Five things we learned from the Ravens’ 16-13 win over the Chicago Bears

There was nothing pretty about it, but the Ravens crafted another paean to resilience as backup quarterback Tyler Huntley rallied them to a 16-13 win in Chicago. Here are five things we learned Sunday:

Tyler Huntley moved past a shaky start to show why his teammates have such deep faith in him.

The moment we learned Lamar Jackson was too sick to play, any chance for an elegant display of offensive football evaporated.

The Ravens, also playing without No. 1 wide receiver Marquise “Hollywood” Brown, were going to have to out-ugly an opponent that specializes in the unsightly. Was Jackson’s backup, Tyler “Snoop” Huntley, the man to navigate this garbage heap?

Ravens coaches did their best to ease the burden on Huntley’s shoulders with a conservative game plan. They asked him to throw just once, for 7 yards, on a go-ahead drive midway through the fourth quarter, hoping that a Justin Tucker strike from 46 yards would be enough.

But after Andy Dalton (him again?) answered with an improbable touchdown bomb on fourth down, Huntley had to take center stage in the two-minute drill.

He was lucky when a pass that could have been intercepted instead led to a 21-yard interference penalty. Then, he made the game’s decisive play, rolling to his right on third-and-12, into the teeth of a certain collision, and finding Sammy Watkins at the Chicago 3-yard line.

It was the type of bold, poised answer the Ravens came to expect from Huntley as he won his job in the preseason. He’s not Jackson, but as linebacker Tyus Bowser said after the game, he brings the same indefatigable spirit to the team.

Huntley began his first NFL start shakily, missing on simple throws that seemed designed to help him find his rhythm.

He threw behind fullback Patrick Ricard on a well-designed screen to set up third-and-11 on the Ravens’ first drive and was sacked on the next play. The next time the Ravens had the ball, he fumbled out of bounds on third down.

The Bears did their best to keep Huntley on unsteady legs, blitzing far more than they normally would. But he calmed down in the second quarter, beating the Chicago rush with short passes that hit his receivers in stride and on the numbers. His first-half numbers — 16 of 21 for 122 yards, 33 rushing yards — were good for a first-time NFL starter.

The Bears took advantage of suspect pass protection to swarm Huntley for much of the second half. The Ravens had no counter for veteran edge rusher Robert Quinn, who finished with 3 ½ of Chicago’s six sacks. Many first-timers would have folded for good. Huntley did not.

Jackson, his former high school opponent in South Florida and one of his loudest fans, was the first to congratulate Huntley in the postgame locker room.

“For him to step up … I know everyone around our facility, this organization, knows how good that he is,” tight end Mark Andrews said. “But it’s awesome for the world to see. It’s a coming-out party for him, and I can’t be more excited about it.”

Forget the style points; the Ravens had to have this win.

If the Ravens ultimately hit their stride and make a real run at the Super Bowl, we will not remember this game as the one that told us they could do it.

So many of their flaws — defensive lapses that led to long touchdowns, suspect pass blocking, pedestrian running, ragged offense out of the gate — were on full display. But again, this was never destined to be one for the museum, not with Jackson so ill that he did not realize the team plane had landed Saturday, according to cornerback Marlon Humphrey.

This was a game the Ravens needed to survive, and if they have demonstrated anything through 11 weeks of this season, it’s that they scrap to the last whistle. What else can we say when five of their seven wins have come on fourth-quarter comebacks? Such drama isn’t the recipe for greatness, but it beats losing.

When Ravens coach John Harbaugh saw general manager Eric DeCosta in the postgame locker room, DeCosta said, “It was dark there for a couple moments.”

It was the “kind of win that takes faith and takes guts,” Harbaugh answered, repeating a mantra he has returned to so often in 2021.

CBS analyst Tony Romo correctly pointed out the importance of this Bears game to the Ravens’ overall trajectory. None of their remaining opponents entered this weekend with a losing record. They had already slipped up against a losing team in Miami. They could not falter again in Chicago and come away feeling great about their long-term prospects.

They were so close to falling to 6-4, so close to losing without ever reaching the end zone. But the ugliness of the first 58 minutes faded rapidly after Devonta Freeman scored from 3 yards out. Only the win remained. At 7-3, the Ravens are right back in the rearview mirror of the AFC-leading Tennessee Titans, ahead of the supposedly mighty Buffalo Bills and of their three rivals in the North.

