Ravens Focused on Winning, Not AFC North Crown

Even if the Ravens beat Cincinnati, they would still trail the Bengals by a half-game in the standings.

OWINGS MILLS, Md. — As it stands. the Ravens could win Sunday, earn a season sweep of the Cincinnati Bengals and still not win the AFC North crown. 

Nonetheless, Baltimore is just focused on winning the game and going into the playoffs with some momentum, as opposed to all of the variables it can't control. 

"We would be excited to be playing for the division crown," coach John Harbaugh said. "That's something that we're hopeful for, but that's really beyond us. Our job is to go win the football game, and really to do that, we need to control the process, which is play the best football that we can. We think we're capable of playing great football, and we've been playing great football in a lot of ways in a lot of times, so we really want to try to put it all together."

The @Ravens players were back at practice this week, but their thoughts were with Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest Monday night against the Bengals. #RavensFlock https://t.co/2tGpJvKMxk

— Todd Karpovich (@toddkarpovich) January 5, 2023

Even if the Ravens (10-6) beat Cincinnati (11-4), they would still trail the Bengals by a half-game in the standings because of their postponed game against the Bills. The NFL has not decided whether to resume that game and could decide the standing and playoff seeding based on winning percentage.

The Bengals had even considered not even playing the Ravens in the aftermath of the situation with Bills safety Damar Hamlin, who went into cardiac arrest Monday night against the Bengals.

Hamlin's condition has seen been upgraded. 

"I'm not sure how that will end up going, but we're just going to go out and hopefully we get a chance," Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. "I know life isn't too fair, so whatever happens is fine. I know if I was the Bengals, I'd be like, 'This isn't fair if they cancel it,' or whatever. Whichever way it goes, I think we do have a game to play, and so with all the things going on, it's kind of a juggle of locking into this week, while also still having thoughts and prayers for Damar."