Ravens have struggled to stop Chase, but Higgins will miss Cincinnati's game at Baltimore

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Ravens have struggled to stop Chase, but Higgins will miss Cincinnati's game at Baltimore

2025-11-27 03:18 Last Updated At：03:21

Cincinnati (3-8) at Baltimore (6-5)

Thursday 8:20 p.m. EST, NBC

BetMGM NFL Odds: Ravens by 7.

Against the spread: Bengals 4-7; Ravens 4-7.

Series record: Ravens lead 32-27.

Last meeting: Ravens beat Bengals 35-34 on Nov. 7, 2024, at Baltimore.

Last week: Bengals lost to Patriots 26-20; Ravens beat Jets 23-10.

Bengals offense: overall (23), rush (30), pass (14), scoring (T-18).

Bengals defense: overall (32), rush (32), pass (31), scoring (32).

Ravens offense: overall (21), rush (6), pass (29), scoring (10).

Ravens defense: overall (24), rush (20), pass (24), scoring (20).

Turnover differential: Bengals minus-7; Ravens even.

QB Joe Burrow returns to the lineup after missing nine games because of a turf toe injury. The six-year veteran is 3-6 in starts against the Ravens with three of his five highest-yardage games coming against Baltimore. He passed for 428 yards and four touchdowns in last season’s Thursday night matchup in Baltimore, but was unable to complete a pass for a 2-point conversion late in the game as the Ravens held on for a one-point win.

QB Lamar Jackson missed time with a hamstring injury earlier this season. Since then he's been able to play despite ankle, knee and toe issues. But he hasn't been much of a running threat and Baltimore's offense still doesn't look right. Can Jackson get it going against a weak Cincinnati defense?

Ravens RB Derrick Henry vs. Bengals Defense: The Bengals are ranked 31st in the league run defense, allowing 156 yards per game. Henry is tied for sixth in the league with 871 yards. He has 665 yards after contact this season, sixth most in the NFL. The Bengals have allowed 1,059 rushing yards after contact to running backs, second most behind only the Bills (1,099).

Bengals: WR Tee Higgins (concussion), DE Trey Hendrickson (hip) and RB Tahj Brooks (concussion) have been ruled out. Ravens: WR Rashod Bateman (ankle) did not play last weekend. He was limited at practice this week. S Kyle Hamilton (ankle) was limited at practice this week as well. RB Justice Hill (neck) missed practice time this week.

The Bengals beat Baltimore in the first round of the playoffs three seasons ago. Since then, the Ravens have taken all four meetings, three by three points or fewer. ... Cincinnati WR Ja’Marr Chase had 21 receptions (10 in Week 5 and 11 in Week 10) for 457 yards (193 in Week 5 and 264 in Week 10) and five touchdowns (two in Week 5 and three in Week 10) against Baltimore last season, the most yards receiving by a player against an opponent in a season in NFL history. ... Burrow's career passer rating against the Ravens, including playoffs, is 104.3. Jackson's against the Bengals is 104.5.

The Bengals have lost four straight, marking the fourth time in Zac Taylor’s seven-year tenure they have had a skid of at least four games. … This is the second time Cincinnati has played on Thanksgiving, It lost at the New York Jets 26-10 in 2010. … Burrow has passed for at least 350 yards and three touchdowns in three of his past four games in prime time. … RB Chase Brown has at least 100 yards from scrimmage in five straight games, the longest active streak in the league. He has scored a touchdown in two straight games against the Ravens. … Bengals LB Demertrius Knight Jr. is second among rookies with 78 tackles. … Cincinnati LB Barrett Carter has at least 10 tackles in four games this season. … S Geno Stone, who spent his first four seasons with Baltimore, had his second career pick-6 last week along with a career-high 13 tackles for the Bengals. … Cincinnati CB DJ Turner leads the league with 15 passes defensed. … Bengals K Evan McPherson set a franchise record with a 63-yard field goal on the last play of the first half last week. ... After a 1-5 start, the Ravens have won five in a row to pull into a first-place tie with Pittsburgh in the AFC North. ... Baltimore has held six straight opponents under 20 points, the longest active streak in the NFL. ... The Ravens are 22-4 in home prime-time games under coach John Harbaugh, although that includes a loss to Detroit earlier this season. ... Baltimore's Mark Andrews needs three receptions to pass Derrick Mason (471) for the franchise's career record. ... Henry needs 19 yards rushing to pass Hall of Famer Jim Brown (12,312) for 11th on the career list. ... DeAndre Hopkins of the Ravens needs one catch to reach 1,000. ... Baltimore P Jordan Stout is first in the league in net average (46.2) and second in gross average (51.4). ... Ravens DB Marlon Humphrey has 17 career forced fumbles, including a big one near the goal line last weekend.

