Bengals knock off Ravens on historic fumble return TD

[January 16, 2023] Sam Hubbard scored on a 98-yard fumble return, the longest in postseason history, and Joe Burrow accounted for two touchdowns as the Cincinnati Bengals registered a 24-17 victory over the visiting Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night in the AFC wild-card round.

Logan Wilson had 10 tackles and forced the fumble on the game-changing play and Ja'Marr Chase had nine receptions for 84 yards and a touchdown for third-seeded Cincinnati. Burrow passed for 209 yards and one touchdown and rushed for another score for the Bengals, who won their ninth straight game and will visit the Buffalo Bills in next weekend's divisional round.

"We know these playoff games are never pretty. By any means, we just had to get it done," Burrow said on NBC after the game. "A great team effort by everybody, guys stepping up left and right. That's playoff football."

Tyler Huntley passed for 226 yards, two touchdowns and one interception for sixth-seeded Baltimore. Huntley started in place of Lamar Jackson (knee), who missed his sixth consecutive game.

Huntley was involved in the big play that changed the momentum early in the fourth quarter.

The score was tied, and the Ravens had third-and-goal from the Cincinnati 1-yard line when Huntley kept the ball and tried to lunge over the goal line. But Wilson leaped and knocked the ball out of Huntley's hands and right to Hubbard, who raced 98 yards to give the Bengals a 24-17 lead with 11:39 remaining in the contest.

"It's a credit to whoever punched that ball out," Hubbard told NBC. "I was in the right place at the right time. I was just worried about being hogged down. I'm just glad I made it to the end zone."

Ravens coach John Harbaugh liked the play call, but said Huntley didn't do it the right way.

"We felt we had a good call. It's a push sneak play. It wasn't executed quite the right way. Tyler went over the top. ... He's gotta go low on that."

Baltimore's final drive was plagued by shaky time management, and the last play came on fourth-and-20 from the Cincinnati 27. Huntley's last-ditch throw into the end zone was deflected, and the Ravens' James Proche II was unable to grab it.

Harbaugh also defended his team's decision to preserve timeouts on that final drive.

"The idea was to save the timeouts for the red zone. The thing that killed us was the holding penalty (on Kevin Zeitler), which knocked us back. ... We wanted to score and not give them the ball back. I think we played it right," Harbaugh said.

J.K. Dobbins and Demarcus Robinson caught touchdown passes for the Ravens.
 

Burrow scored on a 1-yard keeper and then threw a two-point conversion pass to Tee Higgins to give Cincinnati a 17-10 advantage with 5:02 left in the third quarter.

Baltimore knotted the score less than three minutes later as Huntley teamed up with Robinson on a 41-yard touchdown pass.

Baltimore possessed the ball for 12:34 of the second quarter while scoring 10 points to take a 10-9 halftime lead.

The Bengals received a 39-yard field goal from Evan McPherson in the opening quarter and Burrow's 7-yard scoring pass to Chase on the opening play of the second quarter. McPherson missed the extra point, leaving Cincinnati up by nine.

The Ravens followed up the Bengals' touchdown with a 17-play, 75-yard drive that lasted 10:03. Huntley tossed a 2-yard scoring pass to Dobbins in which the latter dove and barely got the ball to the goal line before his knee hit the turf.

Justin Tucker booted a 22-yard field goal with seven seconds left to give Baltimore the halftime advantage.

Cincinnati left tackle Jonah Williams exited in the second quarter with a left knee injury.

--Field Level Media

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