Ravens overcome Bengals to share AFC north lead with Pittsburgh after Week 11 game – NFL Recap
Baltimore Ravens beat Cincinnati Bengals this Sunday 31-24 to share the first position with Pittsburgh Steelers in the American Football Conference (AFC) north division.
Their win came courtesy of their quarterback Joe Flacco as their offense which is often criticised overtook their defence. Flacco scored two touchdowns and managed to throw 270 yards to give the Ravens the lead of 7-3 with Pittsburgh
Steelers.
Flacco also connected with Torry Smith, the Ravens rookie, on a 38 yards and the Ravens were leading 31-14 in the fourth quarter.
However, the Bengals made a strong comeback late in the game and Ravens look to have lost their lead. In last 14 minutes they yielded 483 yards and allowed the Bengals Andy Dalton, rookie quarterback, to throw for 373.
Their defence living up to their expectations put up strong show as the Ravens came out as victorious finally.
The defence efforts were further supplemented by two late touchdowns and 104 yards from Ray Rice.
"I just looked at the clock and I said, `Our defence will get it done,"' Ray said. "That's the faith I have in our guys."
The Ravens are tied down with Pittsburgh 7-3 in the AFC north but they have advantage of owning the tiebreaker because they have beaten twice Steelers in their division match.
"No. 1 in the division, that's huge," Ravens Terrell Suggs said. "Now we're the master of our destiny."
The Ravens were without their middle linebacker Ray Lewis who missed his first game after having played 57 games consecutively because of the knee injury.
With win for Ravens the AFC north division stands with lead shared by Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens 7-3. They are followed by the Cincinnati Bengals 6-4. It is being expected that all these team might go for the playoffs
to clear their position in the division.
The Ravens have beaten the Pittsburgh Steelers two times in their regular season matches and therefore hold the tiebreaker advantage. They can go past the Steelers given that they continued the same performance they shown against
the Cincinnati Bengals, with Steelers lagging behind them.
However, the Bengals is the team capable of making strong comeback, especially later in the match. The week before the last week they had staged a comeback after being 0-14 at one point against the Pittsburgh.
"It comes down to the fourth quarter. That's how every game's been for us," their quarterback Andy Dalton said. "We've got to start faster. We can't wait around until the end of the game to pick it up, come out and get back in
it. It's definitely going to be a focus for us."
They even scared Ravens as they made a comeback, however, thanks to the Raven’s timely defence the latter ensured that they remain victorious.
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