Starting in place of the injured Lamar Jackson, Tyler Huntley saved his best for last as he engineered touchdowns on the Ravens' final two drives, and Baltimore picked up a thrilling 30-23 overtime win over the Atlanta Falcons on "Sunday Night Football."
In the extra session, Baltimore chose to take the ball first and produced a grinding 14-play, 68-yard drive that took up over seven minutes of the 10-minute running time. Huntley capped the drive with a quarterback sneak from the 1-yard line, giving the Ravens the lead for the first time since it was 3-0 early on.
The Falcons were then forced to turn to Tua Tagovailoa for their drive after Michael Penix Jr. exited following a hard hit to the ribs. Kyle Hamilton picked off Tagovailoa on the Falcons' second offensive play of OT, with a disbelieving Penix looking on from the sideline with a towel covering his head.
Quiet for much of the second half, Huntley and the Baltimore offense found their rhythm just in the nick of time late in regulation. After a Nick Folk field goal extended Atlanta's lead to 23-15 with just over two minutes left, Huntley led a six-play, 71-yard drive that he capped with a touchdown pass to Devontez Walker. Derrick Henry then converted the two-point conversion off a direct snap to tie tie game, and Baltimore's defense held up in the final 40 seconds to force an overtime period.
It was an otherwise choppy game from both offenses at times. Atlanta scuffled early before finding a rhythm in the second half, but the Falcons didn't make the most of their chances with the ball. With the Ravens' defense keying on Bijan Robinson, Penix played solidly between the 20s, but Atlanta scored just one touchdown on its three red zone trips. Settling for field goals especially loomed large across the second half, when the Falcons dominated time of possession but still got outscored 14-9.
Atlanta, which falls to 2-3, will not only rue coming up one stop short after such a strong defensive effort for the first 57 minutes of regulation but hope for the best regarding the snake-bitten Penix. Baltimore, now 4-1, will return to the Charm City as the AFC North leader, hopeful that Jackson can return for a Week 6 clash with the division rival Browns.
Huntley started this game for the Ravens in place of Jackson, and he acquitted himself quite nicely. Huntley completed 24 of 32 passes for 201 yards and two touchdowns, while also running six times for 20 yards.
He engineered a brilliant two-minute drive toward the end of the fourth quarter, completing 6-of-6 passes for 52 yards and a touchdown on this back-shoulder fade to Devontez Walker. (He also had a 26-yard completion to Zay Flowers that the Ravens took off the board because a pass interference penalty gave them an extra three yards of field position.)
Huntley then went 5-of-5 for 28 yards on the Ravens' overtime possession, which he ended with a quarterback sneak for the game-winning touchdown. All in all, he completed his final 11 passes of the game and ended up scoring the winning touchdown. He also improved to 3-0, filling in for Jackson over the last two seasons in the process.
The Ravens nearly cost themselves this game with several crucial mistakes early on. On the opening drive of the evening, Mark Andrews dropped what would have been a touchdown pass from Huntley. On the second drive of the night, Andrews fumbled and saw it returned for a touchdown by Jessie Bates III.
Andrews would go on to drop two more passes later in the game, while Flowers uncharacteristically dropped one, as well. Those mistakes could have cost the Ravens a win, but instead, they pulled out a win with their backup under center.
Penix Jr. played a pretty decent game in his third game back from the torn ACL he suffered last season. He missed on a few throws here and there (including a couple that could have been touchdowns if they had been placed better), but he finished the night 19 of 32 for 240 yards and a score, and he made some particularly nice throws to Drake London on third downs. Unfortunately, he didn't make it through the entire game, and it ended up costing the Falcons.
After Baltimore's game-tying drive late in the fourth quarter left the Falcons with just shy of 40 seconds to play with and an opportunity to drive for a potential game-winning field goal, Penix got absolutely rocked by Ravens defensive lineman Tavius Robinson and ended up having to leave the field.
Tagovailoa entered for one play, and Penix came back onto the field for the next one, but once the game went into overtime, Penix was getting checked out by the medical staff for the entirety of Baltimore's seemingly endless touchdown drive.
When the Falcons' offense trotted back onto the field, it was Tagovailoa — not Penix — who was taking the snaps from center. That cost the Falcons dearly, as Tua's second pass of the extra frame was intercepted by Kyle Hamilton, which ended the game right then and there.
Tagovailoa is already the fourth quarterback that the Falcons have played through their first five games of the season. Cooper Rush started the first two games, while Jack Strand entered for a relief appearance in one of them. Penix then played the next two-plus games before Tua entered for the overtime period here. If Penix has to miss time as a result of the hit, it seems like Tagovailoa will take his place.
The Falcons had four second-half drives.
The first one went 60 yards on 10 plays and took 5:09 off the clock, but it ended with a field goal after Penix missed back-to-back passes near the goal line - one to Jake Matthews on a tackle eligible play and another to Jahan Dotson in the back corner of the end zone.
The second drive stalled out near midfield and resulted in a turnover on Downs after Penix was pressured quickly on fourth-and-2, and his pass to the flat resulted in a loss of two yards.
The third drive went 74 yards on an incredible 16 plays and featured four third-down conversions (including three third-and-longs) and took 8 minutes and 26 seconds off the clock, but it also ended with a field goal. And their final drive of regulation went 52 yards on 10 plays and took 3:52 off the clock, but it ended in, you guessed it: a field goal.
Settling for all of those kicks gave Baltimore the opening it needed to come back and tie the game late and send it into overtime, where the Ravens would eventually win.
Tua completed one pass to Drake London over the middle, then tried to hit London in the middle of the field again but was picked off by Kyle Hamilton. Baltimore completes the comeback with the backup quarterback under center. Great win for the Ravens.
