Lamar’s party: Jackson lifts Ravens in Rio

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RIO DE JANEIRO — Redemption looked different here. Three miles from the Christ the Redeemer statue that looms over this city of over 6 million, it looked like a goal-line stand. It looked like a 27-yard javelin thrown over the middle of the field, defying time and space. It looked like a 56-yard field goal as time expired and a party started.

On the night of the NFL’s grand premiere inside the historic Maracanã Stadium, the Ravens showcased to an international audience their maddening potential, not only just what they can do to lose a game but also what they can do to win one of their craziest ever. This was the Ravens’ intoxicating tribute to jogo bonito — sometimes not very bonito but never, ever dull.

“It’s a baby step for us, but we’re never going to apologize for winning the game,” coach Jesse Minter said after kicker Tyler Loop gave the Ravens their first game-winning field goal from over 50 yards since Justin Tucker’s 66-yarder in September 2021. “It’s great to have the guys that we have just fighting all the way until the end.”

The Ravens (2-1) could’ve lost this game so many ways. Their Week 2 collapse against the New Orleans Saints demonstrated the team’s capacity for reinvention under a new regime. Not even Minter’s debut at M&T Bank Stadium was safe from the Ravens’ habit of self-sabotage.

Almost 5,000 miles and a nearly 10-hour flight from home, the Ravens’ defense sneaked some of its bad habits through customs. The Ravens had led 24-13 late in the third quarter. They’d been a yard away from another double-digit lead early in the fourth quarter. But, with 23 seconds remaining, quarterback Dak Prescott had the Cowboys 2 yards from the end zone and a go-ahead touchdown.

“It’s unacceptable for us to keep putting ourselves in this position in the fourth quarter,” said safety Kyle Hamilton, who watched the Cowboys score 18 second-half points and pile up 415 yards of total offense overall. “They shouldn’t have to go out there and score 30 points for us to win, and that’s what it is these first three games.

“We’re in position as a defense to get off the field. We have ebbs and flows. It’s frustrating. Happy we got the win, but it’s unacceptable to say we’re a Ravens defense, whatever that means at this point, and be going out there doing that feels like every time we got a lead. We brought in [new] staff, so it’s on the players.”

The road to a big win started with small victories. The Ravens forced an incompletion on first down, got a false-start penalty, forced Prescott to scramble to the 5 on second down and forced another incompletion on third down. Brandon Aubrey’s 23-yard field goal tied the game with just seven seconds remaining.

Plenty of time for a game-winning drive, Ravens long snapper Nick Moore reminded his teammates on the sideline. He had watched the offense fall short a week ago against New Orleans, quarterback Lamar Jackson’s desperate bid for a last-minute touchdown drive leading to a game-ending interception with 13 seconds left.

Still, he believed. The Ravens did not have their first- or second-string center available — injuries had sidelined Jovaughn Gwyn (ankle) and Ethan Pocic (knee), pressing rookie right guard Vega Ioane into snapping duties — but they had Jackson. And they had wide receiver Zay Flowers. And, after the Cowboys booted their final kickoff into the end zone, rather than killing clock with a returnable kick, the Ravens had the ball with enough time to try something from their 35-yard line.

“It is something we have been practicing since [training] camp,” said Jackson (15-for-20 for 186 yards and two touchdowns, plus six carries for 50 yards). “We were practicing it almost every day after [training] camp, probably mixing [it] in [during] practice sometimes. We were surprised because we did not go over that all week. We were not expecting to be in a situation like that.”

The Ravens had been big-play hunting all evening. They trailed 10-0 less than 11 minutes into the game after their first two drives ended without a first down. On the first, Jackson had missed a wide-open Mark Andrews downfield. On the second, running back Derrick Henry (26 carries for 89 yards) had been stopped at the Ravens’ 30 on fourth-and-inches.

“We thought touchdowns were going to be more valuable than field goals,” Minter said after the game, and so the Ravens kept up their aggressiveness at the goal line. With about 13 minutes remaining and the Ravens leading 24-21, he kept the offense on the field. Henry was supposed to be the hammer; he’d given the Ravens a second-quarter lead with a pair of short-range touchdown runs. But he was nailed back at the 4-yard line.

The Cowboys (1-2) capitalized quickly, retaking the lead with a long touchdown drive. After a pair of punts, the Ravens jumped back ahead with a clock-draining march, capped by a 2-yard touchdown catch by rookie tight end Matt Hibner.

Prescott (25-for-40 for 276 yards and a touchdown), taking over with 90 seconds left in regulation, got the Cowboys close to the lead on the ensuing kick but not close enough. A week ago, the Saints had barged through the Ravens’ wall at the goal line — or so the officials thought, anyway — as they wrested control of the game late in the fourth quarter. On Sunday, the Ravens were just stout enough to give the offense a chance.

Jackson had overseen 11 fourth-quarter comebacks since becoming a starter in 2019, but never had one started with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. According to ESPN, no game-winning drive in any game since 1978 had started following a kickoff with seven or fewer seconds remaining.

Flowers, who missed the Ravens’ Week 2 loss and most of practice this past week with a hamstring injury, said he knew a few days ago that he’d play Sunday. What he couldn’t have imagined was finishing a five-catch, 84-yard performance with a 27-yard in-breaker, Jackson having fired a rocket through an injury-depleted Cowboys secondary. Flowers’ hip hit a patchwork grass field with just enough time for the Ravens to call their final timeout.

As Loop jogged onto the field, Jackson said a prayer. Loop’s legacy, tainted almost irredeemably last year by a season-ending missed field goal as time expired against the Pittsburgh Steelers, was “starting now,” Jackson remembered thinking.

Loop’s kick was as pure as a vintage Pelé finish; teammates said it would’ve been good from 70 yards. As Loop streaked over to the Ravens’ most vocal section of the stadium, his teammates followed. He punctuated his night with a Cristiano Ronaldo-inspired “Siu” celebration, his chest out, his arms pointed down, bellowing from Brazil to Baltimore that this night was different.

At the end of Jackson’s postgame news conference, a reporter mentioned that this was a night worthy of “Baile do Lamar,” a Portuguese phrasing meaning “Lamar’s party.” Jackson had learned of the phrase only days earlier, after a practice in Rio de Janeiro.

“¡Baile do Lamar!” Jackson said as he chuckled, pointing with both hands to the back of a packed media room. A long flight home awaited the Ravens, but they would not be coming back empty-handed. They were leaving Rio with a minor miracle and a major victory.