Ravens hopeful that Lamar Jackson, Cam Jurgens will be available vs. Bengals

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Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson remains “day to day” in his recovery from a sprained ankle, coach Jesse Minter said Monday, and his availability for Sunday’s game against the Cincinnati Bengals remains uncertain.

Minter said Jackson, who hasn’t played since the Ravens’ Oct. 4 win over the Tennessee Titans, could “potentially” return to practice this week. Backup Tyler Huntley has started the Ravens’ past two games, a 30-23 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons and Sunday’s 13-10 loss to the Cleveland Browns.

“We’ll see how it goes,” Minter said.

The Ravens set season lows for points and total offense (235 yards) in Cleveland, which held Baltimore scoreless after the first quarter. Huntley, who went 19-for-31 for 165 yards and a touchdown, struggled to uplift an offense that had just two first downs after halftime.

Jackson has been one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks this season. Over four games, he has passed for 967 yards, six touchdowns and one interception with 70.8% accuracy. He also has 144 rushing yards (7.6 per carry) and a score.

Minter said center Cam Jurgens (concussion protocol), who has yet to participate fully in practice since the Ravens traded for him on Oct. 7, came “a long way” over the weekend and has a “real opportunity” to be cleared for his Ravens debut.

Rookie Vega Ioane has started the past three games at center, with Andrew Vorhees and Emery Jones Jr. splitting time at right guard. The Ravens’ interior struggled Sunday to create lanes for running back Derrick Henry, who was held to 58 yards (3.4 per carry).

“I don’t know the final deal [on Jurgens] — maybe today or tomorrow,” Minter said. “But we’re excited to potentially get him in there this week.”

Minter was optimistic about the health of outside linebacker Trey Hendrickson, who had a sack Sunday in his first game back from finger surgery. Still, he acknowledged that Hendrickson’s treatment is “an ongoing thing of just making sure that it’s going the right way.” Hendrickson, who hurt his finger in Week 1, played Sunday with his hand partly wrapped.

Wide receiver Rashod Bateman, who was ruled out of Sunday’s game early in the third quarter because of a shoulder injury, “should be OK,” Minter said. Bateman was limited in practice last week and didn’t have a catch in Cleveland.

Loop under heat

Minter indicated that the Ravens could bring in a kicker to challenge Tyler Loop, saying the front office is “always looking at ways of how to impact the roster.”

After going 1-for-2 Sunday, with a 49-yard miss early in the fourth quarter, Loop is 10-for-13 (76.9%) on field goals this season, though he had an attempt blocked in Week 2.

Minter stressed that the Ravens “need to make second-half kicks,” equating misses to turnovers in some cases.

“There’s been a few times where it’s not the end-of-a-game kick that everybody sees as a game-winner, but there’s kicks that take a lead from a two-score game to a three-score game ... or take that game from a one-score game to a two-score game, which, the way that game is going, is really, really critical,” Minter said. “So those are critical misses.

“And so there’s a confidence level for how he prepares and how he practices and how he operates and how he strikes the ball. But at the same time, that position itself is completely results-driven. And so we’ll continue to work with them and continue to try to put them in position.”

The Ravens signed veteran kicker Jake Moody to their practice squad before the season as an insurance plan if Loop struggled, but he was released after Loop went 2-for-2 in the Ravens’ Week 1 win over the Indianapolis Colts. Loop has since been the only kicker on the team’s roster.

Caution prevails

On their final possession Sunday, with the score even at 10, the Ravens faced a fourth-and-2 at their 46-yard line with just over two minutes remaining. Minter called on the punt team before swapping them out for the offense.

But the bold call was actually all bluster; Huntley could not induce an offside penalty with his hard count or the Ravens’ presnap motion. They settled for a delay-of-game penalty, and rookie Ryan Eckley punted from his 41-yard line on fourth-and-7.

According to ESPN’s fourth-down model, Minter’s decision to take the penalty and punt instead of going for it cost the Ravens 8.6 percentage points in win probability, by far the most “costly” call of Week 6.

Minter said he didn’t seriously consider keeping the offense on the field. The Ravens’ offense had struggled all half, and Cleveland’s longest drive to that point covered just 42 net yards.

“Just overall, the way that we had not really gotten a lot going there [on offense], other than the missed-field-goal drive, felt like I trusted our guys to go make a play,” Minter said.

They did not. Eckley booted his punt into the end zone for a touchback. Cleveland moved into field goal range on a 10-play, 62-yard drive. And kicker Andre Szmyt nailed the go-ahead 37-yard field goal as time expired.