Subscribe
Follow Us
At the beginning of December, the Baltimore Ravens looked resigned to a spot in the AFC wildcard ranks.
Now granted, that isn't necessarily a bad thing; even after losing to the Philadelphia Eagles on December 1st, the Ravens were still sitting at 8-5 and had a playoff spot firmly in their control if they didn't completely fall apart. And yet, two games behind the Steelers, with four games left to play, it felt like it would take a Christmas miracle to see Baltimore represent the AFC North come January.
Fortunately, with the Ravens and the Steelers playing on Christmas, old St. Nick looked kindly on the fine people of Charm City, delivering a commanding win to Baltimore and a brutal loss to their neighbors up north in Pittsburgh to officially place John Harbaugh's team in sole possession of first place in the division.
Asked for comment on the Ravne's stark turnaround, ripping off three-straight wins in a wild gauntlet to be perfectly positioned for a Week 18 coronation, Harbaugh declared it a real testament to his team, as they were able to come together and accomplish something great.
“It says so much. It says we're not done yet, because it's been done, and the next thing is going to be the next game. We need to be 1-0 to win the AFC North, and that will be our focus after we get some rest,” Harbaugh told Ravens reporters.
“We'll have rest until … We'll get the guys out, bring them back on Monday, and we'll get started for the Browns, which is always a very tough team, tough opponent, division game, but it will be for the AFC North crown, and we're going to need to be locked in for that. The fact that they did it – they did it in this short stretch – I think our team probably handled it the best, arguably. I guess the Chiefs did a good job too, so there you go. Have to give them credit; give credit where credit's due. I'm proud of our guys, man. I'm really proud of our guys for what they accomplished – our coaches, our strength and conditioning coaches, our nutritionist, our trainer [and] our performance coach.”
Regardless of who wins and who loses in Week 18, the Ravens and the Steelers will both be in the playoffs come January, with one team representing the AFC North and the other filling a wildcard slot as seed 5-7. Considering the two teams could very well end up playing each other when the brackets are said and done, the fact that such a game could end up happening in Baltimore instead of Pittsburgh is a major benefit to the Ravens, who have proved that they can accomplish great things when they have a collection of crabcake loving, Natty Boh drinkin', Jimmy's Famous Seafood patronizing folks in their stands cheering them on to victory.
