It’s been quite a Christmas week in Owings Mills.
It began with a terrible loss – along with losing key players Calais Campbell and Marcus Peters – on Saturday afternoon in Cleveland and has continued through most of the short, holiday week where Ravens head coach John Harbaugh has done his usual leadership dance at the media podium about the craziness of the league, how much he loves his backup players and how his coaches are all the best in the business.
And the injuries, including the one to superstar quarterback Lamar Jackson and his availability, are none of our business and shame on us for asking! My Spidey senses went on high alert when they had the state-run network selling his holiday comeback a little too hard during the broadcast, so I knew to be skeptical.
Of course, when there are only two legitimate reporters waiting to ask you questions after you lose to the Browns on the road with a foolish offensive game plan, does it really matter what you say to (or about) the fans? Accountability is merely a rumor in Owings Mills.
To my eyes and ears, the fans have checked out on the constant lies and injury coverups of John Harbaugh and are now in the results business with the guy who has made $100 million coaching the Baltimore Ravens and has a guaranteed contract through 2025.
We’re all just sitting at the end of the bar, selling off our frozen Christmas Eve tickets for the Atlanta Falcons for ten bucks and praying for Lamar Jackson to get healthy to go win a Super Bowl, Coach!
The bitter cold will speak for itself on Saturday afternoon in downtown Baltimore. The bitter truth comes at the end of this strangely, woebegone season of further injury and further doubt that this franchise is truly headed in a direction of another parade anytime soon. It’s that time of the year, once Santa leaves the roof on Sunday morning, when we start adding up the wins and losses and tiebreakers. And the road to January goes through the Steelers and Bengals.
You are what your record says you are and right now the Baltimore Ravens are 9-5. In any normal universe, that would be plenty sufficient and acceptable and hopeful for a January run. Barring a total collapse in the next three weeks, this team should make the playoffs.
(My inner Steve Bisciotti voice is saying: “You better!”)
And if Lamar Jackson somehow gets back on the field by the time that happens, they’ll have a puncher’s chance if they can run the football and play some defense with whatever they have left of what has been a pretty stout unit since Roquan Smith was wisely added by general manager Eric DeCosta at the trade deadline.
But that chill you feel down your neck as you prepare for Saturday’s game against the would-be-relegated-if-there-were-such-a-thing Atlanta Falcons comes like the breath of the Grinch trying to scare up a few believers in a rookie quarterback and a decent rookie running back and ground game.
It’s an NFL game for the Whos of Whoville.
Tyler Huntley, with an injured right shoulder (or maybe even Anthony Brown) vs. Desmond Ridder on Christmas Eve in Baltimore.
Cincinnati has nothing on the “WhoDeys?” on the field here on Saturday where the game time temperature is expected to be 18 degrees.
As long as the Ravens defense knows who Tyler Allgeier is…
It’s bizarre that a 9-5 team in late December would feel so desperate but from the foolish “Fire Greg Roman” redrum images on Tyus Bowser’s Instagram account to the way the team tried to throw the football in Cleveland a few days ago, the recent look has certainly made the team feel strangely unglued.
It’s nice to have a belief that one more week off on a brutally cold day will allow Lamar Jackson more time to heal his PCL for Pittsburgh or Cincinnati but who will he be throwing the ball to in Kansas City or Buffalo or Nashville if this team gets one of the now-seven spots in the AFC draw?
There is nothing more desperate than signing a different thirty-something wide receiver to the squad every other week in November and December every year. At one point, I looked in the Ravens’ huddle last week and saw Tyler Huntley, Justice Hill, Devin Duvernay, Josh Oliver and Patrick Ricard and wondered if this was an August training camp scrimmage or the fourth quarter of a must-win division game on the road.
And then there’s Huntley throwing the ball on 4th and long through the blowing snow of a fourth quarter division game to James Proche. It didn’t end well.
We’re in the fifth season of No. 8 running the offense and the team’s best play on 3rd and 7 is still to run the ball.
The questions remain the same. The answers, however, are always elusive with the crafty-in-his-mind John Harbaugh.
Seemingly lost and wayward here at Christmas with injuries and the mistakes of youth mounting, the Ravens hope Santa will bring them a healthy Lamar Jackson. Seriously, that is the only Obi-Wan-Kenobi in January and it won’t be lost on Lamar’s offseason, $200-million negotiations that will begin the moment the season ends. And right now, barring a real turnaround in effort and performance, that doesn’t feel like it will be after another Super Bowl parade here in Baltimore.
And as much as “waiting on Lamar” becomes the only hope, the Ravens will need to rely on their defense against Joe Burrow and Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen – and this defense of Mike Macdonald has been mostly unreliable and now is getting injured in the front and back.
The Baltimore Ravens cannot afford to be without Marcus Peters in January. Watching him limp off was tough. Oh, sure they might endure the Atlanta Falcons on Christmas Eve when no one is throwing the ball or even against Pittsburgh next week but then the big boys will come throwing through the wind in a hostile environment.
Despite the meltdowns and ugly losses four months ago, this was a pretty good team in September. This is not a very good team Christmas week.
If you think Greg Roman is looking forward to getting fired – or, um, the “parting of the ways” as they’ll no doubt officially call it on Chad Steele’s press release – he might be looking forward to drawing up plays in an offense with skill position players who can compete at this level and run and execute a sophisticated system and scheme. I concur with the angst regarding the Cleveland game plan and his calls last week but he’s an offensive coordinator, not a magician when it comes to skill position players who can create separation and a quality NFL quarterback who can find them.
I think we’re all stating the obvious by saying this part of the “experiment” is coming to its conclusion with Greg Roman and Lamar Jackson. And barring a miracle, it won’t have a happy ending. (Well, maybe unless you’re a realtor in Palo Alto?)
But John Harbaugh remains safe and above the fray on all of it.
He’s the head coach for life and he’s not talking injuries. He’s not talking about what quarterback is practicing or playing (not even for you gamblers down at the end of the bar). He’s not talking coaching or decisions or even who makes them “when he’s not in on that.”
The Ravens haven’t had a wide receiver catch a touchdown pass since September 25th. He doesn’t want to talk about that, either.
I have watched the Baltimore Ravens play recently. I have also had plenty of non-airport, non-hotel, couch time during this 2022 NFL season and I have watched Burrow, Mahomes, Allen and several other quarterbacks and offenses that look ready to win a Super Bowl. It looks and feels like they are playing a different sport right now, the kind that involves offense and the successful use of the forward pass.
The Ravens better bring their thermos and come ready to play in the cold on Saturday. The stands will be half empty (again) and we’ll see if the Ravens can dig deep on a cold winter’s day and find their 10th victory of the season to keep hope alive for another week until Lamar Jackson is fully healed.
Forty five years ago this Saturday, I attended “Ghost To The Post” on Christmas Eve 1977 with my Pop. I hope this has a happier ending.
Merry Christmas and thanks for being a loyal reader to #ColumnNes. Enjoy this time with your loved ones and hold them close!
