No longer would the Ravens be feared on only one side of the ball. With this much talent, hell, 15-1 and 14-2 was very doable. And I know I wasn’t alone in thinking that the Ravens were Super Bowl champions in waiting.
Well, I’m still waiting.
After watching the Ravens limp past Tampa Bay 17-10 in front of 70,989 chilled fans at M & T Bank Stadium, I’m still waiting for this team to get its act together on offense.
I’m still waiting for this team to play the complete game, offensively, defensively and on special teams. Frankly, I’m still waiting for this team to play up to its potential.
Sure, the Ravens are 8-3 and leading the AFC North heading into a monumentally big home contest against rival Pittsburgh. Yes, the most important thing is just winning games and positioning yourself for the playoffs.
But come on, there has to be some concern or sense of urgency about not putting together a dominating performance on both sides of the ball in the same game?
Sunday was a perfect example of what has been wrong with the Ravens this season.
The defense was ferocious. Linebacker Terrell Suggs and the defensive front harassed Bucs quarterback Josh Freeman, holding him to 162 yards and the Bucs offense to only four plays of 15 yards or more.
They contained the angry running LeGarrett Blount to 55 meaningless yards and held the Bucs offense to three points through three quarters. And yet, this was still a football game.
Why, because of an offense that struggled to move the ball and put points on the board. Again.
The Ravens amassed 349 yards of offense, 92 of which were on the ground. That is 24 yards below the rushing average for the season.
The Big O scored 17 points, all of which came in the first half. Are you kidding me? Against a Bucs defense that is 16th overall and 29th against the run!
Keep in mind, 65 of those yards came on a busted play in which Todd Heap got behind linebackers Barrett Ruud and Quincy Black for a second quarter touchdown.
There was also a pass interference call near the end of the first half that could have been a no-call and put the Ravens inside the red zone. On the next play, Joe Flacco hit Derrick Mason for a 10-yard score.
“We are putting the pieces together every day,” RB Ray Rice said. “No matter what you see, we are still winning.
“There is only one ball to go around. That’s tough on us, because we all want the ball. But we are playing together, and we are going to get it. In the meantime, we are still winning.”
That’s nice. But it didn’t happen in Cincinnati. It didn’t happen in New England. And it didn’t happen in Atlanta two weeks ago.
The good news is that the defense was able to watch the final seconds tick off the clock. You can thank Rice for that, as he touched the ball on five straight plays on the final drive and picked up three first downs.
“That was huge,” Rice said. “The defense trusted us. They played their butt off, and we took it from there. They do for us, and we needed to do it for them.”
Now all they have to do is do it for each other, for four quarters in the same game.
Next week against the Steelers would be a good time to start. If not, all those Super Bowl dreams might go up in smoke.
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