The Ravens have struggled in the red zone, but against the Cincinnati defense they could get plenty of chances. Henry, Andrews and Bateman (if healthy) are the ones to watch.

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

The Latest: Vance and Iranian negotiators are in Switzerland to work on deal's details

U.S. and Iranian negotiators were in Switzerland on Sunday for talks on their interim agreement to end the Iran war. Pakistani and Qatari mediators also were there for the technical-level discussions on resolving the conflict that the U.S. and Israel began in late February.

The U.S. team is led by Vice President JD Vance and includes Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. They are meeting with Iranian negotiators led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

On the eve of talks, Tehran said it closed the Strait of Hormuz again over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon. The interim deal is meant to stop fighting on all fronts, including Lebanon.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose American tolls in the strait if a final deal with Iran isn’t reached in 60 days. The interim agreement calls for toll-free travel for 60 days in the waterway that is vital for the world’s supply of oil, natural gas and related goods like fertilizer.

Here is the latest:

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed concern that some Iranians could openly protest again. He said in a speech reported by semiofficial news outlets that “what I fear is that we may fail to satisfy the people, and that they may come out into the streets to protest," which could affect the country's unity during negotiations with the U.S.

Iran saw nationwide protests weeks before the war began as unrest over the weak economy turned into anti-government anger. Thousands of people were killed in the crackdown that followed, the bloodiest since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. For a while, the U.S. and Israel mentioned regime change in Iran among their war goals.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright says 67 ships went through the Strait of Hormuz in the last 24 hours, similar to traffic before the war began in terms of oil and oil products.

Iran’s joint military command on Saturday said it had closed the strait over Israel’s military campaign in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group. The U.S. disputed that announcement.

Wright also told Fox News that Iran has not yet “demined” the strait’s central shipping channel, but the U.S. has opened a separate channel to the south and has been escorting ships through it.

Wright acknowledged that some commercial shippers still have safety concerns.

Israel’s military issued a statement around the time that direct talks began. Its chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, was speaking from southern Lebanon. He said “the ceasefire that has been declared is fragile, and we must maintain a high level of readiness for the renewal of combat operations.”

He said the military continues to defend against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its efforts to rebuild.

The last time that Vance met directly with senior Iranian officials for such talks was in early April, days after a ceasefire took effect in the war. Those talks in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad ended after 21 hours without reaching an agreement. Again, Vance was meeting with lead negotiator Qalibaf.

It's now after 4 p.m. in Switzerland.

Both Iran and the White House say four-way talks have begun in Switzerland. Vance is meeting with Iranian officials.

Trump hopes to get the agreement signed last week back on track. Israel's ongoing military campaign in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group threatens progress on implementation.

Iran says its main focus in these talks is the situation in Lebanon. Israel says it must defend itself from Hezbollah. But the U.S. side wants to get Iran locked into negotiations over its nuclear program, which has long been at the heart of tensions.

Trump has warned in a post on social media that Iran needs to stop Hezbollah from “causing trouble.”

"If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!” Trump wrote from Camp David, where he is spending the weekend.

The U.S. vice president spoke as officials were gathering for the start of the U.S.-Iran talks on Sunday.

“The question before us now is how much more can we accomplish together? Can we turn over a new leaf?” Vance said in brief comments ahead of the talks, dubbed the “Lake Lucerne Summit.”

