Though far from perfect, the Baltimore Ravens still managed to beat the Washington Football Team by 14 points in Week 4. While not the largest margin of victory for Baltimore, the final score looked far closer than it should have been with a garbage-time touchdown trimming the Ravens’ lead in the final minutes.
However, we didn’t really learn much about this Baltimore team, leading to them staying still on Touchdown Wire’s latest power rankings list.
Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire kept the Ravens at No. 6 despite their Week 4 win over Washington. While Baltimore didn’t change position on the power rankings list, Farrar acknowledged the next two opponents (Bengals and Eagles) should be tune-up games before a Week 8 contest against the Pittsburgh Steelers will really test the Ravens and potentially upend the entire AFC North.
Barring a loss in these next two games or a dramatic failing from one of the top-five teams, Baltimore will likely hold steady at No. 6 — and for good reason. It’s well acknowledged that the Ravens are among the best teams in the NFL right now but beating up on bad teams isn’t exactly a fair assessment of where Baltimore sits. Until the Ravens play a similarly good team, we won’t really know where they stand and if they’re capable of beating the upper echelon of teams in the league.
There’s still plenty of season left and reason to believe Baltimore will sort out their biggest problems. But until they play someone similar in talent as them, the Ravens are effectively padding their stats and deserve their sixth-placed seat in the power rankings.
