BALTIMORE — Punishing all night — and tricky when they had to be — the Detroit Lions battered the Baltimore Ravens with a performance that epitomized everything they’ve become under coach Dan Campbell.
Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery ran for two touchdowns apiece, and the Lions bullied their way to a 38-30 win over Baltimore on Monday night. Detroit sacked Lamar Jackson seven times and outrushed the Ravens 224 yards to 85.
“I just thought it was an outstanding team effort, man. I was proud of the players, I was proud of the coaches,” Campbell said. “It’s just a huge win.”
Detroit scored on drives of 98 and 96 yards against a Baltimore front that was without defensive lineman Nnamdi Madubuike and showed little ability to handle the Lions physically.
Up 31-24 at the two-minute warning, Detroit converted on fourth-and-2 from its own 49 when Jared Goff completed a 20-yard pass to Amon-Ra St. Brown.
“I got a tremendous amount of trust in those guys, and that’s been built up now in five years,” Campbell said.
Then Montgomery raced for a 31-yard touchdown with 1:42 to play, capping a 151-yard night on the ground for the running back.
Jackson threw his third touchdown pass of the night, a 27-yarder to Mark Andrews with 29 seconds remaining. A failed 2-point conversion and a failed onside kick later, the Lions could kneel out the clock.
“The biggest problem is we didn’t play good defense,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “There’s nobody in that locker room that thinks that’s good enough. That’s not who we are. It cannot be who we are. It’s not good enough, it’s not acceptable.”
This was quite a statement for a Detroit team that lost offensive coordinator Ben Johnson in the offseason and began the season with a dud at Green Bay. After rebounding in Week 2 against Chicago, the Lions looked very much like Super Bowl contenders against the Ravens.
The hallmarks of Campbell’s tenure were all there. Detroit was aggressive on fourth down, converting all three of its attempts. One of those was a gadget play that went for a touchdown and gave the Lions the lead for good.
And at the line of scrimmage, Detroit was overpowering at times.
“That’s what happens when good coverage marries good rush,” pass-rushing star Aidan Hutchinson said. “Today was that.”
Jackson did some damage in the passing game, especially in the first half, but by the end, the Lions had him out of sync. And when he tried to escape the pocket, they kept him under control.
“Those guys were very disciplined,” Campbell said. “We didn’t have anybody jumping up in the air, diving — ill-advised diving. They all bottled him up, they were disciplined, and guys made huge plays. And he had nowhere to go.”
It was a jarring sight to see the Ravens (1-2) pushed around on their home field, where they lost for only the fourth time in 26 prime-time games under Harbaugh. When Gibbs and Montgomery weren’t running through the Baltimore defense, Goff had plenty of time to pick the Ravens apart as Detroit methodically advanced down the field.
With the score tied at 21, the Lions faced fourth-and-1 from the Baltimore 4 on the first play of the fourth quarter. St. Brown took the ball on what initially looked like a jet sweep, then pitched it back to Gibbs, who scored easily.
After a field goal made it 28-24, the Ravens got a defensive stop, but Derrick Henry lost a fumble in a huge fourth-quarter spot for the second time in three weeks, giving Detroit the ball at the Baltimore 16. Still, the Lions couldn’t put the game away, settling for a field goal when that drive was derailed by a facemask penalty on Christian Mahogany.
But the Ravens couldn’t move the ball and punted on fourth-and-9. Then Montgomery made it a 14-point game.
This matchup started as advertised, with the Lions — fresh off a 52-point performance against Chicago — breezing down the field for an early 7-0 lead on a 1-yard run by Gibbs. Then the Ravens — who reached 40 points in each of their first two games — quickly tied it on a 28-yard touchdown run by Henry.
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The Lions retook the lead on a 1-yard touchdown run by Montgomery, which capped an 18-play, 98-yard drive that took 10:48 off the clock. The Ravens, down two of their top pass rushers with Madubuike (neck) and Kyle Van Noy (hamstring) out, did little to trouble Goff in the pocket.
Baltimore wasted a second-and-goal situation from the 1-yard line later in the second quarter when Henry was stopped twice. On fourth-and-goal from the 2, Jackson fumbled and the ball rolled all the way back to the 20, but when the Lions took over there, Baltimore’s defense held, and Jackson threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Rashod Bateman to tie it at 14 with 24 seconds left in the half.
Baltimore took a 21-14 lead when Jackson threaded a 14-yard scoring pass to Mark Andrews in the third quarter, but Goff answered with an 18-yard touchdown strike to St. Brown.
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