5 things we learned from the Baltimore Ravens' Week 12 win over the Chargers

• A legacy game for Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen: The Ravens' starting linebackers had the best game all season by a duo at the position.

• Justin Madubuike’s sack streak continues: The interior defender’s breakout season provides the Ravens with a good offseason problem.

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Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

The Baltimore Ravens moved to 9-3 with a win over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football in Week 12.

It wasn’t a vintage offensive performance, but huge individual efforts on defense propelled the team.

Here are the five things we learned from the 20-10 victory.

A legacy game for Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen

If the Ravens don’t retain pending free agent Patrick Queen, something that has been expected since they declined his fifth-year option, then this is the final stretch of a linebacker partnership that has helped the team's defense dominate since Roquan Smith’s arrival at the trade deadline a year ago. Among the 61 linebackers to play at least 400 snaps this season, Smith's 87.8 PFF grade ranks fourth and Queen's 74.7 mark ranks 19th.

The duo was at its very best in Week 12, with both earning 90.0-plus PFF grades — something that no other NFL linebacker pair has done in 2023 when each played at least 30 snaps in the game. They combined for seven tackles resulting in a defensive stop against the Chargers, and each recorded a forced fumble and a pass breakup in coverage. Queen’s stat line from the game was particularly impressive, as he allowed just 13 yards on six receptions into his coverage.

Justin Madubuike’s sack streak continues

One of the Ravens' biggest offseason decisions will be whether to push to keep interior defensive lineman Justin Madubuike. The former third-round draft pick has played his way into a monster payday, leading all interior defenders with 11 sacks on the year and ranking fourth with 45 total pressures. He trails only Aaron Donald, Dexter Lawrence and Ed Oliver in the latter.

In Week 12, he registered a sack for the ninth straight game. While his consistency as a pass-rusher was lacking earlier in the season, he has come into his own over the past five games. His 74.2 PFF pass-rush grade since Week 8 is the fourth-best mark among interior defenders with at least 80 pass-rushing snaps, as is his 19.1% pass-rush win rate.

If Madubuike can maintain this level of play through the end of the season, then the Ravens are either paying for an elite interior pass-rusher or likely earning an early compensatory draft pick when another team pays him.

Is Kyle Hamilton heading for first-team All-Pro status?

Marcus Williams‘ return from injury has been important for the Ravens, not just because he’s a very good safety in coverage — with four pass breakups over the past two weeks alone — but also because of how it frees up Kyle Hamilton to be used as a weapon closer to the line of scrimmage. Hamilton is the seventh-highest-graded safety in the NFL this season, but his grade split based on where he lines up tells a more nuanced story.

Among the 72 safeties to play 150 or more snaps lined up at free safety, Hamilton ranks just 36th with a 64.6 PFF grade. He ranks 16th in PFF coverage grade, with his struggles in run defense bringing that overall figure down. Only three players have a lower PFF run-defense grade when lined up deep.

But from either the slot or the box, only Antoine Winfield Jr. beats out Hamilton's 84.5 overall PFF grade, and Hamilton's 83.0 PFF coverage grade close to the line of scrimmage is the best among safeties.

He’s good enough to erase short passes from opposing offenses, which was evident in the win over the Chargers. Hamilton made three tackles resulting in a defensive stop, including two where he dominated the attempted block by wide receivers before bringing the ball carrier down.

Keaton Mitchell is poised for an RB1 role

Mitchell tied with quarterback Lamar Jackson for the team lead in rushing attempts and led the way with 64 rushing yards in the win over the Chargers. He has proven over his short time on an NFL field that he has more juice than any other running back on the Ravens' roster. In Week 12, he broke off a run of 20 or more yards for the fourth straight game.

Baltimore's bye week comes at the perfect time for Mitchell to be featured more in the offense moving forward. And while the Ravens have very much employed a committee in recent weeks, with Gus Edwards seeing eight carries and Justice Hill recording five against the Chargers, it wouldn’t come as a huge shock to see Mitchell start to see an increase in touches when they take on the Los Angeles Rams in Week 14.

The blame for passing-game struggles is shared

The Ravens needed a big defensive performance to win on the road in Week 12, thanks to a lackluster showing from their passing game. It’s easy to assign blame to one element when an entire unit falters, but this was a case of there being plenty of blame to go around.

Lamar Jackson didn’t play well, going just 18-of-32 for 177 yards and making zero big-time throws for the fourth time in five games. Jackson was averaging two big-time throws per game through the first seven games of the season but has just three total over the past five weeks.

Part of that is the Ravens not pushing the ball downfield enough, with Jackson’s eight targets beyond the sticks tied for the third fewest among starting quarterbacks in the NFL this past week.

Struggles in pass protection contributed, as well. Three of the Ravens' starting five offensive linemen earned sub-60.0 PFF pass-blocking grades in the game. That led to Jackson having an average time to throw of 2.77 seconds, his second-lowest mark this season.