The 2021 Ravens Are Going To Be The Death Of Me
Joe Sargent. Getty Images.Holy shit man. This team is going to kill me, for better or worse. Even when we win, there's been maybe two games that haven't given me a series of heart attacks in the process. If I hadn't lived through seemingly hundreds of Steelers-Ravens defensive battles over the past two decades, I'd probably be dead already. And that's exactly what today's loss was. A vintage L in Pittsburgh that came down to a couple plays that didn't go our way.
The Ravens really had no business letting this be a football game with the way the dominated the first half. The possession stats told the story. They were moving the football methodically, little by little, including a 99 yard touchdown drive. The Steelers weren't. Their offense in the first half was exactly what we thought they were. Poo. Yet somehow due to a bad red zone pick on the game's opening drive, the Steelers were only a dropped TD pass away from going into halftime with this thing tied. The Ravens continued control in the 3rd quarter, but the defense wore down in the 4th quarter and fell to pieces. The Steelers started to run the ball effectively and capitalized on a couple coverage breakdowns when they needed to. That's all it takes in games like these to swing things the other way. I HATED the pass interference call on Averett that took the Queen INT off the board… but those are the things that tend to happen in these games. It was a physical play, I thought Diontae Johnson initiated the contact and the ball was anyone's to grab, but that's the way those things tend to be called. It's tough, and the defense hardly did anything else in the 4th quarter to warrant winning that game.
Featured on Barstool
Gotta give kudos to Lamar despite playing a pretty ugly game (mostly thanks to BRUTAL offensive line play) to get those guys down the field and into the end zone. His throw to Andrews could have been better but that's what happens when you've got a guy breathing down and your neck. And sure, Mark Andrews gets paid a lot of money to make difficult catches, and he didn't. It stinks. Massive opportunity right through our fingers.
But the real kicker is an hour after the game….
This secondary has already been torn to bits with injury after injury this season. Marcus Peters and DeShon Elliott are both great players. Marlon is the best dude we got. Now we've got to lean on…. Anthony Averett to cover guys like Jarvis Landry, Davante Adams, Cooper Kupp, and Ja'Marr Chase down the stretch here in some MASSIVE football games. That's a recipe for a disaster, as we've learned more weeks than not when he's defending lesser receivers than those guys.
Dropping to 8-4 isn't a disaster in itself, especially with Cincy losing today. The Ravens still find themselves somehow on top of the AFC North. But with no legs to stand on in the pass game defensively and an offensive line that flat out can't block anybody, suddenly it's not unfathomable to think this team really could lose out. @CLE, GB, @CIN, LA Rams, and Steelers at home…. there's no breathers. We've gotten this far with basically our JV squad and now we're down to our freshmen. It's insane. Lamar gives you a chance in every game they play, but the deck is so stacked against him and the rest of these guys. If John Harbaugh can still find a way to win this division, I can't fathom how you could give Coach of the Year to anybody else.
Things are looking bleak in Baltimore. Real bleak. Pray for your boy because these team might kill me.