Burrow Throws Four TDs as Bengals Score 35 Straight — Ravens' Collapse Deepens
GOATIFYFor one half in Baltimore, Cincinnati barely looked capable of scoring. The Bengals ran just 15 offensive plays, gained 59 yards and watched the Ravens control the ball for more than 22 minutes. Yet Baltimore's advantage was only 13-0. That gap between territorial dominance and points became the opening Joe Burrow needed.
The second half was almost absurdly one-sided. Burrow threw four touchdown passes, Cincinnati scored on five consecutive possessions and the defense kept Baltimore off the scoreboard. The Bengals left M&T Bank Stadium with a 35-13 win on October 25, improving to 4-2 and pushing their AFC North rivals to 4-3.
For Cincinnati, the result showed how quickly its passing offense can change a game when Burrow, Tee Higgins and Ja'Marr Chase find rhythm. For Baltimore, it exposed something more alarming than a single bad quarter: the Ravens have now been outscored 48-0 across the second halves of consecutive losses. The game turned on execution, red-zone decisions and a series of possessions that Baltimore could no longer finish.
Baltimore owned the first half — but 13 points were never enough
The opening half had almost every feature of a Baltimore win except a commanding score. Tyler Huntley found Zay Flowers on a short throw that became a 48-yard touchdown, and the Ravens kept moving the chains even without injured starter Lamar Jackson. They outgained Cincinnati 258-59 before the break and held possession for 22:20. The Bengals had the ball for only 7:40, too little time to establish much of an offensive identity.
But two long Baltimore possessions ended with Tyler Loop field goals rather than touchdowns. An 18-play drive consumed roughly 11 minutes and produced three points. Another series went 13 plays and more than six minutes before a second short kick. A 13-0 lead reflected genuine control, but it also meant one successful Bengals drive could put immediate pressure on an offense that had already passed up chances to build separation.
The numbers reveal the difference between moving the ball and turning movement into leverage. Baltimore ultimately finished with slightly more total yardage than Cincinnati, yet its red-zone performance was 0-for-3 while the Bengals converted all five of their red-zone trips into touchdowns. That contrast mattered more than the overall yardage column. A 48-yard scoring play from outside the red zone was Baltimore's only touchdown, and its methodical possessions did not create the cushion they seemed to promise.
Jackson's absence was important without being a complete explanation. Huntley threw for 298 yards, a career high, and Flowers finished with eight catches for 137. Those are productive passing totals. The problem was sustaining the threat when the field compressed, especially as Cincinnati's rush began winning more downs. A team can control 30 minutes and still leave the opponent a clear path back if it repeatedly settles for the smallest reward.
Burrow went 16-for-18 after halftime and turned every drive into pressure
Burrow's first-half passing line was six completions on 12 attempts for 43 yards. His second-half line was 16 completions on 18 attempts for 249 yards and four touchdowns. The difference was not merely a hot stretch; it was a complete reversal in how frequently Cincinnati stayed ahead of the chains and found its playmakers in space.
The opening drive after halftime went 66 yards in nine plays. Burrow completed all six of his throws on the possession, including a third-down conversion to Higgins, before finding Mike Gesicki for a six-yard touchdown. Suddenly the deficit was 13-7. Baltimore went three-and-out, and Burrow responded with a 13-yard touchdown to Higgins that gave Cincinnati a 14-13 lead before the fourth quarter.
When the Ravens failed on fourth-and-2 from the Cincinnati 12 early in the final period, the Bengals answered with an 88-yard march finished by Samaje Perine's one-yard run. The next scoring drive covered 79 yards and ended with a two-yard touchdown pass to Chase. A Baltimore interception then handed Burrow a short field, and he completed the surge with a 16-yard scoring throw to Drew Sample. Five possessions, five touchdowns: Cincinnati never gave Baltimore the quiet series it needed to reset.
Burrow finished 22-of-30 for 292 yards, four touchdowns and no interceptions, good for a 143.3 passer rating. His four scoring passes went to four different receivers, an illustration of how difficult the Bengals are to cover once the quarterback has time and the route combinations begin to connect. He now has 15 passing touchdowns through six games, his highest total at that stage of a season. Cincinnati should not ignore the opening-half problems, but the response demonstrated the ceiling that makes this offense dangerous even after long stretches of frustration.
