By Brandon Simmons
Who’s to Blame for the Ravens’ struggles?
Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens have been going through it the past few weeks. They are 1-3 since their bye week and sitting outside of the playoffs. A far cry from last season when they took the league by storm bowling everybody over. This year did not appear to be any different as the team jumped out to a 5-1 start; but when the competition got a little tough for them, they did not soar to the challenge.
Perhaps the most damning evidence of this accusation, came Sunday against the Tennessee Titans. From the beginning to the end the Titans tested the heart of the Ravens and Baltimore ended up with the L. Tennessee broke their pregame huddle on Baltimore’s logo then Baltimore could not take down Titans wide receiver A.J. Brown on key plays. After taking a 21-10 lead, the Ravens blew it in the 4th quarter and ended up losing the game in overtime. While this is just one game, it highlighted an achilles of the Ravens this year is they have not beaten any serious opponents. They did go 5-1 before the bye week but that sole loss came from the Kansas City Chiefs; the other losses included games against the Houston Texans, Washington Redskins and Philadelphia Eagles. They did beat the Cleveland Browns, who are currently 7-3, but that was in the beginning of the year.
It’s going to get a little easier for the Ravens coming up but if they play anything like the last 4 games, their playoff hopes will be in trouble. They have a rematch with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thanksgiving and a rematch with the Cleveland Browns in a couple of weeks; but this will be a Browns team completely different from the Week 1 matchup. Baltimore doesn’t seem to deviate from anything that they did last season, and that could be a problem. Jackson is still getting his numbers but at what cost. He already has 5 interceptions, which 1 shy of last year, and has been sacked 23 times, which was his total for the entire season last year. Sure, the weaker teams are going to get beat by your same game plan from last season probably because they don’t have the talent, or coaching, to stop you. But the better teams are going to find more than one ways to beat you and that is what is happening, hence why he has been sacked so many times this year already. It’s not just up to Jackson to carry this team; the defense has to come through for him as well. In 3 of their losses, the Ravens defense has given up over 100 yards rushing. There’s enough blame to go around for this team’s unfortunate slate of losses.
Can the NFL’s COVID Protocols Survive Covid?
As the anticipation rises of a 2nd wave of COVID to hit the country, the NFL is dealing with its own wave. The league has seen the virus affect much of its operation which has included sidelining players and coaches, as well as cancelling games. In Week 4, the matchup between the Tennessee Titans and Pittsburgh Steelers became the first NFL game to be rescheduled due to the Corona virus. In the wake of that, as more players either caught COVID – including marquee stars such as New England Patriots quarterback Cam Newton – or put on the Reserve/COVID list for contact tracing purposes, a couple of more games got rescheduled , but everything has been put back on schedule for now. Last week, the league announced it was intensifying its COVID protocols for the rest of season in hopes of preventing anymore COVID cases for the rest of the season:
The NFL is doing everything it can, short of cancelling the season, so they won’t have to cancel the season. They are promising 8th seeds for the playoffs in the event a team is inconvenienced on a rescheduled game. But the rescheduling seems to be a thing of the past at this point, even though it seemed like every other week for 2-3 weeks. Now if a team has a couple of players that are on the list, the facilities are closed until there is a certain number of negative tests to come up. Monday, it was announced that Baltimore Ravens running backs Melvin Ingram and J.K. Dobbins tested positive for COVID, but instead of rescheduling the game that is set for Thursday night, those 2 have been ruled out.
However, you cannot blame the NFL for taking such strict measures. Sure, these players are grown men but they are also humans dealing with this pandemic as well. That means just like there are those who follow the COVID safety measures thoroughly, there are others who do not take it as seriously. The latter could either be through accidentally coming across someone, or something, with the virus; or it could be just fully not caring at all. One would think that things would get tame after the Titans had an outbreak, but then you see the Oakland Raiders have 11 starters get placed on the list. People would think that the league’s stars would be a little more careful after Newton, but here goes the Cleveland Browns’ Myles Garrett missing 2 straight games while residing on the list. It can’t be all put on the players though. Franchises must help enforce these new rules to ensure player safety as well. Teams are already dealing with their players going down with severe injuries, now there is COVID to be worried about. NFL can do all they want but the players, and teams, should be more cautious about their daily activities. Yes, it is an extra task on top of everything else, but if they want this game to continue, not just for the fans, but for them to provide for their families, it’s something they will have to prioritize.
