OWINGS MILLS – Everything the Baltimore Ravens are chasing hinges on accomplishing one more unprecedented goal.
In order to claim the AFC North division crown, earn an automatic first-round bye and clinch at least the second seed in the AFC playoffs, the Ravens (11-4) will have to go undefeated in the division for the first time.
That will require a rare road victory against the Cincinnati Bengals (9-6), an emerging young team headlined by rookie quarterback Andy Dalton and rookie wide receiver A.J. Green. The Ravens can also win the division if the Pittsburgh Steelers lose to the Cleveland Browns due to their tiebreaker edge over the Steelers with a sweep of the annual season series.
Undefeated at home this season following their 20-14 win over the Cleveland Browns on Sunday, the Ravens have lost their past two games at Paul Brown Stadium and have fallen in five of their past six trips to Cincinnati.
“What it would mean obviously would be that we would be the division champs,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said Monday. “And that’s the opportunity that we have. If you go undefeated at home and win all the games in your division, you’re going to be in pretty good shape at the end of the year no matter what else happens. And we have an opportunity to do that, to split on the road and win all of our games in the division, which would give us a championship.”
Those are all truisms.
However, the Ravens are only 3-4 on the road this season and have lost to the Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, Seattle Seahawks and the San Diego Chargers.
There are various familiar reasons why they didn’t win those games, including turnovers in Jacksonville, Seattle and San Diego, a vulnerable pass defense against Tennessee and San Diego and not much involvement of star running back Ray Rice in any of those setbacks.
The Ravens averaged only 12.7 points in those games and surrendered 23.5 points per loss.
Harbaugh didn’t chalk up any of the losses to anything specific and said he doesn’t plan any changes to preparations at this late stage of the season.
“I think we’ve got a good routine,” Harbaugh said. ““We’re going to try to play better than we have in the games we didn’t win on the road. That’s the main thing.
“Obviously, turnovers were the main factor in some of those games. Those are the things that will be our focus, the things you have to do to win a game, whether you’re at home or on the road.”
The Bengals will clinch the sixth and final AFC wild-card berth provided they defend their turf in front of what could shape up as a relatively small crowd given the stakes and promise of a home team.
Considering that the Ravens are much more successful at home and have injured players that could use time to heal up like wide receiver Anquan Boldin, who’s coming off minor knee surgery, winning this game is pivotal even though they’ve already clinched the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.
“Playing at home can help us get closer to the prize,” All-Pro middle linebacker Ray Lewis said. “That’s the real incentive right now. We’re in ‘The Dance.’ We’ll go where we have to go, but playing at M&T for any game would be a good, good thing.”
Over the past two games, the Ravens have allowed a total of 671 yards and generated 574 yards.
And they struggled with dropped passes against the Browns, especially tight end Ed Dickson and wide receiver Torrey Smith.
“I don’t know if it is a concern, but obviously, you do want to play better,” said wide receiver Lee Evans, who was targeted four times and didn’t have a catch Sunday. “At the end of the day, you do have to find a way to win games. We were able to do that , and we can build on that. Next week, our job is just to win one more.”
The Ravens built a 20-0 lead before the Browns scored 14 unanswered points behind an 84-yard punt return for a touchdown from Josh Cribbs and a touchdown pass to tight end Evan Moore that followed a Joe Flacco interception to Sheldon Brown.
“We won, but there’s obviously a lot of things we can learn from and a lot of areas we can get better in,” center Matt Birk said. So, we’re pretty grateful.”
Although the Ravens have won five of their past six games since their defeat at Seattle, including a 31-24 win at home over the Bengals, it doesn’t seem like they’re building momentum heading into the postseason.
“We’re on course to be as good as we can be,” Harbaugh said. “What we have is a game this week. We don’t have to play any games that are behind us, and we don’t have to play any games that are in the future. We have to play this one. Obviously, it’s got major ramifications for what’s in front of us. So, that’s our focus.”
