Browns-Ravens, Bengals-Steelers: What We Learned from Baltimore's, Cincinnati's wins

FULL BOX SCORE

• REWATCH: Browns-Ravens on NFL+ Premium
• READ: Ravens clinch AFC North, No. 3 seed with win
• READ: Ravens DT Pierce explains no INT return attempt: 'The bus was out of gas'
• READ: Browns fire OC Dorsey, plan to return HC Stefanski for 2025 season

1. MVP again for Lamar? With one final regular-season chance to show why he deserves a second-consecutive and third overall MVP award, Lamar Jackson balled out to lead his team to victory on Saturday. As he has all season, Jackson dominated his opponents through the air and on the ground, seamlessly transitioning between passer extraordinaire to dynamic ball-carrier when the situation called for it. Multiple times Jackson turned what seemed to be dead plays into big gains, breaking tackles and taking hits when necessary to get yardage. And in the pass game Jackson spread the ball around the field, throwing almost indefensible balls to Mark Andrews in tight coverage for a 12-yard touchdown pass and later a 30-yard gain to set up another score to Rashod Bateman two plays later. With his final stat line of 63 yards rushing and 217 passing with two TDs, Jackson’s season-long efforts were rewarded as he officially became the first player in history to have 4,000-plus passing yards and 900-plus rush yards in the same season. He is also the only player to finish a season with 40-plus passing touchdowns while throwing fewer than five interceptions (41-4 TD-INT ratio), and has the fourth-highest passer rating (119.6) of any QB in a season all-time, per NFL Research. Not a bad résumé to present to MVP voters.
2. Browns go out with a whimper, not a bang. It’s been a long and frustrating season for Cleveland, and that campaign ended unceremoniously on a Saturday afternoon in Baltimore. As expected, the Browns split snaps between Bailey Zappe and Dorian Thompson-Robinson, with the former spending the majority of the time on the field. But neither of these backups was able to seize the opportunity, instead falling flat on the big stage. Zappe had a bad interception on his first drive when Nate Wiggins jumped in front of Elijah Moore and ran it back for six, and Cleveland was only able to muster a field goal through the next six drives, missing opportunities for big gains and accumulating only 56 yards on the ground. Meanwhile, Myles Garrett, who came into the game tied with the Bengals’ Trey Hendrickson atop the sack leaderboard, was held out of the backfield almost entirely, recording just two tackles, one for loss, on a quiet afternoon. The one consolation prize from the Browns’ 14th loss of the year? They’re now assured of receiving a top-three pick in this spring’s draft as questions now begin as to what needs to change in Cleveland to turn things around.
3. Ravens done with regular season, turn toward playoffs. With Saturday’s win the Ravens officially have clinched the AFC North and home-field advantage for at least Super Wild Card Weekend as the No. 3 seed. And as the calendar turns to the new year and Baltimore sets its sights on what it hopes can be a deep postseason run, the Ravens seem to be playing some of their best football the past few weeks. The defense continued its impressive second-half turnaround on Saturday, limiting Cleveland’s shorthanded offense to just 230 total yards, the Browns' worst output since Week 5 and tied for third-lowest of the season. Rookie cornerback Nate Wiggins put the Ravens on the board first with a pick-six, his first career interception, and an improbable interception by defensive tackle Michael Pierce closed the door late in the game. Kyle Van Noy finished his season with one more sack for a team-leading 12.5 total -- earning him a $250,000 bonus in the process -- as part of what has been the No. 2 defense in that category. On offense, Lamar Jackson was his usual impressive self, and after a slow start in the first half (eight yards on six carries) Derrick Henry rumbled for 130 yards and a pair of touchdowns in the final two quarters for his ninth game this year with 100-plus rush yards. The Ravens will have to monitor Zay Flowers' knee injury moving forward -- an MRI is scheduled for Sunday -- but the team is otherwise in relatively good shape injury-wise despite needing to play starters in the final week to clinch the division. It’s been a long regular season, but the Ravens are rounding into form at just the right time as they get set to begin their Super Bowl quest.

Next Gen Stats Insight for Browns-Ravens (via NFL Pro): Lamar Jackson went 5-of-8 passing for 67 yards and a touchdown when targeting a receiver with at least five yards of target separation, adding to his league-leading 13 touchdown passes to wide-open receivers this season.

NFL Research: With his 138 yards on the ground, Derrick Henry became the first player in NFL history with multiple seasons of 1,900-plus rush yards, having finished the year with a total of 1,921. In addition, with his two touchdowns versus the Browns, Henry is now tied with Hall of Famer Jim Brown for sixth all-time in career rushing touchdowns with 106.

