Zay Flowers' Unfortunate Streak Continues in Ravens Loss

Opportunity Lost with the Brush of a Hand

He was provided with another public stage in the form of Thanksgiving Day football against the Cincinnati Bengals, who rostered their own Ravens heel in Joe Burrow. Jackson even set Flowers up with a perfect opportunity to end the skid with a downfield bomb from the Ravens' logo, placing a ball right in his pass-catcher's bucket for an early go-ahead scoring drive.

But that's where the game's referees noticed how Flowers had created the space required to come down with Jackson's huck. Video replay revealed that he'd ever-so-slightly pushed off on his cornerback, DJ Turner II, a second before securing the catch, sending the team all the way back to midfield in yet another momentum-killer.

That was more of that same self-inflicted damage that the Ravens suffered from all evening long in an eventual 32-14 loss. Fumbles, interceptions, blown coverages and that pivotal offensive pass interference call cost them over and over again in their shot at securing a divisional lead, as they had to settle for a 6-6 record and their first defeat to an AFC North team all fall.

Flowers may want that moment back, even if his contact seemed merely marginal. Removal of that explosive play left him with six total yards on the night for a season-low, as well as yet another game gone without a second touchdown. And he certainly didn't help matters when he coughed up his own fumble with the game already lost in the final minutes, further salt poured into the Ravens' wounds.

His season debut set a standard that he's failed to meet, even if Baltimore's brief spell in the quarterback carousel amidst Jackson's prior hamstring injury may have cost him some precious targets. Flowers has yet to cross the 80-yard threshold in a game since that agonizing Bills loss, and he's since rocketed to the top of the squad's most-blamed players now that his team's hit another low point.