards on 21 carries.
“Some missed opportunities,” Jackson said. “Weaknesses in the defense, I feel like we should have taken advantage of that. We just didn't.”
The Jets led 7-3 at halftime, their first lead after two quarters since the season opener against Pittsburgh. Baltimore appeared headed for a three-and-out to start the third quarter when a pass interference penalty on Isaiah Oliver gave the Ravens a 34-yard gain on third-and-15. That led to Henry's 2-yard scoring run that put Baltimore ahead to stay.
Jets coach Aaron Glenn opted to go for it on fourth-and-2 from New York's 42, but Tyrod Taylor — starting for the benched Justin Fields — threw incomplete. Then a pass interference call on Tony Adams on another third down gave the Ravens the ball at the 3.
“I just think the refs are looking at our guys, just in general,” Glenn said. “Before every game, you know, they come and talk to both head coaches, and it just seems like, man, they’re looking at some of those calls. And I think you know for the most part, sometimes those calls are questionable calls, in my opinion.”
Although the Ravens continued having problems in the red zone, they finally opened a big enough hole for Henry to walk in on fourth-and-goal from the 2 to make it 17-7.
After an exchange of field goals, a 40-yard catch-and-run by Breece Hall helped set the Jets up in the red zone. But at the end of another shifty run, Hall fumbled and the Ravens took over on their own 3.
The loss clinched the Jets' 10th straight losing season.
“It defnitely stings. I hate losing. This locker room hates losing. Those guys battled their tails off,” Taylor said. “Just being efficient consistently, consistently going out there and doing the right things, I think we took a step in that direction today. We just didn’t finish it.”
The 36-year-old Taylor, making just his 17th start over the last eight seasons, threw for 222 yards with a touchdown and a late interception against the team that took him in the sixth round in the 2011 draft.
Baltimore managed only two first downs on its first three possessions. Taylor's 13-yard touchdown pass to John Metchie III gave the Jets a 7-0 lead in the second quarter.
Henry had a realistic chance to pass four Hall of Famers on the career rushing list Sunday. He managed to move ahead of three of them. Henry is up to 12,294 yards, 12th all-time after surpassing Marcus Allen (12,243), Edgerrin James (12,246) and Marshall Faulk (12,279) on Sunday.
Jim Brown is next at 12,312.
One Baltimore player who had a sensational game was Jordan Stout, whose four punts went for 56, 49, 74 and 67 yards. His final effort bounced out of bounds at the 5.
“That kept us in the game, probably, because we were backed up field position-wise,” Harbaugh said. “Then our punt team would bail us out. ... That punt at the end of the game was unbelievable.”
Hall had 75 yards on four receptions while also rushing for 44 yards, but he allowed Marlon Humphrey to rip the ball away from him for the game's biggest turnover.
“I'm not going to be perfect, he's not going to be perfect, no one on that field is going to be,” Taylor said. “That's my brother and I'm going to pick him up when I see he's down. I know that he's going to do the same thing if it was vice versa, so I just want to put him in a good spirit, let him now that at some point again we're going to need you.”
Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton hobbled off with an apparent foot issue in the fourth quarter, although Harbaugh said it wasn't serious. Defensive lineman Taven Bryan also left with an injury for Baltimore.
Jets: Host Atlanta next Sunday.
Ravens: Host Cincinnati on Thursday night.
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