[Baltimore Sun] Ravens ride Derrick Henry to huge lead, hang on to beat Cowboys, 28-25, for first win
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ARLINGTON, Texas — The last time Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson was at AT&T Stadium, it was draft night in 2018, and he promised he would deliver Baltimore a Super Bowl trophy. Sunday, Jackson and a gashing ground game helped keep that promise alive for this season.
Jackson rushed for 87 yards and a touchdown and completed 12 of 15 passes for 182 yards and another score, while running back Derrick Henry had 151 yards on 25 carries and two touchdowns to lead the Ravens to their first win of the season, a 28-25 nail-biter over the Cowboys.
The victory moves the Ravens to 1-2 and kept them from their first 0-3 start since 2015.
It also helps make their road to the postseason perhaps less daunting. Since 2002, 103 teams have started 0-3 and only one — the 2018 Houston Texans — went on to make the playoffs.
Just as notable, however, was how Baltimore bullied Dallas from the start — and also how the Cowboys turned the tables in the fourth quarter by scoring three straight touchdowns to turn a 22-point deficit into a three-point game.
Perhaps no drive typified the Ravens’ early dominance than an eight-play, 88-yard march in the final three minutes of the first half to put the Cowboys in a hole from which they could not ultimately recover.
With 3:07 left in the second quarter and the ball on Baltimore’s 12-yard line, Henry followed a 12-yard gain with a 13-yard jaunt around the left side in which he carried Dallas’ star outside linebacker Micah Parsons for about a half-dozen yards before finally going down.
With the Ravens running at will, that helped set up short passes to running back Justice Hill and then Henry for 13 and 23 more yards before Jackson eventually found a wide-open Rashod Bateman in the middle of the end zone for a 13-yard touchdown.
It was the enigmatic receiver’s first score of the year — and just the fifth of his four-year career — and gave Baltimore a commanding 21-3 lead.
And even when things went wrong for the Ravens, they ended up all right.
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With 25 seconds left in the half, Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott connected with receiver CeeDee Lamb for a 30-yard completion against rookie cornerback Nate Wiggins to Baltimore’s 33-yard line. On the next play, Wiggins tackled Lamb on a lob into the end zone and was penalized for pass interference.
But Cowboys rookie tackle Tyler Guyton was flagged for holding on the play, and the Cowboys had to settle for a 51-yard field goal from Brandon Aubrey, who also connected on a 65-yarder earlier in the game — 1 yard shy of Justin Tucker’s NFL record.
Dallas trailed 21-6 at the half, an all-too-familiar sight for the home crowd. In the first half of its past four home games, the Cowboys have been outscored by 54 points.
After the Ravens racked up 272 total yards in the opening 30 minutes — including 111 rushing — they continued to pound Dallas, running the ball five straight times for 70 yards and a touchdown on the opening series of the third quarter. Henry did most of the damage, ripping off a 29-yard gain and then scoring from 26 yards out to make it 28-6.
A week after the Cowboys surrendered 190 rushing yards in an embarrassing 44-13 loss to the New Orleans Saints, they were torched for 191 by early in the third quarter as the Ravens finished with 274 yards on the ground.
Baltimore’s defense, meanwhile, was equally dominant — through three quarters, at least.
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The Cowboys were held to 169 yards in the first half, including just 32 rushing, but finished with 412 after a dominant fourth quarter in which they reached the end zone three times in six minutes and racked up 211 yards. Prescott, who was sacked twice and pressured through much of the first half, finished 28 of 51 passing for 379 yards and two touchdowns, while Lamb had only four catches for 67 yards.
Baltimore had allowed an opposing receiver to record more than 100 yards in each of the first two games and entered Sunday ranked 31st in the league in passing defense, having allowed 11 plays of 20 or more yards. That reared its head in an ugly fourth quarter.
The Ravens’ much-maligned offensive line — which didn’t have any changes to the starting lineup despite coach John Harbaugh hinting at it on Friday — also held its own, and then some.
In addition to clearing the way for a punishing ground assault, they kept Parsons at bay most of the afternoon as the two-time All-Pro had just five tackles, one quarterback hit and no sacks. The rest of the Cowboys were also held without a sack.
This article will be updated.
Week 4
Bills at Ravens
Sunday, 8:20 p.m.
TV: NBC
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson scores a rushing touchdown in the first quarter Sunday against the Cowboys in Arlington, Texas. (Julio Cortez/AP)
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