The Baltimore Ravens looked like legitimate contenders entering their game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Oct. 8.
They had jumped out to a 3-1 record by discarding division opponents in the Cincinnati Bengals and the Cleveland Browns with relative ease, giving fans hope for their brawl against a sluggish Steelers team led by shaky second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett.
Instead, Week 5 will be remembered for a comedy of unforced errors by the Ravens’ receiving corps. The 17-10 loss means the Ravens are now tied with the Steelers at 3-2, thus rewarding Pittsburgh with a narrow advantage for the AFC North lead.
“I think we just had an off day, and unfortunately it cost us the game, a game that we should’ve won and we shouldn’t have lost, playing against an opponent that was inferior to us,” former Ravens tight end and current Bleav in Ravens podcast host Daniel Wilcox said on Glenn Clark Radio on Oct. 9. “I feel like it was a contagious thing. Everybody’s dropping balls. … [Lamar Jackson] did what a quarterback’s supposed to do in that regard. He kept throwing the ball to his top guys and getting the ball in everybody’s hands. Unfortunately, we just had a really bad day.”
Several drops by Baltimore’s weapons paved the way for a second tight defeat in three games, arriving on the heels of the Ravens’ 22-19 overtime loss to Indianapolis two weeks prior.
Jackson, for his part, turned in an admirable performance by giving everyone chances to make plays, but was completely hung out to dry as his Ravens hand-delivered a winnable game to their bitter rival.
“For some reason, the Ravens have had these games where it just kind of falls apart for them,” Charles McDonald of Yahoo Sports said on GCR Oct. 10. “… You also have the added level of rage where it’s like, we played the offseason trying to avoid something like this happening, and we still ended up right back at the same place where Lamar has a superhuman game and it doesn’t matter.”
Tight end Mark Andrews, Jackson’s favorite target, headlined the struggles with a team-high three drops, but deep threats Nelson Agholor, Rashod Bateman and Zay Flowers too watched well-placed balls zip right through their hands as well.
Baltimore has no shortage of talent on the perimeter, something they’ve worked to address through draft picks and free-agent signing Odell Beckham Jr., but to analysts and fans alike, their most recent outing exposed an inability to adapt to adversity and put opponents away.
“You just let them hang around there so long where you’re clearly the better team throughout the course of the game,” said McDonald, who thought the Steelers loss was one of the best overall passing games he’s seen out of Jackson.
Jackson isn’t completely blameless, having thrown a game-sealing interception at the four-minute mark that snuffed out Baltimore’s last chance to make an impact in the red zone. Despite the mishaps, he is completing a career-high 69.9 percent of his passes on more volume than ever, and his passer rating of 93.9 is the highest it’s been since 2020.
The Ravens are still a respected team in the regular season, a threat to beat anyone on any given Sunday, but an evident inability to right the ship when times get tough is reminiscent of past Baltimore squads that flamed out in the playoffs, if they made it that far at all. The Ravens have the talent necessary to make a run, as Jackson and Co. now look to conquer the mental side.
“Unfortunately, nowadays, leadership is kind of hard to find. It’s not like it was. It’s definitely not like it was when Ray Lewis was at the helm. You knew whose team it was,” Wilcox said. “… Lamar has to be the one to take it upon himself to figure out how to lead, or how to put these guys in the right direction. … It’s a weird game when you see things like this. It just feels like some kind of aura’s over you and nothing’s quite happening the right way. Somebody has to be there to kind of shake the baby.”
For more from Wilcox, listen to the full interview here:
For more from McDonald, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credits: Kenya Allen/PressBox