How good are they really? That’s a question for next weekend, when they’ll face the Cleveland Browns on Sunday night, presumably with Jackson restored to health.

The Ravens slipped back into a familiar nightmare on defense.

A nightmare is about more than the end result. Dread mounts as you realize your legs will never carry you out of that same dead-end alley. You’re stuck on the world’s bleakest treadmill.

When Don “Wink” Martindale’s head hits the pillow, does the Ravens defensive coordinator dream of botched tackling angles and receivers running free over the ashes of another blown coverage?

The Ravens did not succumb to the demons that have galloped beside their defense all season, but they sure flirted with them. Martindale and Harbaugh stared numbly as Bears wide receiver Marquise Goodwin left Chris Westry sucking dust with a double move on fourth-and-11 to put Chicago up 13-9 with 1:41 left. Martindale left the inexperienced Westry alone on the outside as he called a blitz that did not get home, in part because another inexperienced defensive back, Brandon Stephens, seemed to hesitate in no man’s land.

It was an explosive play that undermined all the good work the Ravens had done on third and fourth down — their version of what goes bump in the night.

They gave up another one earlier in the second half when Bears wide receiver Darnell Mooney took a simple screen pass 60 yards as at least three Ravens failed to find the proper angle to wrestle him down.

Harbaugh has talked about how these plays keep going for touchdowns and pushing the Ravens into uncomfortable corners. Players speak of wake-up calls and fixing the small mistakes that lead to big problems. Then, they stumble into familiar doomed patterns.

It was fitting that the game ended with Andy Dalton in Tyus Bowser’s grasp.

Bowser has been a quiet pillar for the Ravens defense this season, which might sound like damning him with faint praise but is actually a testament to how far he has come in his five-year career.

The Ravens let Matthew Judon walk in free agency, figuring Bowser would suffice as a more affordable starter at outside linebacker. They knew his versatility would continue to play well in their defense, even if he never became the pass rusher some forecast him to be as a second-round pick out of Houston.

Bowser, however, never gave up on his aspirations to reach opposing quarterbacks more consistently. He talked about it, in his amiable, hushed way, before this season.

He came so close in the Ravens’ loss to the Dolphins, with three quarterback hits and a handful of other pressures. He was foreshadowing a monster performance against the Bears, in which he strip-sacked rookie quarterback Justin Fields, tackled Fields in open space to prevent a big gain on third down and ended Chicago’s final drive by wrapping up Dalton. Bowser had a third sack wiped out by a holding call against Humphrey just before halftime.

Harbaugh said Bowser “has been playing as good a football as any outside linebacker in the National Football League all season long.”

Just two years ago, he lumped Bowser in with Tim Williams, saying how disappointed he was that neither young outside linebacker had stepped forward to seize a meaningful role. “They need to be better,” he said in a rare public rebuke.

What a distance between those words and his comments about Bowser on Sunday.

It’s time for us to talk about Mark Andrews.

With Huntley generally throwing underneath to beat Chicago’s pressure, the Ravens needed a great game from Andrews. He delivered with eight catches on 10 targets, five of them for first downs.

He gave Huntley one of his first positive plays of the afternoon when he leapt for an overthrown pass on third down and tipped it to himself for a 16-yard gain.

In the third quarter, with the Ravens buried deep in their own territory, Andrews caught a short pass on third down and extended every millimeter of his 6-foot-5 frame to reach the marker.

This was nothing new, of course. Andrews is on pace to obliterate his previous career highs in receptions and receiving yards. He entered the weekend as the No. 3 receiver, No. 2 run blocker and No. 1 overall player at his position, according to Pro Football Focus’ grades. He has made the $56 million extension he signed before the season look like a relative bargain.

We’ll remember this Sunday for Jackson’s illness and Huntley’s rally, for the Ravens pulling away from the brink one more time. Andrews hardly came up in the postgame interviews. Amid all the insanity of this season, he keeps ticking.

Week 12

BROWNS@RAVENS

Sunday, 8:20 p.m.

TV: Chs. 11, 4 Radio: 97.9 FM, 1090 AM

Line: Ravens by 4 ½