2015 has been pure torture for the Ravens and their fans. What was supposed to be a promising season has been nothing short of a total cluster. If you Google “Murphy’s Law”, there’s a good chance the Ravens 2015 team picture will come up at the top of your search results.
Health, or the lack thereof, has been a huge issue for the Ravens. Terrell Suggs was lost during the season opener in Denver and Steve Smith, Sr. went down a couple of weeks ago against the Chargers. Michael Campanaro was lost during the Week 4 contest in Pittsburgh and Breshad Perriman, well, you know.
If all of those players were available to the Ravens, how different would the season be?
Of course we’ll never know the answer but even with those players the Ravens are an average team. Without them we know they’re a bad football team and if they’re lucky, they’ll win five games in 2015. And that’s a monumental disappointment for an organization with the pedigree of the Baltimore Ravens.
You know it and the Ravens are now forced to admit it.
And make no mistake about it, everyone will be held accountable.
It’s not as if mediocrity crept up on the Ravens overnight. Since their Super Bowl XLVII win they are 21-22. Even last year when they backed into the playoffs the Ravens struggled with the likes of Blake Bortles and Case Keenum and Connor Shaw just to punch their dance ticket to the postseason.
In 2014 the Ravens beat only one team during the regular season that had a winning record (Steelers) and overall their 10 wins were against teams with a combined record of 60-99-1. Since the Ravens (5-2) start to the 2014 campaign, thanks in large part to the good fortune of playing the extremely weak NFC South, the Ravens have gone (8-12).
If the Ravens were completely healthy now and they were a (5-4) team and not a (2-7) team, perhaps the same sense of urgency wouldn’t exist. Maybe the added wins would mask weaknesses that now the team has no choice but to address.
The Baltimore brain trust is an impressive one. They will get this right but not until they complete a thorough self-examination of all facets of the organization. Maybe they’ll take a different approach to free agency. Maybe they’ll tweak draft day strategies. Maybe they’ll make some coaching changes.
And if and when they do all of these things we might one day look back on the 2015 season not as one of disappointment but one that forced the Ravens to change their ways.
The (5-11) 2007 season forced the team to take a hard look in the mirror and make some tough decisions — decisions that ultimately ushered in the Harbaugh/Flacco era.
The team rose from adversity to go on an impressive run of success.
Will they do it again?
Tortured fans certainly hope so.
