Weeks ago, Mark Andrews was part of two failed 2-point conversions that could have changed the Ravens season.
Baltimore lost its fifth straight game, 20-19, to the Los Angeles Rams and now needs an uncanny sequence of events to make the playoffs for a fourth consecutive year.
Of those five losses, the Ravens have lost four games by a total of five points.
“Football is a game of inches, you know what I mean? So, it’s like …That belief and that fight that this team has is still there,” Andrews said. “Obviously, in the beginning of the season, we had a bunch of those [close games] and came out on top, but that’s just sometimes the way it goes. That’s just kind of the way things went. We were right there until the very end. I wish it would’ve gone our way. Just a couple of little things here and there, and we win that game. But you know, it’s football.”
Injuries and issues with COVID-19 have plagued the Ravens all season.
The stretch of bad luck began in training camp when the team lost all three of its running backs — J.K. Dobbins, Gus Edwards and Justice Hill — to season-ending injuries. Left tackle Ronnie Stanley went down in the season-opener with an ankle injury and has not played since.
Throughout the season, key players have gone down and Baltimore is left with just one remaining starter in the secondary, safety Chuck Clark.
Teams have tried to pick on the Ravens and mostly failed. Over their five-game losing streak, the Ravens suffered close losses at Pittsburgh (20-19), at Cleveland (24-22) and Green Bay (31-30), before falling 20-19 to the Rams. The exception was the Bengals, who ran away with a 41-21 victory.
“I think it just comes back to us finishing as a team in all phases,” Clark said. “We’ve had a couple of those – well, a lot of those – in the beginning of the year, and we just pulled them out, we just finished them. But it’s just the small details and things like that. Like, all of that in all phases – doing what we have to do on our part to finish.”
The Ravens have also played their last 3 3/4 games without starting quarterback Lamar Jackson, who is sidelined with an ankle injury. Backup Tyler Huntley played admirably well, but the team misses Jackson, especially inside the red zone.
The Ravens had a chance to put the game away against the Rams late in the fourth quarter with a touchdown.
But on a third-and-goal from the 5-yard line, Tyler Huntley was carelessly penalized for delay of game. Huntley questioned the call after the game.
“I think the ref … Not going against the ref, but I just think they shorthanded us right there,” Huntley said. “I was looking at the clock. I called for it with like one second left, the ball came, [and] I saw it touch zero. I felt like they just shorthanded us right there.”
Huntley was then sacked for a 7-yard loss on the next play and the Ravens had to settle for a short field goal by Justin Tucker.
The Rams capitalized on the error as quarterback Matthew Stafford threw a 7-yard game-winning touchdown pass to Odell Beckham Jr. with just under a minute remaining.
The Ravens took no consolation with another close loss.
“There’s nothing good about losing; especially five times in a row,” linebacker Tyus Bowser said. “A lot of these have come down to the last minute, last drive, or whatever, and we’re just not finding ways to win and finding ways to finish. That’s what we’ve got to do. We made plays throughout the game, had a couple stand-up, big-play drives, but we’ve just got to find a way to finish in all phases of the ball. Unfortunately, we haven’t done that, and we need to figure it out.”
The Ravens need to beat Pittsburgh in the regular-season finale and they must get a lot of help from other teams to make the playoffs.
In true Ravens fashion, they’ll fight hard against the Steelers, but this has simply been a season that has slipped away.