“Can we change relations in the Middle East permanently, or do we go back to doing things the old way, which is not our preference, but is certainly very much something that can happen,” Vance added.

It was not clear if the Iranians were present during Vance's remarks.

The Israeli military says it killed two militants who were involved in helping transfer up to half a billion dollars to Hamas. The military says the two — Hussein Qadra and Mohammed Farra, who worked with Hamas and the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad — were killed in a strike last week.

It said on Sunday that the men oversaw a network of couriers and money exchange spots in both Gaza and Turkey that funneled money towards Hamas militants and infrastructure.

Both men were killed on Wednesday and buried on Thursday, according to their families. Farra’s family said his father, mother and sister were killed in an Israeli strike earlier in the war.

The conflict in Gaza is not part of the U.S-Iran talks underway in Switzerland.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has separately met with JD Vance and with the Iranian delegation at the Bürgenstock Resort near Lucerne in Switzerland where the high-level talks are taking place.

Islamabad says Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, accompanied Sharif at the meetings. It did not provide further details.

Sharif has repeatedly said Munir played a key role in brokering the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran.

A video released by Sharif’s office shows him warmly embracing Qalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker, and Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, as Munir looks on.

Rafael Grossi, chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — met with Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis on the sidelines of the gathering at the picturesque mountainside resort near Lake Lucerne on Sunday morning.

The agency had monitored the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated between the U.S. and Iran under the Obama administration.

Trump in 2018 withdrew the U.S. from that agreement.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei says Tehran will mainly focus during the talks on Sunday on the ongoing fighting in Lebanon.

Tehran insists that the deal’s implementation start with a cessation of all fighting — including between Israel and Hezbollah.

Baghaei said the U.S. “has been unable or unwilling” to hold Israel to the ceasefire.

Iran will meet in the morning with Pakistani and Qatari mediators, and in the afternoon, there will be a four-way meeting including the U.S. negotiating team. There is currently only one day of negotiations planned, Baghaei told the state news agency.

“The implementation of any document is more important than its signing,” Baghaei also said Sunday.

Iran’s president has said that Iran will maintain its right to a nuclear program.

“What is certain is that we will never back down from the right to enrich uranium, and the other side is also forced to accept it,” Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday, according to state media.

As the U.S.-Iran talks were to kick off in Switzerland, a ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon, a lull that came after another day of heavy fighting.

Since the ceasefire, Israeli strikes on Friday and Saturday killed 97 people, including eight women and four children, Lebanese officials said. Five Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Israel says it targeted Hezbollah infrastructure on Saturday, including a tunnel network in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit.

But by Sunday morning, residents in southern Lebanon reported a lull in Israeli strikes. There also were no reports of Hezbollah fire from the Israeli side.

Israel’s military has received instructions to uphold the ceasefire, and said it is only acting defensively, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines.

—Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir are also in Switzerland for the high-level U.S.-Iran talks, the prime minister's office said without providing further details.

The technical-level talks at Bürgenstock Resort near the Swiss city of Lucerne are being held after Sharif dispatched his special envoy, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, to Tehran to persuade Iranian authorities to send a delegation to Switzerland. The meeting was originally scheduled for Friday but was delayed because of concerns raised by Iran.

Naqvi later informed Islamabad that Iran was willing to attend the talks. Pakistan subsequently conveyed the development to Washington.

The strait has emerged as a key focus, with Iran’s joint military command saying on Saturday that it was closed again because of the U.S. “clear breach of its commitments” by failing to end the war. The interim deal is meant to stop fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon where Israeli forces are battling the militant Hezbollah group.

The U.S. disputed Iran’s announcement, with the U.S. Central Command saying that traffic continues to flow and that 55 merchant ships transited on Saturday with more than 17 million barrels of oil.

Ships began transiting after the interim U.S.-Iran agreement was signed last week. The U.S. lifted its blockade of Iran’s ports and now allows Tehran to sell its oil freely — terms that have left some in U.S. Congress asking whether the war was worth it.

The interim deal signed by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian gives negotiators 60 days to reach a nuclear agreement, but the time can be extended.