The good news for cornerback Marlon Humphrey and the Baltimore Ravens secondary is they are through with Ja’Marr Chase for the 2024 regular season. But they still have George Pickens, A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, Malik Nabers and Nico Collins ahead of them.

The Ravens defeated the Cincinnati Bengals 35-34 on Thursday night, even though Chase had 11 receptions for 264 yards and 11 touchdowns. In Baltimore’s 41-38 overtime victory against Cincinnati on Oct. 6, Chase had 10 receptions for 193 yards and two touchdowns.

“I’m tired of that dude,” Humphrey said. “He is just different. It’s not even so much about the route he runs, whatever. It’s just, he gets the ball in his hands, if you don’t tackle him soon, it can get really ugly. He’s a good player. You never really can count the Bengals out when he’s on their team. I think he had like 200, like over 250 (receiving yards), which is rough, which is rough.”

Although the Ravens have a 7-3 record, Baltimore’s average of 294.9 passing yards allowed per game is more than 30 yards per game worse than any other team’s in the NFL.

“These wins are getting harder to enjoy based off of what we’re doing in the pass defense,” Humphrey said. “I feel like when I was a rookie, first-year guy, second-year guy, the vets I looked up to, the standard that was there and the pass defense, we’ve really lost that standard, and I feel like that falls on me.

“We’re going to keep chasing at it. We’re going to keep working at it, because I’m not really satisfied with what I’ve built in this secondary, where it’s gone. I just don’t think playing like this we can go far. It’s cool winning. It’s great we’re winning, but I want to go far. I want to go to the end. The way we’re playing, something has got to change. We’ve just got to play better. I’ve got to play better; we’ve all got to play better.”

A former Hoover High School football and track star and Alabama All-American, Humphrey is in his eighth NFL season since joining Baltimore as a first-round selection in 2017. He was a Pro Bowl selection in 2019, 2020 and 2022.

“We’ve got to play as a unit, and we’re just not doing that,” Humphrey said about the Ravens’ pass defense. “Nothing really more to say. We’ve got to keep working. We’ve got to take the practice to the game. A great practice week — what is missing there from how we’re practicing to how we’re playing in the game? It’s become clear that it’s something. I think each guy has got to look at themselves in the mirror and figure out, ‘Why are you not playing how you practice something?’ You practice this route concept; the game, you don’t do it how you practice. It’s becoming more of a mental thing, I think, but we’ve got to get that fixed.

“It’s not cool to win a game, and you look up and a team has 300 passing every week. It’d be different if we didn’t have guys that could play. I haven’t once heard anybody say, ‘We don’t have the guys; we don’t have the players; we don’t have the skill.’”

Humphrey had one of the key plays in Thursday night’s game. He caused Cincinnati running back Chase Brown to fumble, and the Ravens recovered on the Bengals 31-yard line with 6:58 left in the third quarter. Baltimore trailed 21-7 at the time, but the turnover triggered a touchdown series that was followed by three more for the Ravens.

Humphrey said he felt the fumble turned momentum toward Baltimore.

“I really felt so with the fans,” Humphrey said. “I think we were kind of on the sidelines like, ‘Man, we don’t want to lose the fans.’ I think there were some boos that came through. And so that kind of got everybody back into decent spirits, and then the offense scored. So, yes, I felt like that kind of got everybody back in the game, and then the fans kind of let us out the rest of the game.”

When Chase caught his third touchdown pass with 38 seconds to play, Cincinnati went for 2 rather than try to tie the game with an extra point.

“They’re a very confident group,” Humphrey said. “(Quarterback) Joe Burrow, he does not care whether you’re covered or not. He’s going to throw it. We kind of expected them to go for 2, and we were able to get a stop and win the game.”

The Ravens return to the field against the Pittsburgh Steelers in an AFC North rivalry game at noon CST Nov. 17 at Acrisure Stadium in Pittsburgh. The Steelers carry a 6-2 record into their Sunday game against the Washington Commanders.

“It’s always tough to play them,” Humphrey said. “They’re at the top of the division right now, just added some guys at the trade deadline, already playing really well. It’ll be a good game.”

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.