By Zachary McMahon-
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosted the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. The Bucs scored a big 51-27 victory over the Saints last Sunday, while the Ravens had won four straight after starting 0-2 in the season.
The Buccaneers opened up with a 25-yard passing touchdown from Baker Mayfield to Mike Evans in the opening drive, which was Evans 100th career receiving touchdown. Evans joined Randy Moss, Marvin Harrison, Jerry Rice and Terrell Owens as the only players to have 100 touchdowns in their first 11 seasons.
After Chase McLaughin kicked a chip-shot field goal in the second drive and the Bucs led 10-0, the Ravens dominated the rest of the game, scoring 34 unanswered points in the second and third quarters, while Lamar Jackson threw for four touchdowns in that span.
The Buccaneers tried to stage a large comeback starting with a 11-yard screen pass touchdown to Rachaad White, as he scored his first touchdown of 2024. The Ravens extended their lead once more with a 13-yard touchdown pass from Jackson to Derrick Henry, for his fifth touchdown pass of the game to make it 41-18.
Bucky Irving had scored a one-yard touchdown run, and then McLaughlin made an onside kick, and then White had another receiving touchdown as the Bucs cut the deficit to 41-31.
McLaughlin tried to onside kick it again, but it was recovered by the Ravens, and then a three-and-out as the Bucs stopped Justice Hill multiple times in the drive while former Bucs QB Josh Johnson was in, providing the Bucs another chance to make it a close game.
With 1:34 left in the game, the Bucs marched 44 yards down the field, but Mayfield ran up the middle but could not go out of bounds to salvage anymore time on the clock, as the Ravens played a great game with a victory by the score of 41-31.
Jackson went 17-for-22 with 285 passing yards and five passing touchdowns, while Mayfield threw for 370 yards with three passing touchdowns and two interceptions in the second quarter to Marlon Humphrey, in which he exited after the second interception with a knee injury.
Mike Evans grabbed his hamstring while trying to score a touchdown from a pass from Mayfield, and Chris Godwin had a serious injury in the fourth quarter that ESPN refused to show replays for.
The Ravens lead the NFL with 1,476 rushing yards, and is the fourth team since 1980 to have 1,400 or more rushing yards in their first seven games of a season, in which the 1984 Chicago Bears have the lead in that regard. The last team to achieve this was the 2019 Ravens who had 1,429 rushing yards in the first seven games, the first season that Jackson was the starter.
The Buccaneers will play against the Atlanta Falcons next Sunday at 1 pm on FOX, while the Ravens travel to Cleveland to face the Browns at 1 pm on CBS.
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