Ravens Enter Historically Bad Playoff Odds

The Baltimore Ravens' 0-2 start to the previous regular season drew heads, a strangely-slow start to the season for the AFC Championship runners-up who were highly expected to return to contending form. That team had no problem shrugging off a few tight losses that could have gone either way, bouncing back to go 12-3 for the rest of the season and seal another divisional title.

They laid the blueprint for the 2025 Ravens, who similarly dropped their season opener. But while their predecessors picked it up after those first two weeks, the Ravens only fell deeper into their recurring struggles. Both sides of the line took major steps back, the defense hit levels of penetrability that falls well below the franchise's historic standard, and a quietly developing injury wave seemed to whip remaining hope from under their cleats following a catastrophic Week 5 loss.

A 44-10 smothering at the hands of the Houston Texans pushed them into a 1-4 hole through the first five weeks, well out of the playoff picture just a month into the fall. But with a dozen games remaining, how much of a chance do they really have of scratching their way back to the postseason?

According to CBS insider Jonathan Jones' research, only 10 of the 126 teams to start off with a 1-4 record have clawed their way past the regular season finale, good for a sub-8% likelihood for the Ravens.

Those odds do not favor the Ravens, especially as they still await the returns of impact stars like quarterback Lamar Jackson, safety Kyle Hamilton and inside linebacker Roquan Smith, but head coach John Harbaugh sounds like he's plenty disgusted with his own team's inability to band together and rely on heir fundamentals to meet their regularly-lofty standards. A real contender shouldn't have fallen apart like they did against the usually-floundering Texans like they did.

Houston Texans Wide Receiver Christian Kirk — Oct 5, 2025; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Houston Texans wide receiver Christian Kirk (13) reacts after rushing for yards during the fourth quarter against the Baltimore Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images | Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images

But if we were to take a glance at the Ravens' schedule, their rapidly-dwindling level of competition becomes hard to ignore. They've had a rough go of it in scoring plenty of points and giving up slightly more with Jackson in charge, but they'll soon approach their mushier matchups. They've already faced off against exactly half of the squads who participated in last season's divisional round of the playoffs, but they've only seen one team in their own unimpressive division, where they nabbed their sole win in swiping the modest Cleveland Browns out of the way three weeks prior.

While making good on their annual postseason promise remains possible, they'll need to make good on Harbaugh's intention of figuring themselves out and keeping this embarrassing start from further snowballing, and the never-ending injuries just have to slow down.

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