OWINGS MILLS, Md. (AP) — Zay Flowers showed a national TV audience how he can impact a game — and added a couple clever touchdown celebrations to boot.
Baltimore’s offense didn’t have many other highlights, but the Ravens did enough to earn another road win.
Flowers caught a touchdown pass and scored on a fourth-quarter run, and the Ravens were stout again defensively in their 20-10 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday night. Baltimore is 5-1 on the road this season and holds the top spot in the AFC entering its open date.
The Ravens (9-3) can spend next weekend watching Miami (8-3), Jacksonville (8-3) and Kansas City (8-3) try to pull even with them atop the conference. Baltimore held the Chargers to 279 yards of offense, and Flowers came up big. The rookie receiver caught a 3-yard touchdown pass from Lamar Jackson in the second quarter, then broke free for a 37-yard TD run that made it 20-10 with 1:36 to play in the game.
After his first touchdown, Flowers and some teammates pantomimed a wedding bouquet toss. Following the second, he used the football to act out a soccer penalty kick.
“Guys having fun, shows their personalities,” offensive coordinator Todd Monken said. “I’m certainly not involved. I mean, certain things we did weren’t nearly as choreographed as those. So we have our work cut out for us, trying to choreograph our offense.”
WHAT’S WORKING
This was the fifth time this season Baltimore has held a team to 10 points or fewer, and the Ravens have done it against a variety of quarterbacks: C.J. Stroud, Dorian Thompson-Robinson, Jared Goff, Geno Smith and Justin Herbert.
Baltimore forced four turnovers against Los Angeles.
Even when the Chargers reached the red zone, they didn’t have an easy time of it. Early in the fourth quarter, Jadeveon Clowney sacked Herbert and forced a fumble that the Baltimore edge rusher recovered himself.
“That might have been the play of the game,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said. “That rush, that sack, that recovery, the whole thing. … Hall of Fame-type play.”
WHAT NEEDS WORK
There were some game management issues that Baltimore struggled with — both the coaching staff and the players.
In the first half, the Ravens didn’t challenge a spot on a run by Jackson that was marked short, instead lining up for a fourth-and-1 play that was stopped.
Harbaugh said Monday he doesn’t think the Ravens would have won a challenge on that play. But in the second half, Baltimore was again marked short of a first down and quickly ran a third-down play instead of challenging.
“Everybody in the stadium thought that was a first down. They came on TV in our press box as a first down, and we thought (the referee) pointed first down,” Harbaugh said Monday. “We called a first-down play there, so we wasted a play on that one, administratively. That was one you’d like to have back. We regret the fact that we didn’t realize that they marked it short.”
The Ravens lost a challenge in the second half after a trick play by Los Angeles, and even Flowers’ second touchdown probably shouldn’t have happened. If he’d gone down in bounds, Baltimore could have taken a knee to run out the clock.
STOCK UP
TE Isaiah Likely. With Mark Andrews out with an ankle injury, Likely caught four passes for 40 yards.
STOCK DOWN
OT Ronnie Stanley. This was not one of Baltimore’s best games in terms of pass protection, even though Jackson took only two sacks. Harbaugh said Stanley, whose knee has been bothering him, has been struggling.
“I think he’d probably be the first to tell you it’s not been great,” Harbaugh said. “He needs to get stronger and needs to get his technique right.”
INJURIES
Harbaugh said second-year linebacker David Ojabo, who hasn’t played since Week 3, had surgery last week to repair a partially torn ACL. He’s expected back by training camp.
KEY NUMBER
.655 — The combined current winning percentage of Baltimore’s last five opponents of the regular season. After the open date, the Ravens face the Rams, Jaguars, 49ers, Dolphins and Steelers, who are 36-19.
NEXT STEPS
The home game against Los Angeles on Dec. 10 is a return to afternoon football for the Ravens. Their last two games were at night — and so are the next two after the matchup with the Rams.
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