On a night where the Ravens lost to their most hated rivals by 20 points, it's hard to be optimistic going forward. Unlike last week's narrow and controversial loss to the Bengals, this week's loss to the Steelers felt truly over by the beginning of the 4th quarter. There was absolutely horrendous officiating with perplexing calls against the Ravens and no-calls that benefited the Steelers to a high degree. The officiating did not, however, account for the entire 20 point deficit. For the second week in a row, the Ravens gave up 14 quick points off of turnovers. No team can be successful when it coughs up the ball to the other team multiple times deep in their own half of the field. T he pass rush that looked hellishly fierce early on appeared to struggle down the stretch at getting to Ben Roethlisberger. The play of the Ravens secondary once again exposed the team's biggest weakness. The Ravens never had these kinds of issues from 2003-2012 while Ed Reed patrolled center field. We all loved and appreciated Ed, but maybe we took his knowledge of the game and instincts for granted as he played in the shadow of the greatest linebacker of all time. Yes, it's easy to feel depressed and hopeless about the Ravens after two disappointing losses to the Ravens biggest divisional rivals...but there's light at the end of the tunnel.
The Ravens went 4-6 last season through their first 10 weeks. They're not 5-4 with a game home game coming up against one of the worst teams in the league. If there's one major different between this year's and last year's Ravens team, it's that this year's Ravens team beats the loser teams that they're SUPPOSED to beat. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Baltimore will destroy the Tennessee Titans next week. The problem is that the Ravens can't play horrible teams EVERY week. Instead they have serious tests against the Saints, Chargers, Dolphins and Texans coming up in the second half of the season. The way the Ravens are playing right now, one would hardly expect the Baltimore to win more than one of those four games, but there is good reason to believe that our beloved birds will play significantly better than what they've shown in the past two weeks. The Ravens secondary has not been complete for almost the entire season thus far. Two of the Ravens top three corners are currently out, but the best of those two, Jimmy Smith, should be set to return right after the bye week. Jimmy Smith typically never gets tested by opposing quarterbacks, and he is rated as a top ten corner in the league by Pro Football Focus. Having him back will be instrumental to the Ravens' success against such pass-heavy offenses as those of the Saints and Chargers.
In addition to Jimmy Smith, the Ravens will get cornerback Asa Jackson back by Week 14 in time for the Ravens trip to Miami to play the Dolphins. This could prove critical as the Dolphins appear to currently be the best team left of the Ravens schedule. With Jackson's return, the Ravens will have a well staffed secondary for the first time this season, and they'll have it just in time for a playoff push. The last time the Ravens won a Super Bowl they went through a similar rough patch where they lost three painful games down the stretch before clinching the division with a decisive win over the world champion New York Giants. The Ravens were able to clinch that division and then go on a playoff run because of one major factor: the health of their defense. The Ravens appeared to bottom out in a blowout loss to the Denver Broncos wherein they played without 8 defensive starters. Upon the return of those defensive starters, the Ravens went on a miraculous run through the playoffs where their once poorly ranked defense suddenly suffocated three of the very best quarterback in the league in Andrew Luck, Peyton Manning, and Tom Brady.
This years's defense has been better in many regards than that of the last Super Bowl winning team, and the current offense is also well on pace to outscore the Ravens 2012 offense which was the most productive in team history with a total of 399 regular season points (I know it's not much, but hey, the Ravens are a defensive team). This defense is NOT, however, effective without arguably its best player, Jimmy Smith. This team is nowhere near guaranteed a playoff berth by sheer virtue of its comparatively weak remaining strength of schedule, but it simply a different team when the aforementioned key players are back on the field. I know this sounds far to optimistic after such a blowout loss, but the Ravens WILL get better over the course of the next month.
KEEP THE FAITH, RAVENS FANS.
THIS TEAM SHOULD GO INTO THE BYE WEEK 6-4
AND READY TO MAKE A SERIOUS PLAYOFF PUSH.
AS ALWAYS
GO RAVENS!!! (GO GET HEALTHY)
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