As Ravens enter final stretch of regular season with Super Bowl hopes, plenty of challenges await
The Ravens are 9-3 and tied atop the AFC after their bye week. But with one of the toughest remaining schedules, nothing will be easy.
The Ravens are tied for the best record in the AFC at 9-3. They’ve got perhaps the NFL’s best defense by most measures. Quarterback Lamar Jackson is a potential candidate to be the league’s Most Valuable Player for the second time in four years.
What does Jackson think of all those lofty achievements?
“It’s still a lot of season left to play,” he said. “It doesn’t really mean anything to me right now.”
Nor does it to the rest of the team, coach John Harbaugh, general manager Eric DeCosta and owner Steve Bisciotti.
It also doesn’t matter yet to the fans, who have seen the team fail to advance past the divisional round of the playoffs every time since its last Super Bowl title in 2012. And it’s certainly not why Bisciotti shelled out $260 million over five years for Jackson, making him, at age 26, the third-highest-paid quarterback in the NFL.
What Bisciotti, the 63-year-old billionaire and founder of Hanover-based Aerotek, the largest privately owned staffing and recruiting company in the U.S., doled out all that dough for is a Super Bowl title.
The Ravens, who return from their bye week with a game Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams at M&T Bank Stadium, have taken their first steps toward another championship over the past three months, but whether they can deliver the city its first one in over a decade will play out over the next two months. It will be a challenging stretch, to say the least.
Baltimore has one of the most difficult remaining schedules in the league. Among them are the Jacksonville Jaguars, San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins. Two of those games — against the Jaguars and 49ers — will be on the road and in prime time, with the latter an epic Christmas Day showdown on “Monday Night Football.”
The Kansas City Chiefs, who, like the Ravens, entered Sunday night’s game with just three losses, play just one team with a .500 or better record in the Buffalo Bills, who they face at home. On top of that, the Chiefs currently own the conference tiebreaker over the Ravens if both happen to win out.
Still, there is a lot to be pleased with, including finally having gotten a week off.
The Ravens will have played just one game in 23 days when they host the Rams. Their only game in that span was a 20-10 victory Nov. 26 over the host Los Angeles Chargers. The time off will not only serve as a respite for the weary — particularly aging veteran outside linebackers and key contributors Jadeveon Clowney, 30, and 32-year-old Kyle Van Noy — but allow other players to heal from injury. Most notable among them are starting left tackle Ronnie Stanley and former All-Pro cornerback Marlon Humphrey, who have been hampered by knee and calf injuries, respectively.
“I do think that it’s going to be beneficial for him,” Harbaugh said of Stanley. “It’s something that’s been … It’s not been great. I think he’d probably be the first person to tell you it’s not been great. He needs to get stronger and get his technique right.
“He’s a great player. We want to get him back into playing at that high level.”
The final six games of the season also mark something of a new chapter for the Ravens.
They are without tight end Mark Andrews, Jackson’s favorite target, for at least the remainder of the regular season after he underwent surgery Nov. 21 for an ankle injury he suffered in the first quarter of Baltimore’s Nov. 16 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. Second-year tight end Isaiah Likely has filled in admirably so far, with four catches for 40 yards against the Chargers, but he remains unproven.
Harbaugh said it will take a team effort to replace Andrews, who has led the Ravens in catches and receiving yards three of the past four seasons.
He also believes they are better equipped to handle Andrews’ absence than they have been in the past with the additions of wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr., rookie Zay Flowers and Nelson Agholor, among others.
“We have a lot of guys that can step up and make plays — wide receivers, tight ends, running backs,” Harbaugh said. “I feel really good about the guys that are going to — all together — fill in for Mark Andrews.”
Before Andrews got hurt, Flowers, the 22nd overall draft pick, was doing his part. His team-high 58 catches already are the most by a rookie in franchise history, and he’s only 228 yards from passing Torrey Smith’s mark for the most yards by a first-year Ravens player. Entering Sunday, his 613 yards ranked fourth in the NFL among rookie receivers, and only Los Angeles Rams rookie Puka Nacua has more catches.
Beckham, meanwhile, has finally started to make an impact after being slowed by an ankle injury early in the season. Over his past four games, the 31-year-old has 13 catches for 246 yards and two touchdowns.
There’s also flashy rookie running back Keaton Mitchell, the undrafted 5-foot-8, 191-pound speedster out of East Carolina. The son of former Ravens defensive back Anthony Mitchell, who was a member of their 2000 Super Bowl team, the rookie has risen quickly up the depth chart and delivered some spectacular moments in recent weeks. He had a breakout performance last month against the Seattle Seahawks when he rushed for 138 yards and a touchdown on nine carries.
And, of course, there is the Ravens’ ever-reliable defense. Through their first 12 games, they ranked first in the NFL in sacks (47) and second in points (15.6) and yards (273.9) allowed per game.
Still, none of that matters to Jackson, who has had a singular goal since the Ravens drafted him in 2018.
“Getting to the Super Bowl is the goal,” he said. “But we’re just going to take it a week at a time. That’s all we can do. We can’t worry about the No. 1 seed or anything like that.”
“We just have to keep focusing [and] keep trying to win these games because it’s a tough league.”
And a tough road to get to where the Ravens want to go.
Week 14
Rams at Ravens
Sunday, 1 p.m.
TV: Fox
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
Line: Ravens by 7 1/2