OTL: Will Ravens Ever Figure Out the Final 10%?

Have you ever had a friend or family member that you care about deeply, but you find it really hard to maintain your relationship with them? You like them, and you want to like them, but for one reason or another, it’s hard to like them, because maybe there’s a part of you that just doesn’t respect them?

That’s where I am with this iteration of the Ravens.

Hard to feel much after this game.

Far too often (especially in big games) this team just loses any identity it has established.

Numb to it.

Youre a choker until you prove you don’t choke.

— Cole Jackson (@ColeJacksonFB) November 17, 2024

In January of 2023, the Ravens had just blown a double-digit lead against (guess who) Pittsburgh, and at the time, I wrote an article about how dangerous the feeling of apathy was that was creeping into the fanbase.

OTL: #RavensFlock Trying to Resist the Pull of Apathy

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

During that stretch the clamoring among the fanbase to make the much-needed move of firing Greg Roman reached a fever pitch. It happened years too late, but at the end of that season, the Ravens finally announced that they were parting ways with their OC, and the results on the offensive side of the ball have shown that it was long overdue. The improvement the following season was incremental at times, but it allowed Lamar Jackson to capture another MVP after returning to form. It reinforced that the hard decision is sometimes the right one.

There will be no shortage of hard decisions to make for the remainder of the season, and in the offseason beyond it.

Ravens Special Teams EPA according to Pro Football Reference was -10.67 vs. Steelers.

That puts their total of EPA at -34.43 on the season
(If I’m doing this right, I’m new to the EPA stuff)

— Kyle Phoenix (@KylePBarber) November 18, 2024

John Harbaugh says he’s proud of his guys and they’ll “look at everything” to figure out what went wrong. I mean, he hasn’t said that yet, but he will in 20 minutes or so. #RavensFlock

— UK Ravens (@UKRavens) November 17, 2024

I’m not going to sit here and act like success at the level of professional sports is easy. There’s a reason that it’s such a euphoric payoff when your team wins a title, because championships are so elusive, and for every fanbase that gets to feel that at the end of a year, there are 31 others ending their seasons in disappointment. But when you know you have the pieces, when you have by far one of the best players in the entire league at the most important position, and you not only fail to execute in the biggest circumstances, but do it over and over again, is it any surprise that people check out?

It’s just frustrating because the ravens losses are the same each time

One phase just completely and utterly eats itself alive and the other parts of the team left standing has to try and carry weight

Can’t remember a time we’ve lost in recent memory and it wasn’t some bs going…

— Yuri (@Yuri_Ravens) November 17, 2024

I can give you any number of frustrating statistics like we always have coming out of games like this. Did you know Derrick Henry has no touches in the fourth quarter (that weren’t negated by penalty)? Did you know all three of Lamar Jackson’s interceptions this season have come off of the hands of his own receivers? Did you know the Ravens are 0-2 in games that Odafe Oweh records 2.5 sacks?

Now let me ask you this: does knowing any of that make you feel any better about where we are?

Probably not, because the people who have the power to do anything about it can’t, or won’t, or don’t have the necessary willpower. The experience of watching this group that’s so talented, that’s worked so hard to win games and be a competitor in this league, continue to be Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill is excruciating. And as a fanbase, we’re right there with them, because we care too much to just walk away.

Ghosts of season’s past have drawn fear in the Ravens’ fanbase. Hope is being engulfed by familiar fears.https://t.co/TqnOJTdVYI

— Kyle Phoenix (@KylePBarber) November 18, 2024

This is going to sound like a tangent, but bear with me. I’m a big horror movie guy (I know, why watch scary movies when you can just watch Ravens football?), and what I’ve found is true in writing a good horror movie, maybe more than in any other genre is that the ending has to be good. Sure, you can get some cheap thrills with jump scares, but a horror plot could be exceedingly well-written just for it to be unraveled by a stupid ending, and then you come away feeling disappointed because the writers couldn’t land the plane. As important as 90% of the film is, it’s nothing if you don’t have that 10% figured out.

For years, the Ravens have more or less had the 90% figured out. It’s the 10% that’s vexed them, and the more often you watch movies with a disappointing ending, the more you start to contemplate skipping the next blockbuster.

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