Category: Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens’ Super Bowl window has closed

In a crowded AFC that is only getting better, both with quarterbacks and rosters, the Baltimore Ravens may have missed their best opportunity at a Super Bowl.

Alright, calm down.

I’m sure many of you saw this headline, immediately looked for the byline to know who to get angry at, and then began cursing my name and shouting to your nearest co-worker, friend, or relative to come see this monstrosity before you.

For the last several seasons, the Baltimore Ravens have been hyped as one of the league’s best teams and amongst the favorites to represent the AFC in the Super Bowl, and every year they have fallen short. Now in Baltimore’s defense, every team in the AFC except the Patriots, Chiefs, and Bengals have come up short in making it out of the AFC. Nonetheless, though, the Ravens best shot up to get to the Super Bowl to this point was in 2023, and it may be the best shot they ever get.

While the focus, as it usually is with Baltimore, was on Lamar Jackson, it was the defense that carried the Ravens all season. Here’s how the Ravens finished in notable defensive categories:

  • 1st in fewest points allowed
  • 1st in takeaways
  • 1st in sacks
  • 1st in lowest passer rating allowed
  • 2nd in fewest touchdown passes allowed
  • 1st in fewest rushing touchdowns allowed
  • 2nd in EPA per play

In their massive wins over the Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions, San Francisco 49ers, and Miami Dolphins, the Ravens allowed a total of 47 points. Less than 12 points per game to the two teams who competed in the NFC Championship Game and two other teams in the Dolphins and Seahawks who had top 10 offenses in terms of EPA per play. In those four games, Baltimore had 11 takeaways- nearly three takeaways per game.

The point being that the Ravens cant just depend on those defensive splash plays to roll over into next season and be the biggest reason they win games. Especially not after losing Patrick Queen and Geno Stone, both to division rivals, as Queen signed with the Steelers and Stone joined the Bengals.

Not to mention the fact that defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald is gone after becoming the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. The defense will still be good, in all likelihood, but expecting them to repeat what they did last year with the mastermind of it all departed, as well as two key defenders- that would be very naïve to say the least. That was the best defense they are going to have for the foreseeable future, and they didn’t capitalize on it.

Now to the offense and Mr. Jackson. For as great a talent he is, he seems to fold when the lights are bright. Jackson and the Ravens are 0-4 in playoff games where their opponent scores more than 13 points. Jackson himself has a 2-4 record in the playoffs as it currently stands, and in his two biggest playoff games, he has shrunk.

The AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs was obviously the biggest game of his career, and we’ll get to that shortly, but the other playoff game I’m referencing came against the Bills during the 2020-21 season. Jackson went 14-of-24 for 162 yards and a pick-six taken 101 yards for a touchdown to all but seal the deal in a 17-3 loss against Buffalo.

The AFC Championship Game from just a few short months ago, though, was a masterpiece of mistakes by Jackson, and the Ravens as a whole. After winning another MVP (which I would have given to No. 17 in Buffalo, but that’s neither here nor there), Jackson went 20-of-37 with one touchdown and one interception, the latter of which came when the Ravens were at the Chiefs’ 25 yard-line and in position to make it a one-score game with less than seven minutes remaining in the game.

It felt like Baltimore went into that game with an agenda and something to prove. Despite being the NFL’s best ground attack, and going up against a Chiefs defense that was 28th in the league in EPA per rush, the Ravens only ran the ball 16 times. And for anyone who may say “Well, the Chiefs may have slowed down their run game so they leaned into the pass while trailing,” they were averaging over five yards per carry. And even though they were trailing most of the game, it was a 10-point deficit. It’s not as if that was an insurmountable lead to overcome. Their best drive of the second half came when they leaned into running the ball. With just over seven minutes left in the third quarter, Jackson had a run for 11 yards, as did Justice Hill. This came after a short swing to Gus Edwards for 16. A holding penalty halted their progress, though, and put them in 2nd and 15 where they felt like they had to throw, and that killed the drive. Jackson got sacked on 3rd and 9, and that felt like the beginning of the end in the second half.

