The torrential rain in the final minutes was appropriate as any lingering 2019 mojo was washed away from the Ravens in their 23-17 upset loss to New England.
That was ugly.
Throughout the offseason, the thought of the Ravens picking up where they left off in a franchise-record 14-2 campaign a year ago was appealing, if for no reason other than to ease the disappointment of that shocking playoff loss to Tennessee last January. Surely no team would challenge Baltimore in the AFC North as a few even dared to ask if John Harbaugh’s team might go undefeated. It was a ridiculous notion in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that can provide serious challenges at a moment’s notice, but such discussion reflected how special last season truly was and how easy the Ravens made it look until that stunning Titans loss.
It’s time to stop waiting for that switch to be flipped. This isn’t the same team.
Yes, we’ve waited for that similar level of offensive brilliance in 2020, but we’ve seen it only in fleeting glimpses, ranging from the impressive passing output against Cleveland in Week 1 to the second-half awakening in Indianapolis last week. Instead of building on that win over the Colts, however, the Ravens were tripped up by the latest obstacles reminding just how good they had it in 2019. By night’s end in Foxborough, not only had they lost to a team that had barely beaten the winless New York Jets six days earlier, but their celebrated streaks of scoring 20 or more points, forcing a turnover, and winning road games were toast.
Those factoids were the least of their worries as the Ravens lost indispensable blocking tight end Nick Boyle to a season-ending knee injury and saw health concerns continue to mount on defense, the side of the ball that’s done the heavy lifting in a 6-3 start that still has Baltimore in the thick of the AFC wild-card race. With Brandon Williams joining Calais Campbell on the sideline Sunday night, a decimated defensive front had no answers for the New England ground game, a concerning development with critical matchups against Tennessee and Pittsburgh over the next 11 days.
Assuming Williams and Campbell can get healthy in a reasonable period of time, the defensive line shouldn’t be a long-term concern, but the offensive line is another story with Boyle having affectionately been referred to as Baltimore’s sixth offensive lineman these last few years. A group that has sorely missed the retired Marshal Yanda all year and just lost All-Pro left tackle Ronnie Stanley for the season two weeks ago is rapidly running out of viable options.
To his credit, former right tackle Orlando Brown Jr. has done an admirable job filling in for Stanley on the left side, but veteran D.J. Fluker’s struggles at right tackle landed him on the bench in the second half of Sunday’s loss. Patrick Mekari, the backup center who was already filling in for the injured rookie (Tyre Phillips) replacing Yanda, moved out to right tackle with second-year lineman Ben Powers entering at right guard. On top of all that, center Matt Skura’s disastrous shotgun snaps sunk the offense on multiple occasions, continuing an alarming trend that started last week.
Did you get all that?
The current offensive line is a far cry from the 2019 unit that consistently kept MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson upright and opened lanes for a record-setting rushing attack. When even snapping the ball has become such an adventure, your offense just isn’t in a good place.
It’s a natural reaction for many fans and talking heads to blame the quarterback, but Jackson was far from among the biggest problems against the Patriots. His biggest blemish was the interception on a deep pass intended for Marquise Brown when the Ravens were approaching kicker Justin Tucker’s range in the final seconds of the first half, but Brown was again a non-factor — the 2019 first-round pick has a total of six catches for 54 yards since the bye — and several passes were dropped by pass-catchers in the rainy conditions. No one would suggest Jackson is playing near his MVP level from a year ago, but the 23-year-old isn’t getting a whole lot of help either. That’s only illuminated his weaknesses in regards to accuracy and throwing outside the numbers that were largely masked in a well-oiled machine of an offense a year ago.
More than halfway through the season, the Ravens offense lacks the health and calibration on which it thrived in 2019 as the run and pass have rarely worked in concert for more than a couple drives at a time. Sunday’s loss notwithstanding, that’s been good enough to handle lesser opponents, but the inconsistency and injuries are making it increasingly difficult to picture the Ravens making a deep run in January.
The call to let go of hopes for a 2019-like resurgence of dominance doesn’t mean waving the white flag, however. This team is still 6-3 after all.
Through their first nine games, the 2000 Ravens were trying to figure out how to score a touchdown again, let alone worry about their Super Bowl chances. The 2012 Ravens weren’t as good as the teams of the previous two years in the regular season and would go through a nightmare December before Joe Flacco led the historic run to New Orleans.
There’s still time for this team to find the optimal version of its current self, but it’s become apparent that holding these Ravens to the 2019 standard is no longer realistic for reasons ranging from increasing injuries to opponents doing a better job containing Jackson and what had been a “revolutionary” offense orchestrated by Greg Roman. Realistically, this team is going to continue to be led by a championship-caliber defense — if healthy — while hoping the offense can overcome its injuries and find more consistency.
Not everything has to go perfectly in the regular season to make a run to a Super Bowl, mind you. The Ravens showed last year that being the best in the regular season and the favorite entering January isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. The odds of Baltimore winning the conference’s top seed and the AFC North are certainly looking bleak with seven weeks to go, but this unique season in which home-field advantage has been all but eliminated seemingly diminishes the value of any seeding beyond the single first-round bye due to an expanded seven-team field. After the Titans and Steelers games, the December schedule is far from imposing with the Browns being the only one of the five opponents holding a winning record.
It isn’t time to give up on this team by any means, but there’s no sense waiting around for the ghost of last year to reappear. The Ravens just aren’t the same juggernaut.
We’ll see how they handle such adversity that just wasn’t there a year ago. It could ultimately make them or break them.
