Approximately 120 million people in the United States will watch the Broncos and Panthers play for the Super Bowl 50 championship on Sunday. It will be the most-watched TV program in America for 2016. The game will also be televised live in 170 other countries.
I'll be one of those watching … and still wondering what happened to us in 2015. We are far on the outside looking in. We are, until we play again, the 5-11 Ravens. We're an also-ran. Still hurts, still stings. It has been a while since we had such a season.
Many of you are just like me in some ways. While my office is next to Ozzie Newsome's and two down from John Harbaugh, I'm not involved with putting together the 2016 Ravens. Those guys and their staffs are sprinting now, doing everything in their power to assemble a team that will compete at the highest level this year. I believe in them, I trust they will get it right, and, with all my hope and heart, I'm rooting things fall our way.
But, I'm an old fart who has been in this NFL business for a long time – all but two years since 1977. I know it's not easy to be a playoff team, not easy to be in the hunt in December, not easy to compete in the AFC North, a division that has supplied more playoff teams than any other over the last eight years. Heck, the truth is – as we were reminded last season – it's hard to win games in the NFL.
Assimilating all the information on the Broncos and Panthers these last two weeks, I'm reminded that the Ravens' fall from grace happened quickly.
Remember the opening game of 2015? That was just five months ago. The NFL placed us in Denver for a season-opening marquee matchup for CBS-TV. Two teams that made the playoffs the year before, featuring a pair of Super Bowl MVP quarterbacks with Joe Flacco and Peyton Manning. It was billed as a great opener for the network, and the game lived up to that headline.
I remember a lot about that 19-13 loss. I remember that neither defense gave up a touchdown. Our TD came on Jimmy Smith's interception of Manning, and Denver's was scored by cornerback Aqib Talib on a Flacco pass. The stunning speed of pass rushers Von Miller and DeMarcus Ware was impressive, and we struggled, especially early in the contest, to contain the pair. I recall the last drive – the throws to Steve Smith Sr. and Crockett Gillmore in the end zone that weren't completed … the season-ending injury to Terrell Suggs when he tore his Achilles. All of this leaps to mind immediately.
And, it wasn't that long ago that we faced the Panthers. It was in the 2014 season, Sept. 28th, only 17 months ago. We smoked them at M&T Bank Stadium. In the 38-10 romp, Flacco threw three touchdown passes, including two to former Panther Smith Sr., and we limited Cam Newton to just 197 passing yards and only seven rushing.
What do those games against the Broncos and Panthers mean today? Not much. If you're an optimist about the Ravens, these tell you how close we might be. If you're a pessimist, the games don't matter at all.
Heck, I get asked about our recent season all the time – by family, friends, local reporters – by national reporters who picked us to go to the Super Bowl. I'm not sure what to say. I'm honest, and I try not to give the so-called "public relations" answers. I'll usually preface by saying: "It's not an automatic that if we stay healthy, we'll be right back in the hunt." However, I'll say that, "It was one of the more unusual seasons I've ever seen."
Some of the points I then make:
- The Ravens tied (with the '94 Giants) the NFL record for games decided by eight or fewer points with 14
- We led the NFL in 2015 with games decided by three or fewer points with seven
- We were second (Giants, 21) in the NFL with 20 players on injured reserve, including a league-high eight original starters
- You could argue that we lost most of our best players: Flacco, Suggs, Smith Sr., Justin Forsett, Gillmore, Jeremy Zuttah, etc.
- There will not be mystery about many second- and third-year players in '16. They had to play in '15, and we found out a lot about them. Players like "Buck" Allen, Maxx Williams, Gillmore, Nick Boyle, Timmy Jernigan, Za'Darius Smith, Carl Davis and Shareece Wright showed they could help us win.
What About 2016?
Of course, the next question is: "What do you think will happen in 2016?"
The obvious is that we have to have better luck with the health of our players, and that includes Breshad Perriman, who missed his rookie season after getting all of us very excited during the offseason practices. He was going to be the Torrey Smith replacement. Flacco has to have zero setbacks with his rehab, and Suggs and Smith Sr., at ages when decline is sometimes shown, need to return to high levels of play.
Look, we're still one of only five teams to earn the playoffs in six of the last eight seasons. The coaching, personnel and front office groups that earned this elite status are pretty much the same. John Harbaugh is a historically good head coach with a Super Bowl victory. Harbs points to Owner Steve Bisciotti.
"Steve is such a creative, outside the box thinker. He challenges us in every direction. He pushes the envelope with us. He makes us consider everything we do and how we can do it better and differently. He ups the excitement level and helps create energy that pushes all of us," Harbaugh explained.
To get back into the playoff competition immediately, we also need Ozzie and our personnel team to be really good. Whom would you rather have leading your scouting department?
Let's look at what the NFL Network's Daniel Jeremiah said last week:
"The Ravens are coming back, and they'll come back in a hurry. I believe in the Ravens' culture, including Ozzie and Eric [DeCosta]. And the coaching staff is as good as it gets in terms of developing players."
\Who is Jeremiah? He was a scout with the Ravens (2005-06), then went to the Browns as their national scout (with Phil Savage) from 2007-08.
Before he joined the NFL Network and NFL.com, he spent three years as a scout with the Eagles (2010-12). He has some credibility.
None of us know how good the Ravens will be in 2016. We'll all have fun guessing what Ozzie and the rest of his co-workers will add to the team in the next few months. How much better do we have to get to be a serious contender this year? I'm not sure, but I like our chances.
Talk with you soon,
Kevin
P.S. In case you missed Peter King's "Monday Morning Quarterback" epistle from last Monday, he made an interesting observation. He pointed out, to the best of his research, that there are only two superstar athletes who became team general managers who then directed teams to championships: Jerry West, whose profile shooting the ball is the NBA logo, and Ozzie. King points out that John Elway can become the third this Sunday. (And, I guess King doesn't consider Pat Riley of Lakers and Heat fame, as a superstar player.)
P.P.S. And, for the optimists out there: Since the 12-team playoff format was established by the NFL in 1990, at least four teams have qualified for the playoffs in every season that were not in the postseason the year before.
