Losing sucks, but losing at home… in a blowout… to a divisional rival… while getting knocked out of first place in the AFC North… then having to stew on it for the entirety of a bye week…
That’s just a total gut punch.
Let’s try to go through these five stages of grief so we can at least attempt to enjoy the bye week the best we possible.
Denial
Every post-Ted Marchibroda iteration of the Baltimore Ravens, throughout their rich history, have always had one thing we could rely on — a stout defense. What we just witnessed — missed tackles, allowing infinite yards after contact en route to multiple chunky scoring plays, and yet another quarterback tossing over 400 yards with multiple touchdown passes- that’s not a respectable Ravens defense. That didn’t even look remotely close to the talent level of this defense, and I legitimately cannot even fathom how a cornerstone of this franchise just vanished overnight. Even more so, when you look at a unit that returned damn near every player, yet somehow looks substantially worse? I just cannot wrap my brain around it…
Anger
…but what really drives me insane was the offense that fell totally flat, has shown no sense of a cohesive game plan or identity with any consistency, and absolutely no adjustments once again. What happen to last week, Greg Roman?? Other than an unreal Lamar-to-Holly touchdown pass, there wasn’t a singular moment in this game to hang your hat on. And let’s not blame it all on coaching… actually hang tight, let’s take one more pot shot at coaching- PUNTING IN FIELD GOAL RANGE FOR TUCKER ONLY TO NET FIFTEEN YARDS ARE YOU KIDDING ME, HARBS?!
Back to the play on the field… the Offensive Line looked atrocious, the backfield could all be cut tomorrow and replaced with street free agents and look no different, wideouts couldn’t separate, Lamar Jackson didn’t play up to his usual level and made some questionable decisions of his own, the defense flat out quit in the 4th quarter, and for my first live Ravens game in quite some time? I personally felt like I got burned by this piss poor effort!! But it could’ve been different…
Bargaining
What if this team was actually healthy? Even just a few players back like Ronnie Stanley and J.K. Dobbins make this offense extremely better and the Ravens stand a better chance… or perhaps if the Ravens defensive stars that we’ve come to trust and love played solid defense instead of a collective lackluster effort. Maybe if the Ravens learned to tackle in the offseason. Like… at all. Just like, a 20% improvement in tackles. Just a fundamental understanding of how to properly tackle like kids are taught early on in their football days, and a fundamental that’s reinforced throughout the entirety of a player’s career that somehow, inexplicably seems to have been forgotten by the entire unit in Baltimore. Quite literally, minor changes in this roster and their play drastically would’ve changed the outcome on Sunday.
Alas…
Depression
The score is what it is, and the Ravens are who they are. Lest we forget, there are no coaches on the IR and their poor effort in this game would not have changed regardless of who was healthy. Really, 5-2 is a smokescreen of a record. This team could easily be 2-5 had Tucker missed the miracle field goal in Detroit, Indy’s kicker not gotten hurt, and Clyde Edwards-Helaire had even slightly better ball security. The Ravens keep living on comebacks and miracles, and it finally showed on Sunday how inept this team is with so many players on the IR and some glaring holes in the current roster construction.
Then, when you add in the fact that they have absolutely no cap space and no wiggle room to be created? The Ravens are stuck with this roster. They’re stuck with a garbage offensive line, a washed backfield, no playmakers in the secondary that strike any fear into the heart of opposing quarterbacks… you just have a team that’ll surely win a few more close games should the ball bounce their way, but struggle against good opponents like Cincy. Ten games left… 5-5 seems realistic. Sigh… I guess if you take a step back and look at it…
Acceptance
…we have to accept this team as they are. We cannot change the injuries, we cannot add players, and after an absolute smack in the face by a Bengals team that just did to the Ravens exactly what the Ravens did to the Chargers? It’s up to these players to decide whether they want to step up, or step off. The difference in the remainder of this season is simply going to be about coaching and effort, and that effort needs to be a collective buy in — not just a few players or a singular positional group. The coaches need to find ways to compensate for their roster shortcomings, the running backs need to take a more aggressive approach to hitting the hole, Lamar Jackson needs to take some strides in terms of pocket awareness and when to take the dump off, the pass rush needs to find ways to get home, defense backs playing stickier or maybe taking more gambles to draw up some turnovers… whatever it may be, it simply needs to be a team effort.
This team is still 5-2, a run is not out of the question (especially with the Vikes, Bears and Fins coming up post-bye), and as we’ve heard from this Ravens franchise?
