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Last week I explained why the Ravens were facing a must win situation in Oakland despite it being just the team’s second game. The odds, and you’ve heard them often as of late, are that since 1990 teams starting (0-2) are on the outside looking in when the playoffs arrive over 88% of the time.
Twenty-four of 205 teams staring down the barrel of (0-2) have fought their way back into the postseason picture. Now the Ravens are trying to become No. 25.
Two games do not make a season.
But two plays with different results could have made the Ravens 2015 season to date look a lot different.
If Steve Smith catches that 2nd down pass in the waning seconds of the game in Denver or if the back judge doesn’t over-officiate the game in Oakland allowing Will Hill’s interception to stand, as ugly as it has been so far, the Ravens could be (2-0).
But they aren’t and fans are in meltdown mode.
Spoiled by the team’s regular appearances and wins in the postseason, many Ravens fans have thrown in the towel on the 2015 season. Some have called for the head of Dean Pees while others have declared John Harbaugh as a fraud, soon to be exposed.
Maybe the frauds are really the fans, or at least some of them.
If you look back to both of the Ravens’ Super Bowl seasons, each of those teams suffered setbacks that made it seem as though the postseason, much less a world championship were clearly in peril. Yet the teams were able to overcome adversity and get their respective seasons back on track.
Two game losing streaks are magnified when teams start the season with one.
But in the end it isn’t how you start but rather how you finish.
Chapters 1 and 2 are written but like in any mystery novel there are surprising twists and turns.
So buckle up, keep your hands inside the cart at all times and most of all, enjoy the ride.
