BALTIMORE — A beleaguered Vikings defense kept bending at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday until the Baltimore Ravens’ ground game broke them in a crushing 34-31 overtime defeat.
Led by quarterback Lamar Jackson’s 120 yards and solid contributions from resurgent veteran running backs Devonta Freeman and Le’Veon Bell, the Ravens pounded the Vikings for 247 yards rushing, 159 of them in the second half and overtime.
“They ran the ball too much on us in the second half,” said linebacker Eric Kendricks, who led the Vikings with 17 tackles. “They played bully ball. It was a physical game for sure.”
“Yeah, they started pounding us pretty good late in the game,” added Vikings coach Mike Zimmer.
The Ravens controlled the ball nearly 23 minutes more than the Vikings — 46:04 to 23:40.
A running play swung momentum Baltimore’s way early in the third quarter after Minnesota took a 24-10 lead on rookie Kene Nwangwu’s 98-yard kickoff return TD. Facing fourth-and-2 from their own 36, the Ravens gambled on Freeman, who delivered an 8-yard run. Six plays later, Jackson hit fullback Patrick Picard with a 1-yard TD toss to make it a 7-point game.
“Making plays on third and fourth down, that’s crucial especially in games like this that come down to the wire,” Kendricks said.
Baltimore finished 3 for 3 on fourth down and converted 6 of 15 third-down opportunities.
“Well, we were playing pretty good on defense, so for the first half, I thought we played really well on defense but then kind of got worn down a little bit,” Zimmer said. “But we didn’t convert third downs in the second half, that was a big thing. We’ve gotta do better there.”
The Vikings’ offense only had one first down in the second half before their desperation 10-play, 75-yard TD drive that tied the score 31-31 with just over a minute remaining.
“It is what it is. We have to do our job for sure on defense,” Kendricks said. “There’s only so much we can control. The things we can control, stopping the run, containing what they got going on offense is what we can do.”
The Ravens’ reliance on the run and short passing game led to an 18-play, 82-yard drive that tied the game at 24, a 7-play, 61-yard drive for a 31-24 lead and a 10-play, 72-yard overtime march that resulted in Justin Tucker’s 36-yard game-winning field goal.
“The defense just gave us that look. We just had to do what we had to do to get the victory. We just ran for a lot today. That’s just what it was,” said Jackson, who averaged 5.7 yards on 21 carries.
“He’s an active runner as you saw today,” Kendricks said. “He’s a running back back there with the ball in his hands. So that gives them in an extra guy in the box.’’
A Jackson overtime pass nearly resulted in disaster for the Ravens. Linebacker Anthony Barr deflected Jackson’s pass to himself for an interception at the Vikings 38.
“I was mad. I was thinking, ‘Should I have pumped it, let him jump first and then throw the ball?’” Jackson said. “[Anthony Barr] just made a terrific play. I was mad for putting our defense back out there. We could have probably scored a touchdown to seal the game, so I was ticked off about that. But the defense held their own. They did a great job for us, and [we] came out with the victory.”
Following the interception, the Minnesota offense went three and out, and the Ravens responded with the game-winning drive, punctuated by a 19-yard burst by Freeman and 12-yard run by Bell.
“Nobody was really wavering,” Kendricks said. “Obviously everybody was tired. We wanted to be physical. … We were out there scrapping.”
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