I can’t even bring myself to call it a good morning ceremonially, #RavensFlock. My apologies.
In what was setting up to be one of the best sports weekends in Baltimore history, both teams crapped the bed, with the O’s falling down 2-0 to the Texas Rangers in the ALDS and the Ravens snatching defeat from the jaws of victory – again – in Pittsburgh.
Was it the worst few days ever for Charm City sports fans?
Keith Mills offers up some perspective:
Contrary to what many think This is not the worst day in Balt. Sports history. Oct. 13 1996 Ravens lose to the Colts & the Orioles were illuminated by the Yankees in the ALCS. 1st time the Colts played a Balt. team since moving to Indy. All is not lost, the Os still have a pulse
— Keith Mills (@KeithMills1090) October 9, 2023
Well, the Orioles haven’t been eliminated yet, and the Ravens lost to their hated rival but not a team that skipped town just a dozen years prior so…second worst?
Let’s talk about that s$!t show in western Pennsylvania, I suppose.
The Ravens came out gangbusters, doing whatever they wanted on offense, even overcoming an early Zay Flowers drop…that was a harbinger of things to come. They took a 7-0 lead on a Justice Hill TD run, then the ball was sailing toward a wide open Rashod Bateman to give them a two-touchdown cushion. Instead, the ball clanged off the hands of the former Minnesota Golden Gopher who has now earned the nickname “Breshad Bateman” among much of the Flock. Instead of 14-0, it was 10-0.
Which would have been ok, except….
…the Ravens would never score again.
Speaking of being up by 10, apparently that’s the kiss of death around here.
When you realize the Ravens have held a 10 point lead in 6 of their last 9 losses including twice to Pittsburgh
Seats gonna start getting real warm if they can’t close games out consistently over the next month or two. https://t.co/v0Rs8rkxiL
— Spencer Schultz (@ravens4dummies) October 9, 2023
Cool. Cool, cool, cool.
As for those drops, roll that beautiful bean footage.
Here is every Ravens drop from their Week 5 loss to the Steelers
10 drops in total on catchable passes and easy touchdowns from Lamar Jackson pic.twitter.com/TotVhcOLDZ
— Kevin Oestreicher (@koestreicher34) October 8, 2023
It’s comical, in a make-you-cry kinda way. And while this game should have been far out of reach well before the final moments, it doesn’t excuse THIS throw by Lamar Jackson.
First career INT for Joey Porter Jr. 👏
(via @steelers)pic.twitter.com/WOPDIqYFdj
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) October 8, 2023
Nor does it excuse the asinine playcalling by Todd Monken on that sequence. Gus Edwards plowed the ball inside the five following a gift special teams fumble by Pittsburgh, and the Ravens were in position to ice the game (better late than never). On second down, he tried the Mahomes-to-Kelce shovel pass with Lamar and Mark Andrews, to no effect. On third down, when a field goal IS EXTREMELY USEFUL (to make the game 13-8 and force that inept offense to get into the end zone), he calls the low-percentage end zone fade to what is increasingly looking like the corpse of Odell Beckham, Jr. What can’t happen there? A turnover. So, of course, that’s exactly what happened.
On top of that, this wasn’t even the first time in the game that Justin Tucker was left taking his helmet off and walking back to the bench having never had the chance to put crucial points on the board from chip-shot range.
At the end of the first half, the Ravens were well in Tucker’s range as the seconds wound down, but outsmarted themselves in trying to get the Steelers to jump offsides. They didn’t, but Tyler Linderbaum thought they did, and snapped the ball.
This shit wasn’t even close. Linderbaum smokin K2 with this decision pic.twitter.com/6Uj5aVENJX
— Chris (@ChrisJustJoking) October 8, 2023
Tyler Linderbaum said the fourth and two was on him. He said the plan was to let clock roll down and take timeout and then kick it But when he saw a Steeler jump, he snapped the ball
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) October 8, 2023
A horrific sequence of play calls. Abominable execution. Failures by players and coaches in crunch time. Wasted opportunities.
In short, exactly what we’ve become accustomed to around here.
And we aren’t the only ones noticing.
Patrick Queen: “It’s the same old story every time. I’m pretty sick of it.”
— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) October 8, 2023
Us too, Pat!
The Ravens should be 5-0. They’re 3-2, and now head off to London. Despite our best efforts to forget, we all remember how that went the last time around.
Sports. I dunno why we do this to ourselves sometimes, y’all….I’m going fishing.
6 Responses
The team is its own worst enemy.
Harbaugh needs to be fired if we don’t make a deep run in the playoffs. Every year he costs us 3 games by his play calling and time management. He should be on the hot 🔥 seat.
No, the worst day in Baltimore sports history was January 12th 1969 … the day the 18 1/2 point favorite Baltimore Colts lost Super Bowl 3 to the New York Jets and humiliated the entire NFL.
It seems like whoever is OC the outcome is always the same. The offense looks the same year in and year out. OFFENSE CAN NOT FINSH A GAME. How often do we see victory formation at the end of the game ?………seems like NEVER, well we did in Cleveland but when was the last time before that ? Seems like Harbaugh has his thumb on every OC that he hires except Gary Kubiak, who said he wanted total control of the offense, and Harbaugh didn’t have his thumb on him. That year was probably the best offense the Ravens ever had. Now I’ve always back Harbaugh but maybe he lets the OC run the offense.
i would love to know exactly how many sure points over the last several seasons this team left on the field due to poor coaching decisions,turnovers and just plain tomfoolery(the “miscommunication” yesterday)….
i know with huntley qb`ing down the stretch we lost 3 games by a total of 5 points in games where harbs consistently went for it on 4th downs(eschewing sure fgs…or going for 2 instead of kicking an extra point in situations where it wasn`t a necessity)…if i remember there were more situations than you could count on one hand and we converted exactly zero….
yesterday was a comedy of errors….but the colt game was sheer failure(getting two or 3 chances late to win the game with a first down…two at worst but maybe not with tucker) ..our expensive qb whiffed…sorry cole jackson but your but your $260 million qb isn`t getting it done in crunch time…
According to ESPN Stats, Lamar has 11 turnovers in the 4th quarter or overtime in one score games the past three years which is the highest in the league! And, he has fumbled close to 50 times during his career! Very telling and very troubling stats…..