The Baltimore Ravens offense pummeled the New Orleans Saints on the ground during Monday night's 27-13 road victory, generating 188 rushing yards, including a game-high 93 and two touchdowns from Kenyan Drake on 24 totes.
"The human will can only take so much. It was just pounding down in and down out," Drake said via the Associated Press. "That's just what this team is all about -- just continuing to wear teams down and grind them out with four quarters of football."
Lamar Jackson threw for just 133 yards on 12-of-22 passing with a TD. In a pass-happy league, one would think a club that's leading pass catcher went for 24 yards had a dismal offensive performance.
Not Baltimore.
Despite a few misses from Jackson throwing, the Ravens had just one three-and-out on the night, generated 23 first downs (14 rushing), and consistently blew the Saints off the ball. Baltimore rushed 40 times for 188 yards, 4.7 yards per tote, with the two Drake scores.
"If you can stand up to that, more power to you, but more times than not we're going to win that battle," Drake said.
Jackson didn't have a great passing day while missing his top two targets. Still, the former AP NFL Most Valuable Player made a difference with his legs, dashing for 82 yards on 11 carries.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh knows he's got a difference-maker in Jackson even when the passing game isn't explosive.
"I do not take it for granted," Harbaugh said. "I think I said, 'Wow,' a couple of times. Lamar plays on a different level. You can't just look at the passing stats."
The Ravens' pass-game issues could become a problem when Baltimore faces more explosive offenses, but that isn't happening soon. Baltimore doesn't face a team that currently has a winning record until Week 18 against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Panthers, Jaguars, Broncos, Steelers, Browns and Falcons offenses aren't exactly scary.
The Ravens have some time to work out the kinks while hoping Mark Andrews gets healthy and Jackson can conjure consistent rapport with Baltimore's trove of receivers. In the meantime, they showed Monday the run game and defense can get them past the also-rans.
