The Baltimore Ravens are toast. Not that they were going to do something special with one of the most unluckiest and surprising first halves of the season for them and any NFL team, but Joe Flacco is out with a torn ACL, and that’s just one of the endless list of injuries that have completely ruined their season.
In one of the more jumbled up and mistake-filled games of this season, the Ravens actually came out on top, beating the St. Louis Rams 16-13. But Flacco played through an injury to help the team set up another game winning Justin Tucker field goal and improve to 3-7. Yes, it’s been that bad. They’ve won all their three games this season with a game winning field goal. They’ve lost six of their seven games by six points or less, and their biggest margin of loss was by eight points. Always a possession here or there that could have changed everything, including the course of the season.
But with Flacco and Justin Forsett (broken arm) out, joining wide receivers Steve Smith Sr. (Achilles) and Breshad Perriman (knee), tight end Dennis Pitta (hip) and center Jeremy Zuttah (hip) they have 43% of their salary cap on injured reserve, and that’s before you account the dead money because of Ray Rice. John Harbaugh said the Ravens will be fine, they’ll bounce back. But it’s going to be an intense battle with the Browns for the last spot in the division, with Matt Schaub, or maybe Bryn Renner now waiting for the opportunity to play.
If the Ravens had the kind of defense that helped them win in previous years, maybe some wins were possible in the remaining six games. But their defense has been their weak spot this season. The main concern is right now is hoping that Flacco makes it back in time for the beginning of the 2016 season, as the Ravens need to start thinking about restructuring his massive contract. That, and scouting higher draft picks than they thought about initially.