MINNEAPOLIS — Baltimore Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton hatched the idea after recently seeing the movie “Coach Carter,” the 2005 sports drama film starring Samuel L. Jackson. The Ravens worked on it during Saturday’s walk-through practice and decided that as long as they forced a timely turnover, they would break out the post-play celebration Sunday at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Hamilton’s choreographed plan was as follows: Whoever made the play — in this case, Roquan Smith, or so they thought — would walk back and forth in the end zone and direct the rest of the defense in a series of “gassers” or sprints.
The Ravens pulled it off reasonably well when they thought they had just secured their fourth turnover with under five minutes to play in the game, but there was a not-so-minor problem. Smith’s diving interception, which would have essentially put away an eventual 27-19 victory over the Minnesota Vikings and added an exclamation point to a defensive masterpiece by Baltimore, didn’t count. It was reversed into an incompletion.
So a tired group of Ravens, who had just sprinted back and forth in the end zone, had to trudge back in the huddle and try to get another stop.
“We have to work on our celebrations to say that we have our swagger back, because some of our celebrations are bad,” Hamilton said sheepishly. “At last, we have stuff to celebrate now.”
Indeed. The Ravens forced three turnovers, two on defense and another on special teams. They also got three fourth-down stops and allowed just three third-down conversions on 14 Vikings attempts.
On a day when quarterback Lamar Jackson and the high-powered Ravens offense struggled to find a rhythm and finish in the red zone early, and then couldn’t put the game away late, it was the play of Baltimore’s much-maligned defense and its special teams that carried the victory, got the Ravens even deeper into the playoff mix and thrust the team’s 1-5 start further into the rearview.
It was also long overdue for a defense that ranked last or close to it in every major category earlier in the season and struggled with just about everything, from stopping the run to getting off the field to creating turnovers.
The last four games, however, for Zach Orr’s defense have represented a steady climb upward.
“Obviously, we have Lamar Jackson. But … we’re trying to get it to where we can win games on defense,” said cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who had one of Baltimore’s two interceptions of J.J. McCarthy, with safety Malaki Starks getting the other. “We don’t even need the offense to put up any points. On defense, we can turn the ball over, we can get them the ball in the red zone. That’s been the big key, the mindset shift of even though we have Lamar Jackson, let’s give him a smoke break, let’s give him an off day. He’s bailed us out so many times, how about we do it?”
Facing an attacking defense, Jackson was good enough when the Ravens needed him to be Sunday. He calmly directed an 11-play, 67-yard statement drive that started in the third quarter and ended in the fourth with a 2-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mark Andrews that gave Baltimore a 27-13 lead. There were some close calls — including a near-fumble and a near-interception on back-to-back plays late in the fourth quarter with the Ravens trying to run out the clock — but there were no turnovers.
There was also only one pre-snap penalty in what’s one of the league’s loudest environments. The Vikings, meanwhile, turned the ball over three times and committed 13 penalties for 102 yards, including an astonishing eight false-start penalties — the most in a game since 2000, according to ESPN Research.
The Ravens were losing games early in the season because they were making mistakes and weren’t forcing any. There was also the matter of the defense not stopping anyone. Sunday was a classic case of the tables turning, and it left coach John Harbaugh emotional when the Ravens finally put the Vikings away.
Minnesota got the ball back with 1:44 to play and no timeouts, needing a touchdown and a two-point conversion to tie the game. However, the Vikings advanced only to their own 40 before McCarthy’s lengthy scramble and desperation heave resulted in a fourth-down incompletion.
“At the end of the game, I was pretty choked up inside. I didn’t shed a tear, I wouldn’t let that happen, but just how hard they fought and how much they believed and how much courage they showed,” Harbaugh said. “You know what, we’re just 4-5. We’re still under .500. That’s where we’re at. We recognize that.”
The Ravens also recognize how far they’ve come after starting 1-5, dealing with a multitude of injuries and persistent questions about Harbaugh and the coaching staff’s performance. They are still very much in it, and they now have a chance to put even more pressure on the first-place Pittsburgh Steelers with games against the two-win Cleveland Browns and New York Jets over the next two weeks.
“A lot of confidence,” said Jackson, “but I’d have even more if we were putting points on the board like we should. Hats off to our defense, because they played a wonderful game.”
Jackson was measured in his postgame comments, clearly miffed that the Ravens didn’t do more offensively. They had just 321 yards of offense, went 6-of-15 on third down, and managed just four Tyler Loop field goals through the first 2.5 quarters despite getting inside the Vikings’ 30-yard line on four of their first seven drives and inside the 15 on three of them.
On many Sundays, the missed opportunities would have built a body of evidence for how a very winnable game slipped away. But not on this Sunday. The defense wouldn’t allow it.
“I think we’re starting to hit our stride,” said Hamilton. “It’s not a surprise to us. I think we’re playing to our potential now, and that has to be sustained. We’re happy we got the win, but we’re not ecstatic about what our record still is. We still have stuff to do, and people to prove wrong, people to prove right, so this is a good building block going forward in the season.”
The Ravens took over the game in the third quarter. Baltimore turned the Humphrey interception into a short Loop field goal. On the very next play, Keondre Jackson, a revelation in recent weeks on the Ravens’ special teams units, combined with Trenton Simpson to force a fumble on Vikings kick returner Myles Price. Set up with great field position, the Ravens turned the fumble into a Justice Hill 1-yard touchdown run that made it a 19-10 game.
“Obviously, if you get in the red zone, you have to finish and finish with touchdowns,” said center Tyler Linderbaum. “I love our special teams unit, but we don’t want to see them out there on the field too much. We just have to find ways to keep pushing the ball forward and to get that ball in the end zone. We’ll find ways, and we certainly have the players to do it, the coaching staff to do it, and I’m just happy we got a win today.”
Some anxious moments followed, but the Ravens never allowed McCarthy to get comfortable. They sacked him only once, but they were credited with 12 quarterback hits. When they weren’t getting to McCarthy, they were getting their mitts on passes and knocking them out of the air. The Ravens were credited with 13 pass deflections.
They also didn’t allow Vikings star receiver Justin Jefferson or his understudy, Jordan Addison, to get off. Jefferson had four catches for 37 yards on 12 targets. Addison had three catches for 35 yards on 11 targets. Harbaugh said the Ravens spoke of doubling Jefferson and leaning their coverage toward him during the week, but they didn’t want to overdo it. What they did worked out just fine. Both of the team’s interceptions were on deep passes intended for Jefferson.
“Turnovers are everything,” said Ravens cornerback Nate Wiggins. “That’s what we play for is just getting the ball. If we don’t get the ball, we don’t win. So, we have to get the ball. Every game that we have gotten the ball, we’ve won. So that’s just the challenge to every game now.”
The Ravens allowed 37 points or more in four of their first five games. They’ve now held the opposition to just 58 points total over the past four games. In the first seven games, the Ravens forced only four total turnovers. Over the past four, they’ve forced eight.
Now, it’s time to update the celebrations.
“The good thing is, we’ve been planning these celebrations, which means we’re planning to make the plays,” Humphrey said. “I think that’s a part of the whole thing. You have to believe it, you’ve got to see it during the week. I think that’s another thing that’s changed with our defense. We’re really believing.”