Are the Baltimore Ravens Poised for Another Playoff Run?

The Baltimore Ravens barely got into the playoffs, but they are again poised to make quite a run.

The Baltimore Ravens are once again the sixth seed in the AFC after barely sneaking into the postseason, posting a third-place AFC North finish going 10-6, and needing a Week 17 win and Chargers loss. They got it!

Aside from last season, when they barely missed the playoffs, this is really the same ‘ole song and dance. Under John Harbaugh, the Ravens have made a habit of doing just enough during the regular season to get in the tournament.

Yet when they get there, they are as dangerous as any team, perhaps even more so. They are the San Francisco Giants of the NFL. Harbaugh, and by extension his quarterback Joe Flacco, and the Ravens have won at least one postseason game in every year they have played extended January football.

It’s as if Harbaugh, Flacco and the Ravens as a whole are just trolling the league, making the rest of the league forget about them and then pouncing at seemingly the last moment. It’s been their MO for all of Harbaugh’s underrated run in Baltimore.

Why would it not continue this year?

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If anything, this Ravens team comes in with their most explosive offense under the tutelage of Gary Kubiak. Flacco has a big arm, and Kubiak’s offense works to show off that arm as efficiently as possible.

The Ravens were third for a large portion of the year in point differential. They finished sixth with a +107 differential, which is still significantly better than the other two teams who finished ahead of them in the AFC North, as well as Indianapolis in the AFC.

Of course it’s an oversimplification to say that the Ravens will make noise this postseason just because of a strong point differential. But there is a lot of other evidence which favors them as well.

They were second in the league in sacks allowed, with just 19 in their 16 regular season games (Denver was first giving up only 17), according to NFL.com. Only three playoff teams, and four total, gave up fewer quarterback hits than the 56 allowed by Baltimore’s underrated offensive line.

In other words, Joe Flacco will be protected. That overall lack of pressure allowed Flacco to complete 62.0 percent of his passes, which is impressive given his tendency to push the ball down field. Almost five percent of his attempts resulted in touchdowns, while only 2.2 of them resulted in interceptions (a very strong figure).

He also made great use of a true No. 1 wide receiver in the person of Steve Smith, Sr. He targeted the veteran 134 times for 79 completions 1,065 yards (13.5 per catch) with six touchdowns, according to Pro-Football-Reference.com. His big touchdown maker, though, was Torrey Smith (11 on just 49 catches).

Tight end Owen Daniels also made quite an impact, grabbing 48 catches for 527 yards and four touchdowns, while running back Justin Forsett caught 44 passes for 263 yards. The point is that this was an efficient offense, capable of creating big plays too.

Forsett was a beast as a runner, in what was really his first opportunity as a starting running back in the NFL. The 29-year old running back ran just 235 times (significantly below the ridiculous usage rate of DeMarco Murray in Dallas) for 1,266 yards—that’s a 5.4 yards per carry average.

Yet when they get there, they are as dangerous as any team, perhaps even more so. They are the San Francisco Giants of the NFL.

The Ravens have one of the more experienced starting offensive lines in the league, according to NFL.com, with 334 starts between them. That factor should not be taken lightly in the NFL Wild Card Round, where defenses are going to obviously be better but also more focused.

It will be especially helpful, since the Ravens are going to have to win three road games if they are going to make it to Glendale, Arizona for Super Bowl 49. Noise could be a factor, though it should not have a significant impact on the veteran Ravens offensive line.

The offensive experience and improvement should not be overlooked in the Ravens’ quest for another Super Bowl title. But the youth movement on the defensive side of the ball should also be seen as a key reason for Baltimore’s improvement from a season ago.

While it admittedly gave up a ton of passing yards—in part due to the fact that it had to place four corners on IR (injured reserve) throughout the season—it finished the season second in the league in sacks with 49.

Combined with its dominance against the run—just 3.6 yards allowed per rush, good for third in the league—it is clear that the Ravens can dominate the line of scrimmage. Doing so is always a key in the postseason, even in an era where quarterback play has taken on more importance.

It’s long been proven that a defense which gets after the quarterback can mask a sub-par secondary. Dean Pees—Baltimore’s excellent defensive coordinator—will have to find ways to continue to mask that secondary. Reason and logic say he’ll be able to do that just fine.

The Ravens’ special teams units generally rank very high in DVOA, in part because of Harbaugh’s past experience as a special teams coordinator (of course special teams DVOA is generally not much of a factor since most teams end up nearly the same).

They will not lose a game because of what is often considered the “third unit”. And with Jacoby Jones returning kicks, they may even win one in part because of it. Few playoff teams have that kind of threat at their disposal.

Then there’s Justin Tucker, who is one of the best and most accurate kickers in the league, having made 29 of 34 attempts (85.3 percent). All of Tucker’s misses in 2014 were from 50-plus yards.

There may not be another kicker in the league Harbaugh would want to have kicking in a clutch situation. If the Ravens’ postseason chances come down to a crucial kick like it did against New England in the playoffs following the 2011 season, Harbaugh can confidently roll out Tucker and expect to end that game victorious.

In sum, this Ravens team is as solid as any outfit in the league. If it can dominate the trenches, as it has for much of the season, there is little reason to think it cannot make it to Arizona. No team knows better how to play once the calendar turns to January than a John Harbaugh team.

Sixth-seed be damned, this Ravens team is poised to make a lot of noise once again in the AFC Playoffs.

Next: Where do the Baltimore Ravens rank all-time?

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NFL Wild Card Round: Baltimore Ravens Ready for Another Playoff Run

By Will Osgood | Dec 31, 2014