The Baltimore Ravens waiting until Saturday to get their best win of the season, with Tyler Huntley replacing injured Lamar Jackson and their playoff hopes out of their hands, was as frustrating as their season itself.
The entire Ravens season has been disappointing. It started with them as a Super Bowl favorite, and due to injuries and poor play, Baltimore fell all the way to 7-8. Its playoff chances would have been extinguished with a loss to the Green Bay Packers on Saturday night. And that’s when Baltimore finally looked like one of the NFL’s best teams, after it might be too late. That depends on the Cleveland Browns.
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The Ravens beat the Packers 41-24 at Lambeau Field, overcoming Malik Willis’ huge game in place of Jordan Love for Green Bay. They were led by Derrick Henry, who had a career-high 36 carries for 216 yards and four touchdowns. It was Henry’s seventh 200-yard rushing game, setting the NFL record that he had shared with Adrian Peterson and O.J. Simpson.
“It’s one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen,” head coach John Harbaugh said postgame. “It was hard downhill running, but also a lot of make [defenders] miss.”
Said Huntley: “When he touched that ball, I was like, ‘Yeah, they not ready. They not ready.’ He ran straight downhill.”
The NFC playoff picture got clearer with Saturday night’s result. The Bears clinched the NFC North title with Green Bay’s loss.
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Now Baltimore needs the 3-12 Browns to beat the 9-6 Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday to keep its playoff hopes alive.
Derrick Henry had one of the best games of his career, running for 216 yards on 36 carries for four TDs. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
(Michael Reaves via Getty Images)
“I’m trying to make it out of here so I can call Shedeur [Sanders] real quick, make sure he can get it done,” Huntley joked about the rookie Cleveland quarterback.
The Ravens brought that on themselves by being one of the NFL’s most disappointing teams for the first 16 weeks of the season.
If the Browns beat the Steelers on Sunday, the Ravens-Steelers game in Week 18 will be for the AFC North championship. That would give the NFL a winner-take-all matchup to flex into Sunday night of the season’s final week. But the NFL, and the Ravens, need the Browns to cooperate. If the Steelers win, the Ravens will be eliminated from playoff contention.
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And that would come just as the Ravens started showing some signs of life.
“We do need a little of a favor from Cleveland,” Henry said with a smile.
Derrick Henry’s monster half
A week after Henry didn’t get any snaps over the last 12:30 of a loss to the New England Patriots and Harbaugh was criticized for it, Henry was a huge part of the gameplan against the Packers.
“Maybe we were more intentional, maybe we didn’t get away from it” Harbaugh said of getting Henry the ball.
Henry had 21 carries, 106 yards and three touchdowns before halftime against the Packers. He scored a 3-yard touchdown on the Ravens’ first drive, getting Baltimore off to a fast start. Without Jackson the Ravens used a run-heavy approach, and it worked early.
The Packers had a couple of drives end abruptly. On a fourth-and-1 run, Josh Jacobs was stopped for no gain. Baltimore turned that into a field goal. Later in the first half, a shotgun snap came before Willis was ready for it, the ball bounced off his facemask and to the ground and Baltimore recovered. The Ravens got another field goal off that mistake.
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Willis was playing well and keeping the Packers in it. He had a 39-yard touchdown pass to Christian Watson and a 22-yard rushing touchdown. Willis has played well since joining the Packers when he has had to replace Love and as a free agent in 2026, he has put himself near the top of the list of potentially available free-agent quarterbacks.
Even with Willis playing well, the Ravens kept coming. Henry scored his third touchdown of the first half with 10 seconds to go before halftime, passing Adrian Peterson for fourth place all time with his 121st career rushing touchdown, and the Ravens led 27-14 at halftime.
Ravens fans were probably wondering where that version of their team had been all season.
Ravens hold on
Willis impressed everyone with his play. He had 288 yards passing with a 134.6 passer rating, and also rushed for 60 yards and a pair of touchdowns. He made some strong throws and showed off his athleticism, and had everyone wondering what team would pay him in free agency to be its starter in 2026. But during the fourth quarter, Willis threw a pass and grabbed near his right shoulder. He had injured his right shoulder a week before in a loss to the Bears. He went back to the locker room and Clayton Tune came in. Tune’s first pass went through the hands of receiver Bo Melton and was intercepted by Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who was playing despite suffering a hand injury earlier in the game. Henry ran for his fourth touchdown after that to seal the win.
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Although the Packers can’t win the NFC North anymore, they’re still going to the playoffs. But they’ll do so with a defense that has not played well without Micah Parsons. They had few answers for Henry and even Huntley, who had a solid game with Jackson out. Huntley had 107 passing yards and a touchdown while also rushing for 61 yards.
The Ravens will have to find out if they’re alive for the playoffs before even entertaining the possibility of whether his back will be healthy enough for him to play in the season finale. Huntley did his job on Saturday night. Now the Ravens, which used to be the Browns before team owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore in 1996, have to hope Cleveland has an upset win up its sleeve on Sunday.
