Thanksgiving Turning Point: Will the Ravens Blowout Loss to the Bengals Define Their 2025 Season?
The Ravens did not just lose a football game on Thanksgiving night; they may have squandered the momentum of one of the league’s most unlikely midseason turnarounds. After digging themselves into a 1-5 hole, Baltimore had fought all the way back to .500 and into the thick of the AFC North race, only to unravel in a five-turnover, 32-14 home defeat to the Bengals. The loss did not strip away a cushy lead so much as it tightened the vise on a team that had already burned through its margin for error in September and early October. In a year when the eventual AFC North winner is likely to land in the nine-to-10-win range, the Ravens now have to treat every remaining week like an elimination game if they want this comeback story to end with a division crown instead of a cautionary tale.
What made the loss so gutting was how self-inflicted so many of the wounds were. Lamar Jackson was at the center of the chaos, coughing up the ball twice on fumbles and throwing an interception on a forced throw that swung field position and momentum. Zay Flowers and Isaiah Likely each added to the pile with fumbles of their own, turning what could have been big plays into back-breaking mistakes. Likely’s gaffe was particularly brutal: a 43-yard catch-and-run that should have been a signature moment in the comeback story instead ended with the ball punched out just before he crossed the goal line, flipping a likely touchdown into a touchback and symbolizing the night’s collapse in one painful sequence.
That context turns next Sunday’s home matchup against the Steelers into something bigger than a typical rivalry showdown. Pittsburgh sits slightly ahead in the standings, and with Baltimore now chasing instead of leading, a loss at M&T Bank Stadium would essentially force the Ravens to run the table to feel good about either the division or a Wild Card spot. A win, on the other hand, would reset the race and give Baltimore a path where 3-2 down the stretch might still be enough to finish atop the North. In a division this tightly packed, sweeping your home games is usually the baseline for a champion; Thanksgiving ensured that baseline is now non-negotiable.
From there, the schedule only gets more demanding, starting with a return date with Joe Burrow and the Bengals, this time in Cincinnati. That rematch now looms as a referendum on whether the Ravens learned anything from the turnover-filled meltdown under the national spotlight. Go to Cincinnati, protect the ball, and steal a win, and suddenly the earlier embarrassment reads more like a wake-up call than a defining failure. Lose again to Burrow, especially in a similar fashion, and the Ravens will be staring at tiebreaker nightmares and a scenario where even 9-8 might not be enough to sniff the division crown.
The out-of-division games against the Patriots and Packers are where contenders typically create separation and where pretenders trip over their own inconsistencies. Both opponents have flaws, but both are well-coached enough to punish a team that treats those weeks as breathers rather than business trips. For Baltimore, those games should be treated as mandatory deposits into the win column, especially if the goal is to avoid needing a Week 18 miracle. Drop one of them, and suddenly 10 wins becomes less a luxury target and more a hard requirement to keep division hopes alive.
All of it sets up the season finale in Pittsburgh as a potential all-in showdown for the AFC North title and a playoff berth in one icy, emotionally charged afternoon. If both teams navigate the next month in a similar fashion, the Ravens could walk into Acrisure Stadium knowing that a win delivers a division crown while a loss sends them home. That is where Thanksgiving comes back into focus: had Baltimore taken care of business against Cincinnati, that finale might have been for seeding or pride instead of survival. If the Ravens end this season stuck at eight or nine wins and on the outside looking in, this Bengals loss will be the night they replay all offseason as the moment everything slipped from their grasp.
