Baltimore and Atlanta put together one of the wilder Sunday Night Football games of the young season, with both teams scoring in every quarter and the Ravens tying things up late to force overtime. As of this writing, the game sits at 23-23 with the extra period underway at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
The Ravens won the overtime coin toss and elected to receive, giving Baltimore first crack at ending it.
This one didn’t come easy for the Ravens. They entered Sunday missing starting quarterback Lamar Jackson, who’s dealing with an ankle injury, pushing Tyler Huntley into the starting role. Atlanta’s defense made him work for everything, sacking Huntley four times and hitting him eight more, numbers that showed up in how much the Falcons controlled the game for long stretches.
Atlanta actually led by as much as eight points in the fourth quarter, 23-15, after a 48-yard Lenny Folk field goal. Baltimore answered right back with a late touchdown, but a Mark Andrews catch that initially looked like it might tie the game got knocked loose by a hard hit from Falcons safety Jessie Bates, keeping Atlanta ahead 17-15 at that point in the fourth. The Ravens weren’t done, though. With the two-minute warning approaching, Baltimore scored again and converted the two-point try to tie it at 23-23, sending the game to overtime as time expired on Atlanta’s final possession.
Scoring was spread evenly throughout. Baltimore opened with a field goal to make it 3-0, before Atlanta answered with a touchdown to lead 7-3. The teams traded scores through the second quarter, Atlanta pushing its lead to 14-9 at halftime behind quarterback Michael Penix Jr., who came out slow, 0-for-4 to start the game, before settling in to finish the half 5-for-9 for 83 yards and a touchdown.
Atlanta extended the lead further in the third quarter on another Folk field goal, this one from 23 yards, making it 17-9 before Baltimore started chipping away in the fourth.
This was a matchup of two teams trending in the right direction. Baltimore entered at 3-1, riding a two-game winning streak after beating Tennessee 24-18 the week before. Atlanta came in at 2-2, also on a two-game streak of its own, having won at Green Bay on Thursday Night Football and then at New Orleans on Monday Night Football, with Atlanta’s offense clearly finding rhythm since Penix Jr.’s return.
The matchup had an obvious storyline built in before kickoff, too, Derrick Henry against a top-ranked Atlanta run defense, and Bijan Robinson continuing what’s been a genuine breakout season for Atlanta on the ground. Atlanta came in ranked second in the league in rushing at 181 yards per game, with Robinson as the clear engine behind that number.
Whatever happens in overtime, Atlanta will have some regret about not closing this one out in regulation, given the lead they built and then couldn’t quite hold onto. Baltimore’s defense, for its part, has been getting real credit locally for how it’s played through this stretch of the season, a unit that’s helped carry the Ravens even with uncertainty at quarterback.
With the extra period just getting underway and win-probability models giving Atlanta the edge heading into overtime, this one is still genuinely up for grabs. A Baltimore score on this opening overtime drive would end it immediately under current NFL overtime rules; anything short of a touchdown gives Atlanta a chance to answer.
Check back for the final score and full recap once the game wraps up at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
