Ravens Grind Out Another Ugly Win Against The Falcons, Punch Their Ticket To Festivus

Michael Owens. Getty Images.

Well… that was just about the football game we all expected. Ugly and cold as hell, ton of action on the ground, and a Ravens win that isn't necessarily going to restore a ton of faith in this team's ability to do damage in the postseason. There was still baffling playcalling, some sloppy execution, and an inability to completely bury a bad football team. All in all, it's much of the same that we've seen over the past 2 months or so from the Ravens.

BUT

The ticket is punched. When your star QB and former MVP goes down for multiple weeks, you just hope that your backup can come in and give your guys a chance to win. Anything more than that, and you tip your cap and consider yourself lucky. If you include the Denver game, Tyler Huntley has come in and manned the ship to a W in 3 out of 4 weeks. It hasn't been pretty and it's a testament to just how well rounded this team is (outside of the obvious), but it's been enough to push this team from 7-4 to 10-5 and into the postseason.

I know we came into this season with higher aspirations than just making the postseason, but at this point that feels like an accomplishment in itself. There's always the possibility that Lamar comes back and this offense flips a switch, but what we watched in the few weeks prior to his injury doesn't give me a lot of hope. I said it last week, the Ravens are probably not currently constructed to go on a championship run, but they're certainly constructed to give any team they play hell from a physicality standpoint and be a tough out in January. 

I'm still wildly frustrated by some of the offensive playcalling. Even though the run/pass ratio of 2:1 was a lot better (17 throws to 34 runs) it's still baffling the way Greg Roman refuses to stick to what works. We'll do things with great success to get down into the red zone and then completely abandon it. If Gus Edwards rumbles 35 yards inside the 10, feed that man. Then feed him again. And if that fails, feed him again. Just little shit like that. It was a damn near miracle that we were able to get the TD that we did. Demarcus Robinson is the first Ravens WR to catch a TD since Week 3. Week 3!

I suppose that's a sign of progress but this game could have been extremely over in the 4th quarter if they had just been able to convert one more time in the RZ. Story of the season it seems.

Defense came thru in a big way though. That goal line stop headline by PQ in the middle of the 4th quarter was the type of stop that championship defenses make. They're my one saving grace that maybe… just maybe… deep down there's some championship DNA in this team somewhere. But big picture, they're just not doing enough good things collectively to make me believe otherwise.

Rivalry game next week against the Steelers where we gotta win to keep pace with the Bengals. If the Bills can do their job against them next week, we can go into Cincy with a chance to win the division. Uphill battle, but it might be there to be had.

Mission accomplished today, on to the next. And run the damn ball.