Oh what a difference two weeks makes. Two weeks ago, before the Ravens’ contest in Cincinnati against the then-second place Bengals, Baltimore seemed to be on top of the world. They led the division and had seemingly put all the distractions of the Ray Rice scandal behind them, playing close games in losses, while mostly winning big. They had two division games in front of them that, if they won them, could have set the Ravens apart in the AFC North.
Then a devastating loss to the Bengals came, on the tails of an unimaginable secondary gaffe with the game on the line, reminiscent of Denver’s secondary gaffe against Baltimore in the playoffs.
Then the Ravens headed to Pittsburgh with, one would think, every reason to play hard and want to make a statement that the division would be anybody’s game.
But bad turnovers and continued bad secondary play in a blowout loss against the Steelers showed instead that Baltimore is on the outside looking in for even a playoff spot unless they can win out at home and win some key head-to-head games against possible playoff contenders.
How can one say that with half a season left to play?
Easy: the Ravens are last in the AFC North, even behind the Browns who are 5-3.
It is a little hard to imagine Baltimore making the playoffs when they have to leapfrog other teams in their division just to be in playoff conversation.
The Ravens, unfortunately, played exactly into the hands of the critics who said the team wasn’t that good – an average team that has played great against poor opponents. It turns out the critics were right: the Ravens just aren’t very good against good teams. Losses in two division games in a row will do that to you.
Against the Steelers and Bengals the secondary play – minus Jimmy Smith – was so bad that at times watching a good college defense seemed preferable to the play of Baltimore’s secondary. (And defense has nearly vacated the video-game-like college game anyway).
Terrence Brooks napping on a must-bomb pass to Mohammed Sanu when Andy Dalton had to look long distance was a bad play in a high school football game, much less in a game where people pay a ticket price to attend the contest. Yet John Harbaugh didn’t want to say much about it because he wanted to argue a pass interference call against Steve Smith that Fox’s Mike Pereira said was definitely the right call.
The play of the secondary has simply been abysmal despite being somewhat masked by an offense that has been vastly improved under the direction of Gary Kubiak.
In the second half against the Steelers, and after a devastating Lorenzo Taliaferro turnover in the first half, the Ravens defense seemed to have no clue against the pass – when they weren’t being penalized, which was regular and often.
Roethlisberger ate them alive, exploiting weakness after weakness in the secondary and the Ravens had no answer. As usual Roethlisberger ran out of pressure and made plays.
It is clear draft priorities were not addressed by Ozzie Newsome in that his secondary became seemingly nonexistent after just one key injury of Smith left the Ravens with no answers. Good teams step up when key people go down whereas Baltimore has mostly folded. One big reason is that the secondary seems mismatched. The Ravens safeties don’t take chances, don’t gamble like Ed Reed made a career of doing, and they are out of position or dropping interceptions even when they are available.
The Bengals seem to have a line of players waiting in the wings the moment an important member of the team goes down. The Ravens don’t. That’s why Cincinnati – despite their playoff record of failure – is nevertheless a good team. Baltimore, sadly, is a mediocre team.
For Baltimore to make the playoffs, at this point, they have to hope to win their home games and their key matchup games and hope other teams lose. It really is that simple. Win their games and hope that tiebreakers against teams not in their division go Baltimore’s way.
Following the Steelers loss, the Ravens play the Titans, Chargers, Jaguars, and Browns at home, and travel to play the Saints, Texans, and Dolphins.
Of those games, the home games are must-wins and the Ravens should win all of them, though the Chargers and Browns games in particular won’t be easy.
If that happens, Baltimore is 9-4. Of the road games, Baltimore must win at least one but realistically two of those given their poor play in the division, to avoid being a 10-6 playoff-missing team.
The Saints game will be tough and Miami is having a good year, while the Texans laughed off the Ravens the last time the team played in Houston. So Baltimore will have to show up on the road.
The good news is that two of the teams the Ravens will be competing against for a playoff spot – the Dolphins and Chargers – are teams they play head-to-head.
If the Ravens win those games, that will help a lot. But the disappearing act Baltimore did against the peaking Steelers was not good. So much went wrong – but the biggest problem was a secondary that can’t bat down an insect much less a football.
It is true – there isn’t much available on the waiver wire and the trading deadline has passed. Maybe they can persuade Champ Bailey to un-retire?
But just about anything will be better that the abysmal unit that’s there now.
