The Baltimore Ravens took care of their own business, beating up on the hapless Cincinnati Bengals Sunday to close out the regular season. By beating Cincinnati, Baltimore locked themselves into the AFC playoff seeding. But it took the evening games concluding to determine who the Ravens would play in the Wild-Card bracket.
With the dust settled in Week 17, Baltimore’s playoff picture is now clear. The Ravens have officially clinched the fifth seed and will take on the Tennessee Titans, who claimed the No. 4 seed with their Week 17 win over the Houston Texans.
This is a perfect opportunity for Baltimore to get two albatrosses off its back. A frequent criticism of quarterback Lamar Jackson has been his lack of postseason success, going 0-2 in the playoffs during his first two years in the league. Also, the Titans were the team that knocked the Ravens out of the postseason last year. Though Baltimore’s players and coaches have been hesitant to talk about the seriousness of the matchup, there’s no doubt this game will mean a great deal to the Ravens on a few different levels.
It’s unclear right now exactly what the schedule will be for the playoffs but Baltimore is in it and will take on Tennessee for the first game on what the Ravens hope is the road to Super Bowl LV.
