The Baltimore Ravens were supposed to own the 2023 season, dethroning the Kansas City Chiefs in the process; they did finish with the best win-loss record. For a while, they looked as though they would. They set a new record for the most wins against teams with winning records. And by and large, they dominated said teams leading up to a restful regular-season finale against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
A funny thing happened on the way to the Super Bowl, though. They lost. They reached the AFC Championship Game for the first time since 2012, sure. But the Ravens could not get past the defending champion Chiefs, who handed them their fifth loss of the season.
“You don’t really think of this outcome, and what happened is kind of a shock”, second-year S Kyle Hamilton said after the game, via Pro Football Talk. T Ronnie Stanley shared those sentiments. “I’m kind of still in shock about it”, he said, via the team’s website, a day after the loss.
That’s the way so many great seasons end in the long run. The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 15-1 season in 2004 stalled in the conference finals. Even the New England Patriots of 2007 went undefeated before losing in the Super Bowl.
It’s hard to deny how good the Ravens were playing, though. They averaged 28.4 points per game and only allowed 16.5 during the regular season. They ranked in the top five in both leaguewide, with the top-ranked scoring defense. Their 31 takeaways were the most in the NFL and they had a top turnover margin.
Of course, it comes down to possession. Baltimore posted an 8-0 record when winning the turnover battle, 2-2 when even. Unsurprisingly, they only won two of five games when losing that edge. And they had their worst game in that respect of the entire season against the Chiefs. The offense lost the ball three times, and the defense never got it back.
All season, the offense only turned the ball over more than twice on a single occasion. Only three times during the regular season did the defense not claim at least one takeaway. Yet the Ravens failed to get the ball back in either postseason game, even while blowing out the Texans, 34-10.
The key is they didn’t turn the ball over. Against the Chiefs, WR Zay Flowers fumbled at the goal line at the start of the fourth quarter in a 10-point game. On the next possession, QB Lamar Jackson was induced into an interception.
The Ravens believe that they lost the game with their numerous mistakes, which seemed to pile up in particular in the fourth quarter. In their first home conference championship game in franchise history, they came up small. They are still in shock.
But don’t expect them to give up an inch going into 2024. This is still about as talented a roster as the Ravens have had in over a decade. This is still very much a Super Bowl-caliber team. It’s just that they had a bad day at the office against a Super Bowl-winning team.