It looks like Tua Tagovailoa is going to come in for the Falcons' overtime drive. Penix has a rib injury, per the broadcast.
What a drive by Baltimore to open overtime. 14 plays, 68 yards, 7:03 off the clock and a 1-yard touchdown run by Huntley on a quarterback sneak. Derrick Henry had 32 rushing yards on the drive. Atlanta has just 2:57 to go tie the game or win it.
This game is all tied up and headed to an extra frame. The Ravens will have the ball first.
Penix just got absolutely rocked by Tavius Robinson as the Falcons were trying to drive for a game-winning field goal. He left the field and Tua Tagovailoa is now in the game with 19 seconds left.
Update: Penix is back in the game after missing one snap.
Baltimore ran a wildcat snap with Henry and Zay Flowers lined up next to each other in the backfield, then had Henry fake the hand-off to Flowers and then scoot around the edge for the two-point conversion. Atlanta will have just south of 40 seconds to try to go win the game.
The Ravens have a chance to tie the game with a two-point conversion after a marvelous drive from Tyler Huntley ended with a back shoulder throw to Walker in the corner of the end zone. The Ravens targeted a backup cornerback after Mike Hughes left with an injury after the previous play.
Atlanta took a bunch more time off the clock with another long drive (10 plays, 52 yards) but ended up settling for another Nick Folk field goal after Penix's pass intended for Bijan Robinson on third-and-5 came up short. The lead is 8 points with 2:31 remaining. Tyler Huntley will have to get the Ravens into the end zone and then pick up a two-point conversion in order to send the game to overtime.
After converting four consecutive third downs on their drive, the Falcons finally failed on third-and-10 as Penix's pass sailed high and wide of his intended receiver. Nick Folks knocked in a field goal to push Atlanta's lead back to 5 points.
Atlanta has converted third-and-2, third-and-10 and third-and-15 on this drive, all with Michael Penix passes to Drake London. The Falcons are approaching field-goal range now.
Edit: They just converted a third-and-1 with another pass from Penix to London. Now they're in the red zone.
Atlanta got a fourth-and-2 just inside Ravens territory and came up short. The Falcons had the play set up nicely with a bootleg to the left side, but Penix was under pressure and his throw didn't get all the way out to Charlie Woerner in the flat so it ended up going for a loss of two yards. Ravens now have a chance to re-take the lead for the first time since it was 3-0.
After that run by Hill, the Ravens set up a nice screen to Henry and he took it to the house from 19 yards out. Great stiff-arm from Henry to get himself into open space, and another nice design to use Zay Flowers on the fake end around to distract the defense. The Ravens went for two to try to tie the game and didn't convert.
This is a really nicely designed play. Typically the bigger back is lined up as the up-back and the handoff is rather obvious, but the Ravens reversed it here and had Hill lined up in front of Derrick Henry and got a huge play out of it.
Atlanta got all the way down to the goal line thanks to a really nice pair of runs from Bijan Robinson. The Falcons had an easy touchdown available on a tackle eligible play but Penix's pass intended for Jake Matthews was just high. Penix then overthrew Jahan Dotson in the back of the end zone on third down and Atlanta settled for a field goal to open the half.
Nice end-of-half drive from Tyler Huntley, who made a couple of plays on the move to get Baltimore into Falcons territory and then just outside the red zone. A false start on Rashod Bateman knocked the Ravens backward five yards and then Tyler Loop connected on his third field goal of the game to cut Atlanta's lead just before halftime.
Big drive for Michael Penix. He hit Drake London for 25 yards, Jahan Dotson for 36 yards and then Kyle Pitts Sr. for 13 yards over the middle of the field for a touchdown to add to the Falcons' lead. Atlanta had done nothing offensively before this, but now holds an 8-point lead. And if the Ravens don't score before halftime, the Falcons will have a chance to extend it even further coming out of the break because they get the ball first to start the second half.
Those types of throws deep and/or outside the numbers are what Michael Penix Jr. has brought to the offense, compared with Cooper Rush. We wrote about it earlier this week.
After the Falcons' latest punt, the Ravens got one first down and then stalled out after a wide-receiver pass play was blown up in the backfield and then a screen to Justice Hill went nowhere. Tyler Loop knocked in his second field goal of the game after that to cut into Atlanta's lead.
We've already seen Mark Andrews drop a touchdown and Zay Flowers drop a potential first down. That's not the kind of stuff that you can have happen when starting a backup quarterback. Falcons now have a chance to make this a two-score lead if they can put a drive together for the first time tonight.
The Ravens have largely controlled the game so far (Baltimore has already run 22 plays for 109 yards and controlled the ball for 11:14, while Atlanta has run just 7 plays for 32 yards and had the ball for only 3:10), but the Falcons lead thanks to the Jessie Bates fumble recovery touchdown.
Mark Andrews is having a rough start to the game. He dropped a touchdown on Baltimore's opening drive, and now he just fumbled on a third-and-long catch and saw his miscue taken to the house by Jessie Bates III to give Atlanta the lead. The fumble was set up by a second-down sack by Jared Ivey.
The Ravens moved easily down the field on their opening drive, but stalled out on the goal line. They were running all over the Falcons (6 carries for 51 yards) but Derrick Henry lost yardage on a wildcat snap on second-and-goal, and then Tyler Huntley's third-down pass intended for Mark Andrews went through Andrews' hands. Tyler Loop knocked a short kick through the uprights to give Baltimore an early lead.
As expected, the Ravens are without Lamar Jackson tonight after he suffered an ankle injury last week. They'll start Tyler Huntley under center. Huntley has started 11 games in place of Lamar and he's 5-6 in those starts, including 2-0 last season.
