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The Baltimore Ravens came into these playoffs with Super Bowl aspirations, but those came crashing down on Sunday when the Buffalo Bills got the better of them 27-25 in the Divisional Round. Now, the Bills get to go on to the AFC Championship Game while the Ravens enter another offseason full of questions.
There’s an argument to be made that on a down to down basis, the Ravens were the better team on Sunday. They finished the game with a higher success rate and also finished with more total yards than the Bills did, but the Ravens turned the ball over three times and the Bills didn’t give it away at all.
In the aftermath of the game, Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy sounded off on the reason for the Ravens’ downfall on the McCoy and Van Noy podcast.
“I’m not blaming anybody, but three turnovers is rough,” Van Noy said.
That’s a pretty pointed comment from Van Noy, who is one of the key pieces of a Ravens defense that did its job on Sunday. Baltimore held the explosive Bills offense to just six points in the second half on Sunday, but it wasn’t enough to complete the comeback.
Quarterback Lamar Jackson turned the ball over twice in the first half, an interception and a fumble, ending two Ravens drives prematurely. Then, tight end Mark Andrews lost a crucial fumble in the second half before eventually dropping the game-tying two-point conversion.
The Ravens have had plenty of great teams in the last five years or so, but they continue to play some of their worst football when the lights are the brightest in the playoffs. Sunday marked yet another game where the team as a whole didn’t perform its best when it really needed to, and it cost them.
This game can be added to an increasingly long list of poor outings in the playoffs during this era of the team. The Divisional Round loss to the Titans as the No. 1 seed and last season’s AFC Championship Game against the Chiefs stick out as two other games where the team looked somewhat shellshocked and didn’t even resemble the squad from the regular season.
That happened once again, as a Ravens team that barely ever turned the ball over during the regular season gave it away three times in a loss to the Bills. Now, this trend of underperforming is becoming somewhat of a theme for this roster, and it’s one that needs to change quickly.
This Ravens team is in a position to be very good for a very long time. While some people may say it’s only a matter of time until it makes a breakthrough, there is reason to believe that may get harder and harder each year.
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