Power rankings lists are great throughout the regular season. They help give a clearer picture of how each team is perceived on a weekly basis. But just because the NFL playoffs have begun doesn’t mean the power rankings stop. And with a win over the Tennessee Titans in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs, the Baltimore Ravens are sitting pretty.
Mark Schofield put together Touchdown Wire’s playoff power rankings and has Baltimore sitting at No. 6 right now. Though the list has rightfully changed to include only the playoff teams, the Ravens are pretty close to where they finished the regular season, bumping up just two spots from the end of Week 17 to now.
Schofield took a look at several incorrect narratives hanging on Baltimore’s shoulders entering the postseason. From Lamar Jackson can’t win the big games, to how the defense would fare against running back Derrick Henry. But it’s the last narrative — the Ravens’ offense can’t come back from a 10-point deficit — that might just be the biggest one put to bed with Baltimore’s playoff win.
The Ravens got behind early against the Titans. Thanks partially to Jackson’s horrible interception in the first quarter, Tennessee was able to get out to a 10-0 lead entering the second quarter. But Baltimore settled down on defense and changed the offensive gameplan up to do some serious damage in the second quarter.
Of the three drives the Ravens had in the second quarter, they managed two long, clock-chewing drives that ended in points. The first was a 12-play, 60-yard drive that ended with a field goal. The second was a seven-play, 82-yard drive that finished in the end zone. Even the third series ate up all 1:44 remaining on the clock to ensure the Titans didn’t get the ball back for any last-second heroics.
Then in the second half, Baltimore finished the job with strong offensive drives and a stout defense. The offense mounted two more scoring drives (would have been three if not for a missed field-goal attempt) and ate up 18:22 off the clock. The defense didn’t get any three-and-outs but they did force two punts, stopped Tennessee down at the goal line to force a field goal, and picked off quarterback Ryan Tannehill to effectively end the game.
As Schofield pointed out, one of the biggest narratives coming into this game was how to play Baltimore. By getting out to an early lead, the Ravens had proven time and again they’d fold by abandoning their offensive strategy and scrambling on defense. By upending that idea on Sunday, Baltimore proved there aren’t any guaranteed strategies that will work against them. That puts pressure on opponents, especially coaches, to make great in-game adjustments and play good football for all 60 minutes to have a shot at winning.
That’s a great spot for the Ravens to be right now. And as long as they don’t shoot themselves in the foot too often, they should be able to hang with any remaining playoff team.
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