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“I’ll be watching and praying for sure,” Henry said. “[I’ll] pray as soon as I get on the plane, when I get home in the morning when I wake up. And hopefully we get blessed with the opportunity to have to play for something in Week 18.”
Follow along with Yahoo Sports for live updates, highlights and more as the Baltimore Ravens and Green Bay Packers face off on Saturday night:
Live coverage is over35 updatesSat, December 27, 2025 at 3:42 PM PST
Ryan Young
Ryan Young
Thanks to their win, the Ravens aren’t out of the playoff race just yet. They’ll need two things to happen in order to sneak in:
1. Browns beat the Steelers in Week 17
2. Ravens beat the Steelers in Week 18
If they can pull both of those off, the Ravens will have won the AFC North.
And in other playoff news, the Packers’ loss means that the Bears have won the NFC North. Both the Packers and the Bears have already clinched playoff spots.
Ryan Young
Derrick Henry had a ridiculous FOUR touchdowns in the win for Baltimore.
He finished with:
A career-high 36 carries
216 rushing yards
A career-matching 4 rushing touchdowns
Ryan Young
The Baltimore Ravens have pulled off the upset win, and their playoff hopes aren’t done just yet.
Sat, December 27, 2025 at 7:57 PM PST
Yahoo Sports Staff
Derrick Henry finished his Saturday night with an exclamation point. The 25-yard TD put him at 216 yards. According to NBC, his seven 200-yard rushing games is the most for a RB in NFL history.
Sat, December 27, 2025 at 7:51 PM PST
Yahoo Sports Staff
Derrick Henry has 35 rushing attempts and counting as Baltimore salts this game away. They got an assist from Green Bay who jumped offside on a hard count on fourth down.
Sat, December 27, 2025 at 7:43 PM PST
Yahoo Sports Staff
Clayton Tune’s first pass of the game is picked off after it goes off the hands of a receiver and into Marlon Humphrey’s waiting arms.
Ravens are in great position to ice this game and stay alive, barely, in the AFC playoff race.
Ryan Young
Malik Willis threw a ball there and immediately doubled over in pain. He’s dealing with a shoulder injury from last week, and seems to have aggravated it again.
Now, Clayton Tune is coming in to replace him.
Ryan Young
Zay Flowers just barely got the ball over the pylon there on third down, and the Ravens have scored another touchdown. What an incredible play from Flowers there to push the Ravens back up by 10.
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The Ravens are clinging onto a three-point lead with just 15 minutes left, but they’re into Green Bay territory now after this huge run from Derrick Henry. He’s pushing 150 yards now tonight with his hat trick.
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After a perfectly-placed 34-yard ball to Bo Melton on third down to keep the drive alive, Malik Willis opted to keep it himself. He scrambled 11 yards to the right and into the end zone for his second rushing touchdown of the night.
The Ravens’ lead is down to just three points.
Ryan Young
That’s a huge stop for the Packers defense after forcing a third-and-long. The Ravens will punt it away now in what is the first punt of the game from either side.
That’s exactly what Green Bay needed here. Now we’ll see if they can turn it into points.
Ryan Young
Packers CB Kamal Hadden is being carted off the field now after he went down with what the broadcasters described as a gruesome lower leg injury. Peacock wouldn’t show the replay, either.
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A touchdown would’ve been much better, but points are points. After getting inside the 10 yard line, both Josh Jacobs and Malik Willis were stuffed on three straight plays to force a short field goal.
The Ravens lead 27-17 now with 9:10 left in the third.
Sat, December 27, 2025 at 6:51 PM PST
Yahoo Sports Staff
Yes, Derrick Henry is the star this evening. But Malik Willis isn’t going out quietly.
Sat, December 27, 2025 at 6:49 PM PST
Yahoo Sports Staff
Malik Willis shook off a big sack on the opening drive of the second half and have the Packers near the red zone.
Sat, December 27, 2025 at 6:38 PM PST
Yahoo Sports Staff
The Packers’ defense had a terrible first half against backup QB Tyler Huntley, RB Derrick Henry and the Ravens.
You could hear the boos from the Lambeau Field crowd.
This sums it up:
Sat, December 27, 2025 at 6:31 PM PST
Yahoo Sports Staff
Derrick Henry scored his third touchdown of the half, silencing Lambeau Field and bringing joy to fantasy managers who stuck with him this deep into the season.
He passed Adrian Peterson on the all-time rushing TD list with his 121st score. He’s fourth on that list, trailing Marcus Allen (123), LaDainian Tomlinson (145) and Emmitt Smith (164).
Sat, December 27, 2025 at 6:27 PM PST
Yahoo Sports Staff
Baltimore’s drive continues on an 11-yard Isaiah Likely and a brutal penalty against Green Bay, a 15-yard unnecessary roughness call.
Sat, December 27, 2025 at 6:25 PM PST
Yahoo Sports Staff
Tyler Huntley and the Ravens are past midfield with less than a minute left after a 25 yard run from the QB.
Sat, December 27, 2025 at 6:19 PM PST
Yahoo Sports Staff
Malik Willis ran for a 22-yard score to cut into the Ravens’ lead.