ExtremeRavens Posted Saturday at 11:30 AM Posted Saturday at 11:30 AM The Ravens have spent the entire season balancing a fine line between promise and frustration. They have taken advantage of timely breaks and won games that kept them within arm’s reach of the first-place Steelers. Baltimore also has endured collapses, injuries, coaching mishaps and personnel misfires that left little margin for comfort. Not much about this wild season has felt clean, and all that tension leads directly to Sunday night. For the first time in the franchise’s 30-year history, the Ravens and Steelers will meet in a winner-takes-all regular-season finale for the AFC North crown and a playoff berth. Consider the highly anticipated Game 272 as a determinator of whether this season will be remembered as flawed but resilient or talented but unreliable. Inside the Castle, the Ravens insist they are ready for the moment. “I see a team that’s high energy and ready to go,” coach John Harbaugh said Friday. “It was a great team meeting. It was a lot of fun, but it was also very focused and detailed. Guys are locked in for football. We have a bunch of guys that love football, and they love the opportunity that they have, and they want to go make the most of it.” That opportunity exists only because the Ravens survived their own inconsistency by returning to their run-first identity. They also received some outside help, of course. In a reflection of Baltimore’s rollercoaster season, there was the opener at Buffalo, in which they looked unstoppable before critical mistakes snowballed into an unforgettable collapse. The fallout from Baltimore’s Week 1 stumble bled into a 1-5 start, but the battered Ravens slowly rose from the mat, responding with a season-long five-game winning streak between Weeks 8 to 12. Since then, the Ravens have lost three of their past five games, including a Dec. 7 home defeat to the Steelers, setting up Sunday night’s finale at Acrisure Stadium. “It’s win or go home,” running back Derrick Henry said. “It’s basically like we’re in the playoffs. Going into Pittsburgh, they are a division rival who we both know each other very well. I feel like we’re the underdog going into this game. They came into our house and beat us. They have a better record, so I feel like they’re up on us. We have to execute this week and go in there with a great plan to go execute.” Execution, of course, has been the team’s recurring challenge. When they play clean football, the Ravens look like one of the league’s most dangerous teams. Unfortunately, those moments have been sparse and difficult to identify with much consistency. Despite the constant turbulence, the Ravens have at least traveled well. They enter Week 18 tied with the Chargers for the second-best road record in the AFC (5-2), a helpful reminder that when Baltimore operates with physicality and controls the line of scrimmage, it can handle hostile environments. After losing their first two road games at Buffalo and Kansas City, the Ravens have rattled off five consecutive wins away from M&T Bank Stadium. The regular season’s final road test: at Pittsburgh. “I just want to win,” quarterback Lamar Jackson said. “I don’t really care about the criticism, it’s going to be that way, especially with how the season was going. There is always noise. It’s the National Football League. We just have to focus on winning.” There is also the broader context that makes this opportunity feel palpable, despite all of Baltimore’s shortcomings. For the first time since 2014, the Chiefs, who’ve too often felt like the Ravens’ kryptonite, will miss the playoffs. Patrick Mahomes has advanced to at least the conference championship game in all seven of his seasons as Kansas City’s starting quarterback. Not this year, however. Will the Ravens be ready to take advantage of a Mahomes-less AFC field? Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson talks with offensive coordinator Todd Monken at practice Friday. "There is always noise. It’s the National Football League. We just have to focus on winning,” Jackson said. (Kevin Richardson/Staff) “It’s going to be a physical game, and it’s on the road. I think we need to play smart, but not play timid,” safety Kyle Hamilton said of the Steelers. “I think there’s a fine line there, especially in this game. You can’t go out there holding any of your bullets in your gun, because you have to let them all go; it’s win or go home … let it rip at the end of the day. Whoever loses the game, it’s their last game of the year. So, whatever the outcome, you don’t want to be sitting in the locker room saying you could have done more.” A postseason berth wouldn’t completely salvage the season, especially if a potential playoff run is short-lived. The Ravens entered the season widely considered as Super Bowl favorites, and quickly fell out of the picture. That should continue to serve as the backdrop to whatever ending comes to fruition in the near future. Will the Ravens finally be able to shed themselves from inconsistency that has plagued them far too long? “Potential is one thing that’s untapped,” veteran linebacker Roquan Smith said. “We’ve done it, but we haven’t done it on a consistent basis week-in and week-out, play-in and play-out. So, I just think it’s a great opportunity knowing the stakes that we have for this game to just come out and show who we are. “We are looking at this game as a part of the new season, so I’m very excited and very eager to get out there and show the world.” Have a news tip? Contact Josh Tolentino at jtolentino@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200, x.com/JCTSports and instagram.com/JCTSports. View the full article Quote
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