I have a friend who is a Seahawks fan, and he attended Sunday’s game. He was nice enough not to talk smack directly to me, but I got word from mutual friends that he didn’t regard the Ravens as a serious threat, and that he had some critical things to say. As the game progressed and it became clear that a massacre was unfolding, I thought about how I might chirp at him for his comeuppance. Ultimately, I said nothing. Why?
Because he paid out of pocket for the same punishment that his team endured: walking into The Bank.
For the second time in three weeks, the Ravens smoked a visiting opponent from the NFC. The travel distance can’t be discounted as an additional degree of difficulty, particularly in Seattle’s case, but even as the visitors boasted impressive records coming into these games, the end results weren’t even close.
The Ravens have played two of the NFC's division leaders over the past three weeks: the Lions and Seahawks.
They've beaten them by a combined scored of 75-9.
Dominant.
— Field Yates (@FieldYates) November 5, 2023
Ravens have 21 first downs to 4 for Seahawks. Second time they're demolishing an NFC division leader in 3 weeks
— Gregg Rosenthal (@greggrosenthal) November 5, 2023
In no small part, I wonder how much of Baltimore’s success has been home cooking at The Bank. Setting aside the disaster that was the Indy game, the Ravens seem to look a lot more comfortable at home, and they’ve been firing on all cylinders in front of the home crowd. You can hear Ray’s “Protect This House” still echo inside the stadium today, but it seems like this year’s iteration of the Ravens has embraced a mindset that helped so many Ravens squads in the past: make M&T Bank Stadium a place that opponents just don’t want to be.
Roquan Smith on the Browns coming to town: "Make no mistake about it, it's our home. We gotta defend it by any means necessary. We got invaders coming to town, so what are you going to do? I'm going to definitely look myself in the mirror every day and I know what I'm going to…
— Sarah Ellison (@sgellison) November 6, 2023
"The fans make such a big difference for us when they're loud like that." pic.twitter.com/z9iRDL0fRc
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) November 5, 2023
According to StatMuse.com, the Ravens have the highest home winning percentage of any active team in the NFL (68.6% in 221 franchise home games). Admittedly, being one of the younger active franchises in the league, Baltimore’s sample size is smaller than some of the next closest teams (Green Bay: 65.9% in 718 home games, Dallas: 64.1% in 485 home games), but a home winning percentage close to 70% is still hard to wrap your head around.
With their next two games at home against division opponents, you hope that they can keep the trend going. If the Ravens are going to be successful against Cleveland and Cincy, they’ll have to hit them with the unexpected…
Pressures by the #Ravens defense:
5 – Odafe Oweh, Jadeveon Clowney and Kyle Van Noy
4 – Justin Madubuike
2 – Kyle Hamitlon, Patrick Queen and Michael Pierce
1 – Broddy and UrbanGeno Smith was pressured on 47% of his dropbacks.#RavensFlock
— Cole Jackson (@ColeJacksonFB) November 6, 2023
Ravens DC Mike Macdonald has now faced two top HC candidates over last 3 weeks in OCs Ben Johnson & Shane Waldron:
– 9 points allowed, one TD up 35-0
– (-.298) EPA/play allowed, 33.9% success rate
– 5.5 yards per attempt
– 9 sacks
– 4 total first downs when games within 2 scores— Brad Spielberger, Esq. (@PFF_Brad) November 6, 2023
…and with the attacks that everyone knows are coming but are still proving tough to stop.
Of Keaton Mitchell’s 138 rushing yards, 132 were AFTER contact, per PFF. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/c8haQJGeH4
— Sarah Ellison (@sgellison) November 6, 2023
With the division race as tight as it is, the Ravens are going to have to continue to make The Bank an inhospitable environment. If you’re headed to one of these games coming up, do your part: make it loud.
The AFC North is ridiculous. All four teams would make the playoffs if it started today.
1) Chiefs: 7-2
2) Ravens: 7-2
3) Jaguars: 6-2
4) Dolphins: 6-3
5) Steelers: 5-3
6) Browns: 5-3
7) Bengals: 5-3— Sarah Ellison (@sgellison) November 6, 2023
One Response
Watching the game on TV, I noticed so many empty seats at the Bank. It seemed odd to me that on a day that had perfect weather and a great match up that was CBS’s featured game it wasn’t packed. Where are the fans? I thought they still had PSL owners? It seems a shame that people that have tickets aren’t going to the game especially how this team is playing.