Worrying About the Ravens and still missing Bouldin

BALTIMORE, Maryland November 28, 2013 - Winning in the NFL is never an assumption.  Every week some woebegotten team rises up and whacks some high and mighty team which decided to rest on its laurels.  Fans of the Baltimore Ravens know that their team is the poster child for that truism, at least this season.  After 13 weeks and 12 games the Ravens stand at 6-6.  That, amazingly enough, is good enough to have the Ravens in a playoff position.  If the season ended today the lads in purple would be the sixth playoff team in the American Conference.  They would play at the divisional winner with the best record not qualifying for a bye.  To earn at least one home playoff game the Ravens will have to finish strong, meaning they will have to win all of their remaining four games.  Those games include a home game this coming weekend with the Vikings, a road game at the NFC North leading Detroit Lions, a home game against the AFC East leading Patriots and a road game at the AFC North leading Bengals, the team immediately in front of them in their division.  It is anything but an easy schedule, especially the final three weeks.  For the Ravens to make the playoffs they must assume they need to win all four games.  For them to have any chance of winning the AFC North they must win all four games, especially the last game against the Bengals.
       Can the Ravens do it?  They are the defending Champs, so the answer to that question is yes.  Will they do it?  I worry about every Ravens' game this season.  How could I not worry when they've lost to Buffalo and Cleveland, a not-very-good Green Bay team, a not-very-good Pittsburgh team (although they have avenged that loss), and been blown out by a Denver team they defeated, in Denver, in January?  They've also lost that mess-of-a-game to the Bears.  How could I not worry when the running game continues to be absolutely awful, save for the game in Chicago.  How could I not worry when even Joe Flacco is unhappy with parts of the offense (the wildcat, which always seems to work).  Have you noticed, incidentally, that when Flacco splits wide out in the wild cat he doesn't even move when the ball is snapped?  Terrific. I remember a similar formation when Flacco was a rookie and he actually caught a touchdown pass when it was used
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How could I not worry when the defense, while generally playing pretty well, seems to tire in the fourth quarter, allowing a team they've shut down for most of the first three quarters to suddenly start gaining first downs and scoring touchdowns galore in the fourth quarter?  How often has that occurred?  The loss in Cleveland was one, the home game against Green Bay was another, the Chicago game was another, the loss in Pittsburgh and the nailbiter win on Thanksgiving night here in Baltimore were two others, the Buffalo loss was another, and, well, in the Denver loss the defense seemed to stop playing effectively after the game officials gave the Broncos an undeserved first down at the start of the third quarter (i'm sick of hearing that that was Harbaugh's fault.  It was the 100% fault of the knuckleheads who were officiating because one, they blew the same call earlier in the game, and two, quarterbacks always throw low to receivers in short yardage situations to prevent interceptions.  That was an easy and obvious call and it was blown).
        There are things to be optimistic about.  The Ravens have won two straight, something they've only done once previously this season.  They apparently will get Dennis Pita back for the Viking game.  They got Marlon Brown back for the Steeler game and it paid instant dividends.  If Pita contributes in a manner approaching what he's done in the past, and Brown keeps contributing, then the passing game should pick-up.  Torey Smith and Jacoby Jones have been getting deep of late even without Pita.
        The season is wrapping up, and it is too much to ask for the defensive line to improve more than a little bit from here on out.  I know we're supposed to buy in to the improving physical condition of Haloti Ngata and the return of Pernell McPhee.  But after these long long seasons, the big men are tired.  The young linemen like Brandon Williams have never played this many games before, and the older linemen are tired because they aren't spring chickens anymore.  The Ravens might be able to sneak by the faltering Steelers, the downbound Jets and the woebegotten Vikings.  But they will have to ramp up the offense and defense to be able to win the remaining three games at the end of the schedule.  Those games will be the true test of whether the defending champs have the ability to send fear down the spines of the AFC's elite, both in December and in January.  They did, last year.  Anquan Boldin was injured at the end of the regular season but returned for the playoffs.  The same was true for Ray Lewis.  Ray Rice was kept fresh last season thanks to Bernard Pearce.  This year they both seem exhausted.
       Yet it isn't an impossible task.  They'll got into the Lion game on a three-game winning streak (assuming they beat Minnesota).  Inside the dome in Pontiac Joe Flacco and the offense will have a very good game, and if the defense gets to Matthew Stafford enough the Ravens will win.  The Ravens seem to have the Patriots' number of late and that streak could continue.  Then the Ravens go into Cincinnatti.  If the game has the Division title riding on it anything could happen.  If, as seems a bit more likely, the Bengals have clinched but the Ravens need the win to get in, the Ravens will prevail.

        One more thing:  Anquan Boldin is 24th in the NFL in receiving with 61 receptions.  He has a total of 822 yards.  He has caught a pass in every game, and in only two games has he caught only one or two passes.  He caught 13 passes in San Francisco's opening day win over Green Bay.  He had nine receptions yesterday when the 49ers beat the Rams.  By comparison, he had 65 receptions all of last season with the Ravens.  He gained 921 yards. Torey Smith leads the Ravens this season with 54 catches, although he has far more yardage than Bouldin (952 ro 822), as you'd expect since Smith still goes deep several times each game.  Bouldin is a physical, over-the-middle type of receiver.  Because Bouldin is gone, Smith has been forced to adopt that role as well.  More and more experts attribute the Ravens' offensive woes to losing Boldin to San Francisco.  I had a very bad feeling about it the minute I heard it, and it had nothing to do with Torey Smith, who in the end may be one of the game's all-time great.  Losing all of the players on defense didn't bother me near as much as losing Boldin.  First, he's a winner.  Second, he's like a coach on the field and a winner in the clubhouse.  He spoke up for Flacco time and again.  He made so many impossible catches I lost count.  He was the unsung hero of the Ravens' Superbowl run.  I thought he was the Super Bowl MVP in spite of Jacoby Jones' heroics and Flacco's great game.  When the Ravens were behind, he was one of the guys who made me sure they could come back.  Even when he was covered he was open because he would out jump, out-physical and out-win anybody in the game.  He gave more to the community than almost any other Raven.  Flacco had only learned to throw to him last season.  For quarterbacks concerned about interception numbers, it takes nerve to throw to a receiver blanketed by the defense.  Flacco finally started doing it last season, and by the playoffs he had all but perfected the trick.  And not only did Bouldin catch every pass anywhere near him, he took all sorts of pressure off of Flacco and Torey Smith.  With him and Smith in the game, covering Jacoby Jones was a total nightmare.  Just ask the Broncos and the 49ers.  I am sure if our great GM, Ozzie Newsome, had it to do over again, he'd find some way to keep Bouldin.  Even if it meant making a slightly lower offer to Flacco, right?