There is a clip from NFL Films’ 2011 documentary A Football Life: Bill Belichick that saw the then-Patriots head coach talk to quarterback Tom Brady on the sidelines during a 38-17 loss to the New Orleans Saints. The conversation can be summed up in one statement.
“I just can’t get this team to play the way we need to play,” Belichick lamented. “It’s so f—king frustrating.”
On Sunday, that might just be have been John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson.
The Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs both entered their Week 4 bout at Arrowhead Stadium with identical 1-2 records. Looking at the final score, and indeed the game itself, you wouldn’t have known. The Chiefs were the superior team for most of the days, while the visitors — despite taking a 7-0 lead into the second quarter — just couldn’t get out of their own way.
The result was a 37-20 defeat that was not as close as the final score would indicate. The issues for Baltimore, however, did not end with the game’s final whistle.
That, indeed, might be the biggest worry of them all.
Sure, you can have a bad day. Sure, sometimes the opponent can just be on one. Or, sometimes, you can just be a team seemingly unable to turn the corner. That Patriots team was, and the Ravens might be as well.
One big reason for that is injuries. Before their trip to Missouri, the Ravens were already down stalwart defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike, who was placed on injured reserve with a neck issue that will at least keep him out for the next four games (and there is concern it might be more). Fellow DT Broderick Washington, a part-time starter alongside Madubuike, was also sent to IR because of an ankle issue.
During the game against the Chiefs, more injuries followed. The most prominent, of course, is quarterback Lamar Jackson who left the contest in the third quarter with a hamstring injury.
Joining him on the sidelines were several other core players. As pointed out by Baltimore Beatdown’s Nikhil Mehta, “by the end of the game, Baltimore was without five of their six-highest paid players along with [Nate] Wiggins, one of the few bright spots on the defense this year.”
Besides Jackson and starting cornerback Wiggins, the Ravens also lost fellow CB Marlon Humphrey, left tackle Ronnie Stanley and linebacker Roquan Smith. Add the aforementioned Madubuike and Washington, and you get a team that was decimated by the end of its loss to the Chiefs.
And while head coach John Harbaugh said after the game that he believes none of those new injuries would be of the season-ending variety, any missed games might prove fatal for a team that was already on the ropes before Sunday.
Fact is, after all, that the Ravens losing to the Chiefs was no surprise either. Obviously, the injuries did not help, but Baltimore looked like a vulnerable team for the first three weeks of the season, and particularly in Week 3.
The team succumbed to Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bills’ heroics in Week 1, losing 41-40, before a 41-17 win over the hapless Cleveland Browns. The momentum did not last, and was followed by a 38-30 home loss to the Detroit Lions last Monday. Now, things look even more dire, particularly on the defensive side of the ball.
So, is the season lost already?
No, it is not, and there are several reasons why starting with the fact that Jackson and company should be able to return from their injuries fairly soon. In addition, the team’s schedule is set to ease up significantly after a challenging opening third of the season, while the path to the division title is littered with suspect foes (and, yes, that includes the 3-1 Steelers). Once in the playoffs, anything is possible.
Of course, getting there will still not be easy. Now at 1-3 and facing several questions on both sides of the ball, the Ravens need to regroup and do so quickly. Anything but a win over the Houston Texans next week would be a debacle.
But for now, the problems remain. The Ravens are banged up, keep shooting themselves in the foot, keep showing little resistance on defense, and do not seem to have the mental toughness to prevent mistakes from snowballing.
The situation is not entirely unsalvageable but for now, to quote Bill Belichick, “it’s so f—king frustrating.”