Will the New Playoff Format Trip up the Chiefs?
When the upcoming NFL postseason begins, there will be 7 teams in from each conference in the playoffs, with the number 2 seed will no longer having their bye week and playing during Wild Card weekend. For the Kansas City Chiefs, that is a sick feeling for them right now. They currently hold the 2 spot in the AFC, trailing 1 game behind the undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers. Depending on how things go on the rest of their season, they might want to pack the TheraFlu.
Having that extra bye week would aid the Chiefs in their playoff run by recharging them and awarding them homefield to open up the postseason, but things currently project to be different. Kansas City is playing at a high level right now, but the only thing standing in the way of a 1st round bye is that the Steelers are obviously playing at a high level too, as they are unbeaten. The Chiefs can only lean on the hopes that the Steelers trip up on a couple of games on the remainder of their schedule which include matchups with the Buffalo Bills and Indianapolis Colts. However, Kansas City will have its own hands full as they prepare for matchups against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and New Orleans Saints.
Sitting as the 2 seed in the playoff standings will be make the Chiefs uncomfortable. With Patrick Mahomes under center, Kansas City has never played in the Wild Card round and have been impressive when opening their postseason in the Divisional round. But sometimes those Wild Card matchups don’t always go in favor of the top seed and might not be as lopsided. If the playoffs started today, the Chiefs would be facing the Oakland Raiders, the team who gave KC their first loss in Week 5 and the team they were forced to beat within the final minute this past Sunday. There is a lot that can go wrong in a playoff game that close. The Chiefs and Mahomes are still explosive on the field, but without that bye week it could prove tough for them to not have their repeat Super Bowl run blown up.
Shoutouts/Shutouts
Shout out to Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Mike Evans who trucked his way to a touchdown Monday Night. In the game against the Los Angeles Rams, Evans caught a pass on a 3rd and 1 then proceeded to bulldoze through Rams cornerback Troy Hill for the touchdown. Despite that, the Bucs lost the game 27-24.
Shut out to more injuries. Cincinnati Bengals rookie quarterback Joe Burrow suffered a knee injury Sunday against the Washington Redskins. The official diagnosis said that Burrow tore his ACL and MCL. Prayers for a successful recovery for the young star.
Shout out to Carolina Panthers quarterback P.J. Walker. Walker got his first win as a NFL QB as he replaced QB Teddy Bridgewater, who was out with a knee injury. If the name sounds familiar, Walker was playing in the XFL this past Spring asthe quarterback for the Houston Roughnecks. Of course, the season ended abruptly due to COVID and he found himself signing with the Panthers in the offseason. He finished the game throwing 24/34 for 258 yards, 1 touchdown and 2 interceptions.
Shut out to the Detroit Lions, who literally got shut out in that game against the Panthers. Lions QB Matt Stafford threw for 178 yards and got sacked 5 times in this game.
Shout out to Rams cornerback Jalen Ramsey for his charitable donation. Rams recently purchased $20,000 in grocery gift cards from Vons, a local Los Angeles grocery store, and donated them to those in need in the Inglewood and South Los Angeles area.
This week the pressure to make the playoffs will be on a lot of teams’ heads as the last week of November wraps up. The annual Thanksgiving matchups will be played including the rematch between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Ravens will be facing a tall task as they are going to be without running backs Melvin Ingram and J.K, Dobbins due to COVID. The other games that day include the Lions hosting the Texans and the Cowboys hosting the Redskins; but the latter might hold more weight for intrigue as the 2 NFC East opponents fight to win the division race they are trapped in. If neither of those suit your taste, then there is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting the Kansas City Chiefs. Here are 2 teams that can score with some good, but not great, defenses. It will surely keep the scoreboard lights on. But until then…I’ll holla.
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