Can someone please tell me which version of the Baltimore Ravens is the real one? After five games, we’ve seen polar opposite performances from this team on both sides of the ball and it’s getting confusing.
Are the Ravens as good as we saw in Week 1 against the Miami Dolphins? Are they as tough as we saw in Week 3 against the Kansas City Chiefs? Or are they as bad as we saw in Week 4 against the Cleveland Browns or as wildly inconsistent as we saw this weekend against the Pittsburgh Steelers? Just when you start to get the hang of this team, they flip the script and begin failing to do the basic things they’ve done well previously and doing things better than they’ve shown before.
As we move further into the regular season, we’re supposed to be getting a better idea of each team’s strengths and weaknesses. But that’s not the case for the Ravens.
In Week 4, tackling the ball carrier was a sudden problem. In Week 5, it was quarterback Lamar Jackson struggling to read the field and making good decisions. Even just this lone game saw things we thought the team could hang its hat on completely differ from the norm.
Baltimore entered Week 5 against the Steelers with the best rushing attack in the league. All three running backs have had outstanding individual efforts while Jackson added to it with his own abilities. But against Pittsburgh, the unit gained 138 yards on 40 carries. Taking out Jackson’s performance, the Ravens gained just 68 yards on 26 carries, a 2.6 yard-per-carry average. That’s extra odd considering Pittsburgh’s run defense has been mediocre this season.
The secondary, while not perfect, played far better football this time around. They limited big plays for most of the game and forced Pittsburgh to throw underneath where they made the sound tackle (most of the time). The secondary was also responsible for an interception (another was called back because of a penalty) and a crucial fumble in overtime that sealed the win. Prior to this week, the defense had forced a turnover in just two games this season and only one of those was a multiple-turnover effort. While it wasn’t a complete turnaround from their previous showings, it’s more than enough to be hopeful.
But that right there has been the problem for the Ravens this season. There has been absolutely no consistency on either side of the football for them. With what we’ve seen this team do this season, Baltimore should absolutely dominate the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 6 but you’d be hard-pressed to get anyone to believe with all their heart that they’ll actually do it. The question now is which part of the team will falter next week and which part will suddenly play better football?
The road to the postseason is long and arduous. The Ravens have plenty of time to figure out their problems but first, they might need to figure out which problems are real and which ones are phantom issues. That hasn’t been easy to break down confidently thus far.
