CINCINNATI – An extremely disappointed J.K. Dobbins believes the outcome would have been different if the Ravens had given him the ball, rather than quarterback Tyler Huntley, near the goal line on a key play in the fourth quarter in Baltimore’s loss. Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday night.
With the Ravens trailing their AFC North rivals 24-17, Huntley committed the game’s most important fumble when he broke a tie at the 17, losing the ball as he bounced into the end zone and then returned his turnover 98 yards. touchdown pass by Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard. The Ravens were on the verge of a touchdown when they trailed by seven points with 11:39 left.
“He should never have been in that situation,” Dobbins said. “I don’t get any transfers. I didn’t get any transfer. He should never have been in this situation. I think I’d put it back in the end zone.”
Dobbins was upset he was limited to 62 yards on 13 carries and didn’t get another red-zone touchdown after making his way to a 2-yard touchdown in the second quarter. In that pivotal fourth-quarter series, Baltimore ran three plays inside the Bengals’ 3-yard line, and Dobbins didn’t get the ball once.
“I’m a guy who feels like I have to be on the field all the time,” Dobbins said. “It’s the playoffs. Why am I not there?”
This isn’t the first time Dobbins has expressed his desire to get the ball more. He told reporters on Friday that he wanted the game “on my back.” After Sunday’s game, Dobbins said he told the coaches on the sideline he wanted to be more involved.
“I had to be that guy. I’m tired of holding it back,” said Dobbins, who averaged 6.9 yards per carry in four games since dislocating the knee. “I’m a playmaker. I’m the kind of guy that my teammates feed off of me when I’m on the field.”
Ravens coach John Harbaugh was asked if there was discussion about giving the ball to Dobbins or running back Gus Edwards instead of going with a quarterback sneak.
“We felt like we had a good call, it was a push and shove game. It wasn’t going the right way,” Harbaugh said. “Tyler over the top, it’s a hole play, he has to go low on it. This is how the play is designed. We felt like it was the best call, we just didn’t get it right.”
Many Ravens players said they didn’t wonder if they would have won if Huntley had been quarterbacked by Lamar Jackson, who also threw an interception in the opener. Jackson missed his sixth straight game with a sprained PCL in his left knee.
Baltimore cornerback Marlon Humphrey estimated Jackson is 50-60 percent healthy.
“I just don’t think he was really healthy enough to really go out there,” Humphrey said. “There was a lot of speculation that he didn’t have a contract. I don’t even know if I should say this, but he’s like limping around the facility. That’s kind of the crazy thing that people don’t see. Obviously we knew he wasn’t going to be with us, but hopefully we’ll get him a big deal and he’s a Raven with me forever.”
Dobbins also didn’t hold back on how much Jackson’s return would affect Sunday’s playoff game.
“If we had Lamar, we would have won, too,” he said.
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