Baltimore Ravens: The season that wasn’t close to expectations

The Baltimore Ravens had high expectations heading into the 2015 season, but so far have yet to live up to them.

With Joe Flacco under center, the Baltimore Ravens have had unprecedented success for the franchise. Since John Harbaugh and Joe Flacco arrived in town in 2008, the Ravens have made the playoffs every year except in 2013. Five of those sevens seasons ended with double digit wins in the regular season and a Super Bowl win to conclude the 2012 season.

Yet, 2015 has been a disaster on many fronts despite the team being dubbed “AFC North favorites” after what appeared to be a great 2015 NFL Draft.

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Overall, the Ravens season can best be summed up as “close but not enough”. They went 0-4 in the preseason, but those games’ results don’t matter; many 4-0 teams in the preseason go on to fail when it matters. However, the Ravens losing ways continued in the regular season with losses to the Denver Broncos and the Oakland Raiders. Both of those losses were by single digit differences. In fact, the Ravens only have one defeat that came by a double-digit margin. It’s easy to look at their schedule and see how easily Baltimore could be 5-4 right now instead of 2-7, but alas they aren’t.

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In their week 10 loss to the Jaguars by a score of 22-20 was a game the Ravens needed to win. They drove down the field late and took the lead, but that was whipped away with a late face mask penalty that gave the Jaguars one final play within field goal range. There was also the refs not running off ten seconds after a Jacksonville penalty that would have effectively ended the game. Nonetheless, Baltimore lost that game despite having many chances to defeat a Jacksonville side who has surprised many and could win their division.

So what has gone wrong for the Ravens this year?

For starters, in many positions they don’t have depth like they benefited from during Harbaugh’s tenure. Secondly, injuries to key players have been a killer. Losing Terrell Suggs for the entire season during the regular season hurt the Ravens’ ability to really be dangerous when rushing the corner back.

Instead of having Suggs and Elvis Dumervil providing a dynamic duo on the pass rush and other play calling, the Ravens only really had one dynamic rusher. Offensively, Breshard Perriman, who was the Ravens first round draft pick in 2015, never saw meaningful game time as he injured his knee in the preseason. Likewise, tight end Dennis Pitta tried to come back mid-season, but that never came to fruition as the recovery time took longer than possible.

Nov 1, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith, Sr. (89) gets introduced prior to the game against the San Diego Chargers at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

With two high-caliber offensive weapons out, the Ravens relied heavily on Steve Smith Sr. to step up. Unfortunately, he is out for the season. The Ravens’ success in the past was because they had multiple weapons offensively at both wide receiver and tight end. This year that isn’t the case and their help from running backs on screen plays isn’t there either.

Justin Forsett is a great running back, but he is still young and the potential to improve is still there. Specifically, he is no Ray Rice that was just as dangerous running straight up an opening as he was going towards the sidelines whether on the run or on a screen play.

All in all, 2015 will go down as the year that wasn’t. It wasn’t the year the Ravens lived up to expectations or make the playoffs. It wasn’t the year the Ravens defense stepped up like years past. It wasn’t the year Joe Flacco showed off his cannon of an arm. It was just a bad year that was hyped with expectations they couldn’t live up to. They can still finish above .500, but that would take a miracle and a seven-game winning streak to close out the season.

Next: Perriman will deliver in 2016

Baltimore bounced back from a 2013 season that saw them go 8-8 with a playoff berth in 2014. If the pieces fall into place during the 2016 NFL Draft and players who are hurt come back healthy, the Ravens have a chance to make the playoffs. Yet, Ravens fans will still have a sour taste in their mouths from 2015 until that happens officially.