The Ravens wanted to prove they didn’t need to run the ball to win. They wanted Jackson to outduel Mahomes to prove that he could, and it blew up in their face.

I understand the fascination with Jackson and the Ravens, but look at how stacked the conference is in terms of teams and quarterback talent. Teams like the Texans are getting better, and C.J. Stroud is a budding superstar. The Titans are going all in to build a really good roster. The Jaguars have a special quarterback in Trevor Lawrence. Justin Herbert now has Jim Harbaugh, and we’ll see how that goes. The Dolphins will be in the mix, The Jets may be fun with a healthy Aaron Rodgers.

In the Ravens’ own division, the Steelers are much better on paper, and Jackson is 1-3 against Pittsburgh in his career. The Browns were just a playoff team, and the Bengals will get Joe Burrow back and be right back in the thick of things. And, of course, there is Buffalo and Kansas City who always seem to be playing deep into January. For how great the quarterbacks and teams are in this conference, some of them won’t ever get over that hump. And for as talented as he may be, Jackson fell short in the best opportunity to get to the Super Bowl that he may ever have.

And in a crowded AFC, there is no guarantee he’ll get that chance again.

Derrick Henry signs with Baltimore Ravens

The Ravens’ league-best ground attack just got even better

The Baltimore Ravens are coming off an appearance in the AFC Championship game, and are getting stronger offensively as they try to make it to their first Super Bowl in over a decade.

Baltimore is signing star running back Derrick Henry to a two-year, $16 million deal worth up to $20 million and with $9 million guaranteed.

Henry spent the first eight years of his career with the Tennessee Titans where he became one of the best, and most dominant running backs in NFL history. Since 2018, he has had double-digit touchdowns in every season, and he led the NFL in rushing in both 2019 and 2020, the latter of which he ran for 2,027 yards and 17 touchdowns.

Henry helped the Titans reach the AFC Championship Game in 2019 before being defeated at the hands of the Kansas City Chiefs who would go on to defeat the San Francisco 49ers in the Super Bowl that season.

Henry is a four-time Pro Bowler and arguably the most dominant running back of his era. He now joins Lamar Jackson in an offense that led the NFL in rushing in 2023.

Bengals bolster iffy safety group with underrated star Geno Stone

The Bengals added to their iffy safety group with a proven veteran in Geno Stone, and they did it at quite a bargain.

Last season, without veteran safeties Vonn Bell and Jessie Bates III, the Cincinnati Bengals struggled a bit at the position with Dax Hill, Nick Scott, and Jordan Battle. Now, the team — and defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo — have done something major to shore that up. Per Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the Bengals have agreed to terms with former Baltimore Ravens safety Geno Stone on a two-year, $15 million deal with a $6 million signing bonus.

That’s a sweet deal for a player that led all safeties last season with seven interceptions, but Stone is about more than just picks — he was one of the stingiest deep-third defenders in the league, and he allowed 27 catches on 41 targets for 193 yards, 136 yards after the catch, two touchdowns, those seven interceptions, eight pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 53.3.

Stone should have had a more robust market in this free agent class, but it’s certainly to the Bengals’ advantage.

Lamar Jackson wins second AP NFL MVP Award

Lamar Jackson is now a two-time AP NFL MVP Award winner

Lamar Jackson added a second MVP award to the one he won in 2019.

He’s 26 years old and has already won the honor as the league’s top player twice.

The Ravens’ quarterback threw for 3,678 yards and 24 touchdowns.

He added 821 rushing yards and 5 more scores.

Zay Flowers’ horrible AFC Championship game somehow gets even worse

Ravens rookie receiver Zay Flowers’ horrible AFC Championship somehow got even worse when he was fined by the NFL.

