Baltimore Ravens: Is it time to throw in towel for 2017 season?
By Cory Hughes
The Baltimore Ravens could be done, halfway through the season
Everybody remembers Rocky IV. The fourth movie in the famous Rocky franchise where Apollo Creed comes back to fight Captain Ivan Drago. Everybody also remembers the scene where Duke, Apollo’s trainer looks to Rocky saying “Throw in the damn towel” right before Apollo went down for his final count. Have we reached that point with the 2017 Ravens and their playoff chances? Did we get there just nine weeks in? It wouldn’t exactly be jumping to conclusions if most Raven fans would come to say: “Yeah, its probably about that time.”
The Ravens lost in Nashville to the Titans, where they struggled to find any offensive identity. This seems to be a recurrence with this team week after week. The offense hasn’t exactly given their fanbase anything to be excited for moving forward. And its not something that can be blamed on one particular individual.
There’s enough blame to spread all around the board in this instance and it starts all the way at the top. From Ozzie Newsome’s failure to draft virtually any talent at the skilled positions. To Marty Mornhinweg’s play calling week after week; and coach Harbaugh’s stubbornness to not cut bait with his offensive coordinator, despite the pedestrian play calling game after game. To Joe Flacco’s mechanics and poor play, to the offensive line not protecting Joe Flacco, it’s all been bad. This isn’t an offense that will sort everything out after the bye week.
This team just doesn’t have it:
Beating the Titans on Sunday was essential if the team wanted to make a late playoff run. Going into the bye week at 4-5 basically takes them out of the running for the wildcard, unless they can somehow win out. After watching this offense for nine weeks, winning out seems impossible. With Harbaugh throwing support behind Mornhinweg following the loss to the Titans, as a fan, you can’t expect much to change, right?
Nine weeks of offensive struggles, being 30th in total offense and 31st in passing offense and coach Harbaugh doesn’t seem to think there’s any problem. Insanity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome and you don’t have to be Albert Einstein to know that.
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As a fan watching this team, do you want to win at this point? It’s not a question most fans want to sit back and think about, because you obviously want your team to win. But you also want your team to have players that will help you make a deep Super Bowl run. Quite frankly, right now the Baltimore Ravens just don’t have any of those, especially on offense. The 19 players on offense have a hand in the team’s lack of success. At times this season the Ravens have struggled to get a handful of first downs never mind touchdowns. So, I ask you again, do you want to win at this point in the season?
The bottom line:
Or do you want to lose as much as possible, so you can draft a game changer? Something The Ravens haven’t really had in recent years. Drafting a guy like Derrius Guice, or Ozzie finally drafting a home run at WR, like Calvin Ridley or James Washington would be nice. Perhaps the pipe dream of drafting running Saquon Barkley is possible.
Next: Looking ahead to the 2018 NFL Draft needs of the Ravens
Its not a mindset fans like thinking about: Hoping your team loses to get better draft picks. But watching this team’s offense, do you think they stand a chance against any contender? I think we all know the unfortunate answer to that question. Things are going to get worse before they get better.