It’s not simply the offense that’s a piece in progress — it’s the complete crew.
The Ravens talked about being a playoff contender, and perhaps they’re, but it surely’s exhausting to take them severely proper now. They aren’t prepared for prime time.
Two weeks in the past, they misplaced to the Indianapolis Colts in a sport they need to have simply received. Then on Sunday, they misplaced, 17-10, to Pittsburgh in a sport wherein they need to have buried the Steelers.
“It just felt like at times, that there was just too many things going wrong,” Ravens tight finish Mark Andrews stated. “It’s almost like a sleeping giant, man. We need to wake up.”
There aren’t sufficient fingers and toes to level out the issues. Coaches maintain making unhealthy choices. Receivers can’t catch or keep wholesome. The quarterback melts down underneath stress. Offensive linemen can’t pass-block. The protection can’t provide you with key third-down stops in crunchtime.
In the phrases of former New Orleans Saints coach Jim Mora, “Playoffs? Are you kidding me?”
OK, that’s a bit dramatic. But we’ve seen this act over the previous couple of years. The Ravens speak about how good they’re, however then they lose video games they need to simply win.
Pittsburgh quarterback Kenny Pickett was taking part in with a bruised knee and the Steelers have been with out beginning tight finish Pat Freiermuth and extensive receiver Diontae Johnson due to accidents. They entered Sunday ranked twenty ninth in complete offense and thirtieth in protection.
Go determine.
Pittsburgh has the identical proud custom as Baltimore of being a powerful defensive crew, and the Steelers entered the sport ranked twenty ninth in dashing protection and twenty sixth in go protection.
And the Ravens nonetheless misplaced.
Where can we begin?
Let’s start with the sphere aim that wasn’t with 19 seconds left within the second quarter. The Ravens have been forward 10-3 and confronted a fourth-and-2 on the Pittsburgh 23-yard line.
Instead of sending out Justin Tucker, the most effective discipline aim kicker in NFL historical past, the Ravens tried to attract the Steelers offside. Instead, middle Tyler Linderbaum snapped the ball to quarterback Lamar Jackson, who threw a go to an unprepared Zay Flowers.
“We were planning on kicking the field goal there,” Harbaugh stated. “The thought was to run the clock down and never go away them time to come back the opposite method after which simply name a timeout and kick the sphere aim. But we had only a miscommunication — [in the] warmth of battle. We weren’t on the identical web page. They jumped the impartial zone, and guys thought they have been within the impartial zone and went forward and snapped it.
“So, that wasn’t what we were planning on doing. You see Lamar was surprised by the snap, so that was just one of those things operationally that we just have to get better at. That’s kind of an example really of where we’re at. We just have to get better at operational things and just clean stuff up and make those plays.”
Spare me, please. I perceive the logic behind it, however the Ravens have been already in disarray. They had dropped a number of landing passes, and their offense was out of sync.
Meanwhile, their protection was taking part in nicely and had held the Steelers to 87 yards of complete offense within the first half. Why not simply kick the sphere aim, go away 16 seconds remaining and go into halftime with a 13-3 lead as an alternative of 10-3?
But as an alternative, the Ravens have been too cute. They needed to be aggressive, however typically a crew simply must maintain it easy, particularly towards a crew that doesn’t know if it’s in Cleveland or Pittsburgh.
Harbaugh has finished this earlier than, going for 2-point conversions to win a sport as an alternative of settling for an additional level to tie the sport and ship it into additional time.
The Ravens struggled all sport. Flowers dropped a attainable landing go, and so did Nelson Agholor. Ditto for Rashod Bateman and even essentially the most dependable receiver on the crew, Andrews.
During the offseason, the Ravens loaded up with free agent receivers Agholor and Odell Beckham Jr. They have been speculated to ship large performs, however Agholor obtained a case of the drops on a deep go down the precise sideline within the third quarter and Beckham spent extra time on the sideline with obvious accidents than on the sphere.
Jackson didn’t assist himself within the fourth quarter. He threw an interception in the long run zone on a go to Beckham with 4:06 remaining after the Ravens recovered a fumbled punt return on the Pittsburgh 7, after which was stripped whereas trying to go almost three minutes later from the Ravens’ 44.
Jackson must really feel the stress coming in that second. Besides the inaccuracy, right here is the opposite knock on Jackson: He doesn’t win plenty of video games within the last minutes of the fourth quarter.
It’s one factor to be good, however one other to change into nice by profitable shut video games, particularly within the postseason.
The Ravens, although, aren’t a crew constructed for comebacks. They’re good when the run sport is working and the play-action go is efficient, however they battle with pass-blocking.
The Ravens gave up 4 sacks, together with two within the fourth quarter once they have been outscored 14-0. Their weaknesses obtained uncovered, particularly an injury-riddled secondary that allowed Pickett to finish a game-winning 41-yard landing go to receiver George Pickens down the precise sideline with 1:17 left.
By then, the Ravens have been all the way down to their third possibility at proper deal with in Daniel Faalele, who was having as a lot success as left deal with Ronnie Stanley making an attempt to dam the Steelers, significantly outdoors linebackers T.J. Watt, Kwon Alexander and Alex Highsmith.
It’s a sport the Ravens ought to have received; the expectations are completely different this season. But the Ravens fumbled twice and misplaced each of them. They allowed Pittsburgh to dam a punt for a security within the fourth quarter.
It’s nonetheless the identical outdated Ravens.
They have 12 extra video games to show in any other case.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com