Baltimore Ravens rookie receiver Zay Flowers came out of Boston College with the 23rd overall pick in the 2023 NFL draft, and for the most part, he lived up to that investment in his first professional season. Flowers caught 86 passes on 116 targets in the 2023 season for 1,014 yards and six touchdowns, becoming a serious threat for Lamar Jackson at all levels of the field.

Unfortunately, in Baltimore’s 17-10 AFC Championship loss to the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday, Flowers became a serious threat to his team at times. Not that he played badly — he caught five passes on seven targets for 115 yards and a touchdown — but things started to unravel exponentially in the game for Flowers, and for the Ravens.

With 49 seconds left in the third quarter, Flowers smoked Kansas City’s usually outstanding defense for this 54-yard catch.

That would have put the Ravens in prime position to get closer than the 17-7 deficit they had, but Flowers’ youthful exuberance got the best of him, and he was flagged for a rather obvious taunting penalty.

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That took the ball from the Kansas City 10-yard line to the Kansas City 25-yard line. Now, the Ravens were fighting for a field goal as much as a touchdown.

And THEN… at the start of the fourth quarter… Flowers had a shot at his second receiving touchdown of the game. Instead, Flowers fumbled the all just short of the end zone, encouraged by Chiefs cornerback L’Jarius Sneed.

But wait — there’s more! A frustrated Flowers then went to the Ravens’ bench, hit a bench with his hand in frustration, and injured that hand.

Just when you think things couldn’t get any worse for Flowers, he got a FedEx from the league regarding that taunting penalty. Flowers was fined $10,927 by the NFL for the incident.

Ouch.

“Everybody texted me,” Flowers said post-game of the support he received. “Everybody texted me that I know. You know how it is. It’s just a moment. It’s going to make or break you, and I don’t plan on letting it break me.” 

Nor should he. We all have those moments we regret, and based on the tape, Flowers has everything required to be one of the NFL’s best receivers over time.

If he can just keep certain things under wraps… and hold on to the ball.

Ravens TE Mark Andrews one of heroes during in-flight medical emergency

Mark Andrews helped save a woman who was having an in-flight medical emergency

Baltimore Ravens tight end Mark Andrews was one of a number of people who helped save a woman during an in-flight emergency.

The woman was having a medical episode and Andrews sprung into action.

Andrews downplayed his role through the team’s social channels.

Andrews was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 9 years old.

Well done, by all.

Seahawks to hire former Ravens DC Mike Macdonald as their new head coach

The Seahawks hired Mike Macdonald to be their new head coach, and to fix a defense that lost its way. They got the right guy.

In 2010. the Seattle Seahawks hired Pete Carroll, a defensive mastermind, to be their new head coach.

14 years later, the Seattle Seahawks have hired another defensive mastermind to replace Carroll.

Mike Macdonald, the former Baltimore Ravens and Michigan Wolverines defensive coordinator, was tabbed for the job right around the time he flew to Seattle for his second interview with general manager John Schneider, per multiple reports.

It’s a massive hire for a team that had absolutely lost its way on defense under Carroll and former defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt. Last season, the Seahawks ranked 28th in Defensive DVOA, a number once thought impossible under Carroll in the Legion of Boom days. But bad draft picks and free-agent signings on that side of the ball, as well as a lack of coaching oversight, left Seattle’s defense in a bad way.

That will certainly change now. The Ravens finished their 2023 season ranked first in Defensive DVOA, and it was the ways in which Macdonald was able to raise the profiles of relatively unknown players that pushed him into status as perhaps the most coveted coach in this hiring cycle.

The 36-year-old Macdonald becomes the youngest head coach in the NFL, and he’s exactly half Pete Carroll’s age. He began his coaching career at Cedar Shoals High School in Georgia in 2008 as a running backs/linebackers coach, and then became a member of the Ravens’ coaching staff in 2014 as a coaching intern after four years on the Georgia Bulldogs’ staff. He worked with the Ravens as a defensive assistant and linebackers coach before becoming Michigan’s defensive coordinator in 2021, and then, Baltimore’s defensive coordinator in 2022.

