There’s simply too much going on with the Ravens right now to narrow myself down to just one topic. So, I’ll give you “Four Quarters of Ravens”, starting off slow (like the Baltimore offense does, a lot), picking up some steam, and then coming together for a whirlwind final two quarters.
Before I do that, though, allow me to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and/or a Happy Holiday Season depending on what you and your family observe at this time of the year. I hope Santa brings you everything you’ve asked for, including a Ravens playoff berth next Sunday.
1st Quarter
Let’s open this up with a small point just to get the ball rolling today. I’m going to play the “if” game for a moment, if that’s OK. Let’s pretend for a second the Ravens do NOT make the playoffs this season. And let’s pretend they beat the Browns to finish 10-6 on the year…but miss out on the post-season anyway.
Got your “pretending glasses” on?
OK, if that happens and the Ravens miss out on the post-season by going 10-6, they will miss the playoffs by a single game.
And, do you know what game will have cost Baltimore its post-season berth?
Not that debacle in Houston on December 21. No, no, no.
The game that cost the Ravens the 2014 playoffs was back on November 30 when the San Diego Chargers reeled off three 4th quarter touchdowns and finished off a wild rally by scoring the game-winning TD with under one minute left in the game.
That’s the one that did the Ravens in, for sure. It meant the Chargers secured the tie-breaker between the two teams if they both finish at 10-6.
This is all “pie in the sky” until it actually happens, and it very well might not work out that way, but if we’re sitting around next Monday wallowing in the misery of a second straight non-playoff campaign, you can go back to that defensive collapse on November 30 and say, “that was the loss that cost us the chance to play in January.”
For as good as the defense has been this season — and I’d say, honestly, it grades out to a “B” in 2014 — that gag job in the final fifteen minutes of the Chargers game will be the difference between the six seed in the AFC post-season and the six AM flight to Cabo San Lucas next Wednesday once the lockers are cleaned out.
OK, you can take off your “pretending glasses” now.
2nd Quarter
I’ve been asked several times since the loss in Houston whether or not John Harbaugh will be on the hot seat with owner Steve Bisciotti if the Ravens fail to make the post-season.
For starters, I’d say this: Assuming they beat Cleveland this Sunday, it’s difficult to put a coach on the hot seat who just went 10-6 on the year (yes, I know, they were 4-0 vs. the NFC South). It’s one thing if you go 8-8 and then 7-9 the following season. If Baltimore goes 10-6 but doesn’t get in, that almost gets filed under the “unlucky” category. The Ravens once made the post-season as a 9-7 team, remember, and just two years ago they played in the Super Bowl in New Orleans after going 10-6 and losing four of their last five regular season games.
Now — let me also say this: If the Ravens finish 10-6 and don’t make the playoffs, I do think the owner will rattle a few cages over at One Winning Drive. That might start with Ozzie Newsome (“Hey Oz, are we EVER going to draft a legit, game-breaking wide receiver?”) and eventually trickle down to John Harbaugh and his staff (“I can’t fire all the players, John. You know how the game works…if you can’t get the best out of ’em, well, you know what I’m about to say…”)
If the Ravens fail to make the post-season, I don’t think the owner will give them a “if you don’t make it next year, you guys are done” type of ultimatum, but I also don’t think Steve Bisciotti will take the front office boys down to Florida for a weekend of golf at The Medalist and some of his best Silver Oak cabernet sauvignon from the wine cellar.
Then again, the owner told Brian Billick in late November of 2007 “you and your staff are safe…you’re all returning in 2008” and then fired Billick five weeks later after the club missed the playoffs.
3rd Quarter
I’ve been saying this for the last two seasons and I’m going to keep repeating it whenever it becomes apparent that leadership is a lacking quality within the Ravens locker room.
This team has not been the same since Ray Lewis left following the 2013 Super Bowl victory.
I’m not saying they’re not winning because Ray Lewis isn’t on the team anymore. I AM saying, though, that the leadership void created with Ray’s departure has not been filled in the 2013 or 2014 campaigns.
I warned people time and time again in 2011 and 2012 when I was on the radio and had a daily opinion to share that folks were going to see how important Ray Lewis was to the Ravens once he was no longer around.
I’m not always right, but I sure was on this one. The Ravens don’t have a leader. They haven’t had one for the last two seasons. And, while it’s not the only reason the club is just a few games above .500 since 2013, it’s a major reason, for sure.
Leaders can’t be “picked” or have the baton handed over to them by the departing leader. It’s organic in nature — it happens without nurturing, prodding or instructing. You’re either able to lead or you’re not. Ray Lewis was able to lead. Since he left, no one on the club has been able to do it.
4th Quarter
Because Steve Smith Sr. doesn’t have a filter, nothing he says should be a surprise to anyone. That doesn’t mean, though, that he’s exempt from being called out when he says something as asinine as he did in the aftermath of Sunday’s historically-inept offensive performance. You know by now that Smith said afterwards (paraphrasing) that the team is ready to deal with the “fat, lazy, sorry couch potatoes” who criticize the club for their performance in Houston.
If Nelson Cruz would have said that last October after the Orioles were swept out of the ALCS in four games by the Kansas City Royals, the sports talk phone lines would still be lit up with folks in town telling Cruz to take a hike.
Because football players run their mouths a lot more than baseball players, their post-game yapping is dismissed as “blowing off steam” more times than not.
In this case, Smith made a fool of himself.
When questioned about the 25-13 loss, Joe Flacco was brief and to the point. “We got our asses kicked out there today,” the QB said. “We couldn’t get anything going and their defense smothered us pretty much the entire game.”
That’s what you say when you’re a professional and you’ve just been smacked around in plain view of the media and fans on national television.
What you DON’T say is what came out of Steve Smith’s mouth. That’s a sorry way to try and disguise the fact that you and your offense simply got outplayed from start to finish. And that’s what it was, of course. Smith was doing his best to put the onus on the critics in an effort to make THEM out to the bad guy for harshly evaluating that wretched offensive performance in Houston.
I said this in my Tuesday, December 22 podcast at www.drewsmorningdish.com  and I’ll write it here, too: I’m not so sure Steve Smith is a winner. That’s not to say he’s a loser, mind you. He plays hard, he runs the right routes, he’s more than willing to get his knuckles bloody in an attempt to win a football game.
But when the rubber meets the road, I wonder if he’s a “winner”? Winners don’t say stupid stuff like that, no matter how long they’ve been in the league and what sort of stature they might have in the locker room.
You didn’t hear Joe Flacco say stupid stuff afterwards. You certainly didn’t hear Torrey Smith chastise the fans and media in the wake of one of the worst offensive days in the Flacco era.
It’s one thing if the Ravens play well and lose 27-24 and Smith wants to yap a little after the game to try and deflect the attention away from the fact that Baltimore lost to some guy named Case Keenum.
It’s a different story, though, when you barely crack the 200-yard mark in total team offense for the day, you’re 4-for-15 on 3rd down and you get in the end zone twice in sixty minutes.
So, when’t is over, you take your lumps from the fans and/or the media and get ready for Cleveland.
That’s what a winner would do, anyway.
Steve Smith didn’t do that on Sunday after the Houston game.
It’s up to you to decide what that means about him.
