As players cleaned out their lockers on Monday, six-time Pro Bowl fullback Patrick Ricard shared his disappointment.
Another Ravens season ended sadly and abruptly with Sunday's loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Ricard could pack his belongings, but there was no place to store his pain.
"It just hurts," Ricard said. "I feel for the fans of the city, just the heartaches year after year. We always have a great group … I feel like we underperform with the talent that we have."
Since joining the Ravens in 2017, Ricard has experienced more than his share of difficult season endings. You can't convince him that Baltimore isn't good enough to win a championship, but Ricard is searching for reasons why the Ravens have often had trouble closing out games.
The latest example came Sunday night, when Tyler Loop missed a 44-yard field goal attempt as time expired that would have given Baltimore a walk-off win and a playoff spot. Ricard has seen enough heartbreaking losses during his time with the Ravens that he's mystified and looking for answers.
"What is the reason why we're not getting over the hump?" Ricard said. "It's so hard to pinpoint it. So many things play into it. It's hard to explain. In [those] moments, we just have to execute and make the plays."
Lamar Jackson missed four games with injuries this season, but backup quarterback Tyler Huntley led the Ravens to two victories. Injuries didn't sink the Ravens, but a lack of consistency did.
It started in Week 1, when the Ravens dropped a 41-40 decision to the Bills, who scored 16 unanswered points in the final four minutes to erase a 15-point deficit. The Ravens also fumbled an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter in a loss to the New England Patriots in Week 16.
The Ravens played hard, but they didn't always play well. Their 8-9 record reflected a team that didn't earn its place with the NFL's heavyweights, according to tight end Charlie Kolar.
"Of course we underperformed," Kolar said. "We believed that we could contend and we didn't do that. We didn't make the playoffs this year, that's disappointing to say the least. We were preseason Super Bowl favorites, and we didn't make the playoffs. That's hard to swallow."
The Ravens had a five-game winning streak to move from 1-5 to 6-5, but they never won two straight games after Week 12. Baltimore was just 3-6 at home and ended the season by losing four of its last six games.
To Kolar, the end of Sunday's game felt like a horror movie he had already seen somewhere before.
"The last game was kind of an encapsulation of the entire season," Kolar said. "Good teams find a way to win, and we just didn't do that enough this year. All three phases have to find a way to play complementary football.
"We all thought we were going to win that game. Twelve hours later, it's the team meeting and the season's over."
Ricard is a pending free agent but wants to return to the Ravens next season. He doesn't believe that Baltimore's window to win a championship has closed with its current nucleus of players.
"As long as we have Lamar Jackson, I feel like this team can win a Super Bowl," Ricard said. "He makes this thing go. And to have Derrick [Henry], that's a big reason I signed back last year. That's a dream backfield to have Lamar and Derrick."
Ricard was asked if close losses in recent years leave scar tissue that makes it harder to eventually break through. As a veteran, Ricard plans to use this latest bitter defeat as motivation.
"I think, if anything, you just have to look at it as a lesson, something to fuel you," Ricard said. "We all want to win. We all want a Super Bowl, and when we fall short, you have to look in the mirror and [at] yourself and try to think of what you could have done better."
