'Next Man Up!' No Injury Excuses For AFC's No. 1 Seed Ravens
Clinching the top seed in the vaunted AFC with a week to go is spectacular for the Baltimore Ravens. The way they've accomplished that feat for the second time since 2019 might be even more impressive, though.
In their last two victories, the Ravens have blown out the San Francisco 49ers and Miami Dolphins - two teams that are combined to be 23-9. The combined score in those games? 89-38.
Even moving past the way Baltimore has blown through some of the best teams in football is the fact that the Ravens have not been at 100 percent at any point in recent weeks.
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Against the Dolphins on Sunday, Baltimore was already without star safety Kyle Hamilton, starting cornerback Brandon Stephens and starting guard Kevin Zeitler before All-Pro cornerback Marlon Humphrey left the game with a calf injury.
Did that deter Baltimore's secondary that three of their starting players in the secondary were out against a lethal offense? Absolutely not.
"We had some things come up that we didn’t anticipate," Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said. "We had some game-time decisions, and we had some things happen during the game that knocked guys out. I thought the corners [and] the safeties just played tremendously well.
"I thought they played good, sound football. They covered [in] man [coverage]. They handled the motions. They handled all the different combination coverages we were in against that offense. I thought they did just a great job.”
The combination of Arthur Maulet, Rock Ya-Sin, and Ronald Darby held Miami's highest-scoring offense to just 19 points and three turnovers.
Even with giving up over six yards on the ground defensively, the secondary kept an All-Pro wide receiver like Tyreek Hill out of the end zone.
This wasn't the first game that Baltimore has had to deal with the injury bug either. Humphrey missed four games to start the year after dealing with foot surgery, while tight end Mark Andrews, linebacker David Ojabo, and running backs J.K. Dobbins and Keaton Mitchell have all been placed on IR.
Even with the long line of injuries, the Ravens have succeeded in perfecting the "next-man-up" mentality.
"It has to be that way in the National Football League, for sure," Harbaugh explained. "You just have to have that quality to sustain and have stamina through the whole season as a team.
"Team stamina requires guys to step in and play at the same high starter level. In our minds, everybody’s a starter. You have to be, because you’re one click away from being out there [with] everything riding on your shoulders."
No Mark Andrews, Kyle Hamilton, OR Marlon Humphrey? No problem for Baltimore. Isaiah Likely, Daryl Worley, and plenty of other offensive weapons have stepped up when they've been given the chance.
Of course, having the MVP front-runner in Lamar Jackson certainly helps.
"The proof is in the pudding," Odell Beckham Jr. stated. "Look at this team and look at how he leads it, his impact day to day, just small little plays. The play breaks down, and all of a sudden he extends the play. There’s just nobody like him."
As the Ravens debate whether they should sit their starters or not for a meaningless final game of the season, their eyes can confidently turn to the start of the playoffs in a few weeks.
Unlike other organizations this year, there should be some comfort that injuries won't be something that stands in the way of their Super Bowl aspirations.
