NFL 2022, Week 8: Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs Baltimore Ravens, Thursday Night Football highlights

Baltimore Ravens were able to turn things around in the second half, despite losing two of their main targets, Rashod Bateman and Mark Andrews, to move past the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 27-22 in the Thursday Night football game of Week 8.

After going 2-0, the Buccaneers have now lost five of their last six games, while the Ravens have won three of their last four and lead the AFC North over the Cincinnati Bengals.

Also Read: Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ defense blocks Baltimore Ravens’ Justin Tucker kick to end first half: Watch

Tom Brady had a good first quarter, passing for over 100 yards. These were the QB’s most passing yards in the 1st quarter since Week 13 of the past season. On the other hand, Lamar Jackson attempted 30 passes in the first half, his most in any half in the current regular season.

Let’s look at the key takeaways from Buccs vs Ravens game: – 

1) Buccs offense has two good opening drives to begin the game

Leonard Fournette led the Buccaneers to the endzone on their opening drive of the game with a one-yard TD. In the second drive, Brady led the team to Baltimore’s 30-yard line from where they converted a 31-yard field goal from kicker Ryan Succop in the final seconds of the first quarter, ending it with a score of 10-3.

2) Ravens try to take advantage of the banged-up Bucs secondary, but struggle

With four of their top six defensive backs out this week owing to injuries, Tampa Bay was likely to struggle in the game from the tip-off, but was surprisingly able to hold off the highly offensive Ravens to just three points in the first half. Lamar Jackson could not take full advantage of the deprived defensive side as Baltimore posted only seven carries for 27 yards by the end of the second quarter.

3) Andrews and Edwards get injured, but Likely and Drake step up

The Ravens lost their crucial offensive weapons Mark Andrews and Gus Edwards owing to shoulder and hamstring injuries, respectively, during the course of the game but were still able to come out victorious.

RB Kenyan Drake scored the TD in the third quarter to tie the game 10-10 while rookie tight end Isaiah Likely scored a crucial TD in the third quarter that gave the Ravens their first lead of the game, 16-10.

Also Read: NFL 2022 Week 8: Injury updates

4) Bucs offense stalls and struggles to put up points

The Bucs had a quiet offense in the second and third quarters as Ravens slowly started a comeback.  The team had a one-dimensional offense after scoring a TD and a field goal in their first two drives of the game, which led to five straight punts at one point and seven consecutive drives without reaching the end zone.

5) Julio scores a garbage time TD in his first game back

It was Julio Jones first game back from a torn PCL injury that he suffered in Week 1 against the Dallas Cowboys. He was not targeted through the first three quarters but received a TD pass from Tom Brady with just a minute to go in the game and it was considered a waste of an opportunity as the final scoreline of the game was already decided by then.