The Ravens are still a playoff team at the moment, and racked up a season-high 413 yards of total offense.
Figured we’d get the good news out of the way first.
The Ravens were stung by the way they lost to the Steelers last night, a 39-38 game which doesn’t keep them out of the playoffs but keeps them from looking like a team that might belong or last long in them. They lost in similar fashion to the Steelers on the road last Christmas, which brought back the memories.
“This one hurt when you lose to them in the same way we did last year,” linebacker Terrell Suggs said, via Jamison Henseley of ESPN.com. “This one sucks. But we have got to get over it.”
The fact their defense collapsed so thoroughly was the thing that alarmed them, as allowing the Steelers to come back from a 31-20 fourth-quarter deficit and Ben Roethlisberger throwing for a mere 506 yards went against most of what they like to believe about themselves.
“It’s tough to even put it in words, given the game went like that,” safety Eric Weddle said. “I’m just frustrated to say the least. Disappointed. If you told me the offense would’ve put up 38 points against them, I would say 100 percent we would’ve won.”
They’re still clinging to the final wild card spot in the AFC over the Bills, with a common opponent tiebreaker at the moment.
Barring a collapse against the riff-raff they play the next three weeks (the 0-13 Browns, the 3-10 Colts, and the 5-8 Bengals), they still should qualify.
But last night left major doubts about anything that might happen after they qualify, since they’ve continued to struggle with good teams or teams with actual starting quarterbacks.