FULL BOX SCORE

• REWATCH: Bengals-Steelers on NFL+ Premium
• READ: Bengals' Taylor: Teams aren’t ‘going to want us’ in playoffs

1. Bengals stay alive despite struggles. Based on the Bengals’ first drive of the evening, in which Joe Burrow completed all six of his passes and the offense never stopped moving forward, one would hope that Saturday’s game might be chock full of solid offensive play from Cincinnati, and possibly a high score to reflect that. But after that possession, movement slowed down significantly as pressure from the Steelers’ defensive front did its job. The Bengals did not find the end zone again, with the next few drives stymied by sacks, a fumble, a turnover on downs and an interception. They had four field goal drives to just stay above the Steelers’ own low points total, but there were opportunities for more that were lost. That included a field goal in the third quarter after Burrow took a hard third-down sack from the Pittsburgh 5-yard line. In the end, the quartet of field goals and outstanding play from the defense late in the game -- led by Trey Hendrickson's 3.5 sacks to add to his league-leading total of 17.5 -- was enough to just outlast the Steelers and keep the Bengals' playoffs dream alive at least one more day. But it was much closer than it needed to be, and not the sort of game they’ll want to play in the postseason, if they make it in.
2. Pittsburgh still needs answers on offense. The Steelers defense held Joe Burrow in check as long as it could, but for the fourth week in a row, it was the Pittsburgh offense that dragged this team down, extending their losing streak to four games. When they tried to get yards through the air, it largely resulted in short passes, off-target misses or occasional drops, including a huge missed connection with George Pickens with under 30 seconds remaining and a fourth-down ball that bounced off the hands of Pat Freiermuth on the final offensive play. When the Steelers leaned on the run, it wasn’t necessarily any more successful, either. While the combo of Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren was able to get Pittsburgh into the end zone in the second quarter, their 37 rush yards on that drive were half of the team’s total on the day. Perhaps the most obvious indictment of the Steelers’ struggles to get the ball moving came at the end of the first half, when the offense faced third-and-1 and then fourth-and-1 situations with a chance to get into field goal range to score before the break. But twice they couldn’t get that one yard, and it ended up being Cincinnati that got a last-minute FG on the ensuing drive, a six-point swing that could have made the difference. Speaking in a halftime interview, head coach Mike Tomlin said that if they couldn’t get one yard, they didn’t deserve to win. And in the end, they didn’t. Saturday’s outcome leaves this Steelers group with the same questions as to how to resolve these long-standing issues before they face their first postseason opponent in just a week on the road.
3. Chase extends lead in triple-crown chase. There’s still games to be played Sunday, and multiple players will have their chances to put together impressive performances of their own before all is said and done in the final week of the regular season. But based on his Saturday performance, Ja'Marr Chase's chances of celebrating a triple crown by the end of the weekend seem to be right on track. Considering that Tee Higgins, who had been nursing knee and ankle injuries, had to exit the game part way through the third quarter, Chase became even more of a comfort target for Burrow as the game went on, including hauling in a twirling toe-tapping grab for 19 yards to extend the field goal drive that eventually won the Bengals the game. The wideout finished his evening with 10 receptions for 96 yards and a touchdown, bringing his season totals to 127 receptions for 1,708 yards and 17 touchdowns. He was already leading the league in all three categories heading into Week 18, and now any challengers will have to overcome one of those figures if they want to take away the crown. For what it’s worth, even for the players who are closest to catching Chase, they would need 18 catches, 229 yards or five touchdowns in one game to even tie Chase in one of the categories. The Bengals will have to wait until Sunday's games conclude to be sure of Chase’s accomplishment -- and of whether they will be heading to the playoffs or if Saturday marked the end of their season. But whenever the campaign finishes and attention turns to preparing for the next season, the Bengals brass will have to contend with how much to pay Chase in a much-deserved extension, a price that has only gotten higher with the wideout’s career year.

Next Gen Stats Insight for Bengals-Steelers (via NFL Pro): Trey Hendrickson generated seven pressures and 3.5 sacks on 28 pass rushes versus the Steelers (25.0% pressure rate), including four pressures in under 2.5 seconds.

NFL Research: Cameron Heyward recorded three passes defensed for the Steelers on Saturday, the first time since Week 16 of the 2023 season that a defensive tackle had at least three passes defensed in a game. Heyward also became the first defensive lineman to record 10-plus passes defensed and 10-plus tackles for loss in a single season since Cameron Jordan did so in 2017.