4-Down Territory: Dan Campbell. Ravens’ offense, Kyle Shanahan, Worst of the Week

Dan Campbell, Lamar Jackson, Kyle Shanahan, and the Worst of the Week! All up in this week’s “4-Down Territory!”

Now that Super Bowl LVIII is set between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers, it’s time once again for Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire, and Kyle Madson of Niners Wire, to come to the table with their own unique brand of analysis in “4-Down Territory.”

This week, the guys have some serious questions to answer:

  1. Should Dan Campbell be pilloried for his fourth-down decisions?
  2. What have we learned about the Baltimore Ravens after their AFC Championship game loss?
  3. Why should Kyle Shanahan have more faith in a possible first Lombardi Trophy?
  4. What was our Worst of the Week?

You can watch this week’s “4-Down Territory” right here:

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You can also listen and subscribe to the “4-Down Territory” podcast on Spotify…

…and on Apple Podcasts.

The Ravens’ bizarre offensive game plan cost them a trip to the Super Bowl

The Baltimore Ravens fell to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday, and their offensive game plan was a big reason why.

Often times in the NFL, coaches can overthink themselves and not learn from the peers around them, perhaps thinking they can outsmart what is right in front of them. It was a painful reminder for Baltimore Ravens fans everywhere that sometimes you should stick with the obvious, if the obvious works. In a heart breaking loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship game, offensive coordinator Todd Monken and this Ravens offense decided to stray away from their biggest strength and the Chiefs’ biggest weakness.

Just last weekend we saw the Buffalo Bills pound the rock directly down the gullet of Kansas City to the tune of 192 yards on 39 carries. While the Bills of course did not ultimately win the game, it was a brilliant yet simplistic strategy that may have been one missed kick away from working. There is little doubt the Baltimore offensive coaching staff watched that game and saw what the Chiefs did and did not do well against Buffalo, so it leaves a bit of a head scratcher as to why one of the best running games in the NFL was suddenly turned away from on the biggest stage.

The Ravens were third in offensive rush efficiency on the year and yet only ended up running the ball eighteen times in a game that was never really out of hand at any point. The Chiefs on the year were giving up 4.5 yards a run and were clearly susceptible to a running attack, even if they were paying extra attention to the running game it’s still an area you needed to attack.

It truly becomes head-scratching as to why the Ravens didn’t hand the ball off more to Gus Edwards who averaged 6.7 yards on his three carries or dialed up more designed quarterback runs. It’s a sobering reminder that sometimes the answers are right in front of you, and to go into a game with a different set of ideas than the obvious can lead to a game getting away from you.

Seemingly everyone is rooting for the Baltimore Ravens to beat the Kansas City Chiefs

Lamar Jackson and this Ravens squad are the heroes for everyone who is not a Kansas City Chiefs fan.

Success is a funny thing, especially when it comes to competitive leagues such as the NFL. Everyone loves an underdog story but not everyone likes to see incredibly sustained success, as we witnessed during the Tom Brady and Bill Belichick era. With Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid reaching their sixth straight championship game, the resentment is bound to follow. It doesn’t help that the Chiefs have found themselves in the spotlight multiple times with the arrival or Taylor Swift and the likes of Jackson Mahomes continuing to create headlines.

If we spend any amount of time on the football side of social media it is becoming clear that the vast majority of fans have become big Lamar Jackson fans over the last week. With memes ranging in comedic value scattered across the confines of sports twitter. The Baltimore Ravens aren’t necessarily underdogs going into this matchup given most people view them as the best team in the entire NFL and they are the number one seed in the playoffs, but the recent history of Patrick Mahomes tells you that to count Kansas City out of this game would be a fools errand.

It’s always fun to see which teams fans will temporary pick up and root for once their own team has been eliminated from contention, and this year shows a replica of the New England Patriots’ dynasty era in so many ways. Win or lose on Sunday the Chiefs are currently in a dynasty, and the fans are going to be rooting against them every step of the way as history begins to repeat itself.

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