Don’t hassle mentioning the similarities to the 2022 Ravens. They don’t need to hear it.
They’re in lockstep with coach John Harbaugh, who declared demise to all narratives after they stole a 10-9 victory from the Denver Broncos final weekend. It’s bunker time. Only the following sport issues.
But we have now to speak about it, proper?
The Ravens are 8-4, main the AFC North by a tiebreaker over the Cincinnati Bengals. Twelve months in the past they had been additionally 8-4, up a sport on Cincinnati.
They simply watched Lamar Jackson, the straw that stirs their drink, limp off the sector with a knee damage that Harbaugh deemed not season-ending. It was Week 13 final yr when Jackson hobbled off with an ankle damage. Though Harbaugh held out hope he would possibly return, he didn’t play one other snap over the Ravens’ final 4 video games.
We’re not accomplished. The Ravens’ offense was in a rut earlier than Jackson’s damage final season. They had scored 10, 16, 16 and 19 factors of their earlier 4 video games, with their franchise quarterback working skittishly behind a patched-together offensive line. They’re equally stalled proper now, with the league’s Twenty fourth-most environment friendly offense over the past three weeks (down from fourth over the primary 10 weeks), based on Football Outsiders’ DVOA.
So now, the massive query: We know the 2021 Ravens crashed out of the playoff image with six straight losses to finish their season; are they doomed to an analogous destiny in 2022?
Players, whether or not they had been current for the earlier collapse or not, had little use for this line of inquiry as they ready for his or her subsequent check Sunday in opposition to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“It’s a new year,” mentioned linebacker Patrick Queen, who lived by means of the 2021 horror. “We don’t dwell on the past. Yes, we talked about it early in the season, trying not to make those same mistakes we did last year. But honestly, it’s a new season, time to get all that talk out of here and do what we’re supposed to do this year.”
“I think we’re a whole different team,” mentioned proper sort out Morgan Moses, who signed with the Ravens within the offseason to be a part of the answer. “I can’t speak on last year’s team, but I just think about the men and the coaches that we have in this building today. I think we’re prepared for this.”
There are loads of causes — higher well being, simpler schedule, sheer defensive expertise — to suppose Queen and Moses are right.
When Jackson went down final yr, he was simply essentially the most distinguished addition to an already-overcrowded damage ward. The Ravens had been enjoying with out left sort out Ronnie Stanley, cornerbacks Marlon Humphrey and Marcus Peters, working backs J.Ok. Dobbins and Gus Edwards and beginning security DeShon Elliott. The listing went on and on. With the expertise drain, their move protection went from dangerous within the first half of the season to worst within the league within the second half.
Regardless of what’s occurring on offense, their defensive cabinet is much better stocked a yr later. Humphrey and Peters are enjoying virtually each snap. First-round decide Kyle Hamilton is within the image as a succesful cowl man and thumping run stopper from the nickel spot. Queen has blossomed, and he’s now paired with one of many league’s most fearsome working again hunters in commerce acquisition Roquan Smith. Marcus Williams, the Ravens’ high offseason addition, is about to return on the again finish. Key veterans Justin Houston and Calais Campbell are sharing work in deep edge and inside rotations, respectively, in order that they’re more energizing.
Safety Chuck Clark sees no comparability between the present protection and the one which limped residence 12 months in the past: “Last year, we had a lot of guys down and just injuries. That’s part of the game, but this year, guys are healthy, and we have a lot of bodies out there. We can rotate guys in and out, and there’s almost no lapse out there.”
Houston even instructed the Ravens are higher off being a defense-first workforce, one thing they by no means had been final yr.
The 2021 roster fell aside simply in time for a relentless slate of December and January opponents. Over the Ravens’ final six video games, they performed one workforce, the Cleveland Browns, that didn’t find yourself in playoffs. The Green Bay Packers would earn the NFC’s high seed. The Bengals and Los Angeles Rams would meet within the Super Bowl.
This yr’s ending run won’t be a cakewalk, particularly if Jackson stays absent, however the Ravens will play only one extra sport in opposition to a workforce with a present profitable report. Their remaining schedule is Sixteenth-hardest within the league, per Football Outsiders.
Can they decide off the 2 extra wins they may in all probability must safe a playoff berth? Almost each projection system is bullish on their probabilities, with FiveThirtyEight giving them an 86% probability, ESPN a 94.9% probability and Football Outsiders a 91% probability. Of course, those self same methods mentioned they had been good to go right now final yr.
Fair or not, the strain to push back one other catastrophe will fall closely on backup quarterback Tyler Huntley’s shoulders, a lot because it did in 2021. Huntley was 1-3 as a starter final yr, and the Ravens additionally misplaced their Week 13 sport in opposition to the Browns after he relieved Jackson within the first quarter. But is it honest to put in writing off the way in which he they usually completed the season as a pure failure?
As we’ve established, they performed a gnarly schedule with a depleted roster. But Huntley threw two landing passes and ran for 2 extra scores to rally them inside a failed two-point conversion of probably upsetting the Packers. He fought although 5 sacks to construct a five-point lead in opposition to the eventual Super Bowl champion Rams earlier than they caught the Ravens within the final minute. He led the offense to 249 speeding yards in a season-closing time beyond regulation loss to the Steelers.
The remaining outcomes had been what they had been, however Huntley constructed capital together with his teammates over this stretch. That’s a part of the rationale they belief him so readily now, as he steps in for Jackson with the season hanging within the stability.
“Last year, we had been through a bunch of different things and adversity, and I think that’s made us stronger,” tight finish Mark Andrews mentioned. “Last year is going to make us better for this year. [Tyler has] got a bunch of experience, a lot of guys that played with him, got a bunch of reps, got a bunch of chemistry with him. I’m excited for his opportunity.”
The Ravens will face an entire new set of questions in the event that they grasp on to their playoff spot and line up in opposition to the AFC’s greatest underneath loser-leaves-town circumstances. But they’re in no place to get forward of themselves.
“That’s never really been our motto, to finish so poorly, like we did last year, so I think everybody’s mindset is pretty refreshing this week,” Humphrey mentioned Thursday. “We’re trying to make sure no stone is left unturned. It’s crazy when you say five weeks, because I didn’t really realize it’s around the same time. But we’re trying to not let that happen again.”
Week 14
Ravens at Steelers
Sunday, 1 p.m.
TV: Chs. 13, 9
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
Line: Steelers by 2 1/2
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com