Higgins supplied the explosive plays; Chase supplied the urgency
Tee Higgins was the most reliable big-play option across the full game. He caught six passes for 148 yards and a touchdown, with two long fourth-quarter gains that rapidly moved Cincinnati from its own territory into scoring range. His 44-yard catch helped create Perine's touchdown; a 43-yard reception on the following scoring series helped set up Chase's short touchdown. Those gains forced Baltimore to defend the whole field instead of compressing its coverage near the sticks.
Higgins also converted a crucial third down on Cincinnati's first touchdown drive after the break. That play was less spectacular than the long completions, but it kept alive the possession that finally broke the shutout. He passed 6,000 career receiving yards in the game, reaching 6,012, and his 148-yard afternoon reinforced how often he can punish single coverage when defenses focus their attention on Chase.
Chase's contribution was different. He finished with five catches for 62 yards and a touchdown, but the Bengals credited him with an animated halftime challenge after the offense had managed only 15 plays. The response was visible in the tempo and decisiveness of the next five drives. Chase's 30-yard gain during the fourth-quarter burst preceded another Higgins strike, and his two-yard scoring catch made it 28-13. Leadership did not replace execution; it helped demand the level of execution Cincinnati had been missing.
The touchdown distribution also mattered. Gesicki, Higgins, Chase and Sample each caught one of Burrow's four scoring passes, while Perine added the rushing touchdown. Baltimore could not simply double one receiver and force a series of harmless checkdowns. Cincinnati combined explosive throws with short-field finishing, and its receivers created enough yards after the catch to turn ordinary completions into immediate scoring threats. The Bengals' next challenge is to produce that variety before falling two scores behind, not only after urgency has become unavoidable.
Four sacks and a late pick exposed Baltimore's second-half crisis
Cincinnati's comeback is easy to describe as a Burrow masterclass, but the defensive half of it was just as decisive. The Bengals recorded four sacks and did not allow a point after halftime. Boye Mafe accounted for two of those sacks, while rookie Cashius Howell and Dexter Lawrence II also reached Huntley. The rush increasingly disrupted Baltimore's down-and-distance rhythm, making its long first-half possessions difficult to reproduce.
The most consequential decision came with the Ravens trailing 14-13. Baltimore reached the Cincinnati 12 but chose to attempt fourth-and-2 instead of kicking a potential go-ahead field goal. Huntley's pass fell incomplete. Going for the first down was defensible in a game where touchdowns were becoming essential; the cost was magnified because Cincinnati immediately traveled 88 yards for another touchdown. The Ravens lost both a scoring opportunity and the chance to interrupt the Bengals' momentum.
Later, Huntley's pass was deflected and linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. secured the interception, returning it 14 yards to Baltimore's 24. Burrow's touchdown to Sample followed three plays later. The sequence turned a competitive game into a rout. Baltimore also committed 10 accepted penalties for 57 yards, compared with one for 15 by Cincinnati. Those mistakes were not the entire story, but they made recovery harder when every possession had become high pressure.
There is now a troubling pattern for Baltimore: Cleveland shut it out 13-0 in the second half a week earlier, and Cincinnati followed with a 35-0 second half. That is 48 unanswered points after halftime across two games. The Ravens are 1-2 during Jackson's three-game absence, but blaming the backup alone misses the broader problem. The defense surrendered five straight touchdowns, the offense repeatedly failed to finish drives and the sideline could not stop the momentum shift. Baltimore needs adjustments on both sides of the ball before its next trip to Buffalo.
The contrast in field position and drive finishing is especially telling. Cincinnati produced five touchdowns despite holding the ball for only 25 minutes overall. Baltimore had ten more minutes of possession but could not turn that advantage into a sustained second-half response. For a team with playoff ambitions, the urgent fix is not simply to start faster. It is to find reliable answers when opponents change tempo and the first script stops working.
The Bengals' 35-13 win should change the tone of their AFC North conversation without erasing the warning from the first half. They cannot rely on Burrow completing almost every pass after halftime each week. Still, Cincinnati now has a 4-2 record, a quarterback coming off consecutive four-touchdown outings and multiple receiving threats capable of changing a game in a handful of snaps.
Baltimore leaves at 4-3 with a harder question. Jackson's recovery remains central, but his return alone will not automatically fix a defense that has surrendered 48 unanswered second-half points in two games. The Ravens visit Buffalo next, while Cincinnati hosts Tennessee. The next week will show whether Sunday's reversal was a Bengals breakthrough or the clearest warning yet of a deeper Ravens problem.
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