The Ravens are the top seed in the AFC and quarterback Lamar Jackson is on his way to winning the MVP award, which may be causing some deja vu for people in Baltimore.
Both of those things were also the case as the team moved into the final week of the 2019 season and the Ravens’ high hopes for the postseason came crashing down with a home loss to the Titans in the divisional round of the playoffs. There’s sure to be a lot of discussion of that outcome as we wait for the Ravens’ playoff debut this season and head coach John Harbaugh was asked what he can take from that experience at his Monday press conference.
Harbaugh said it was “a disappointment” for things to play out that way, but that the similarities between the situations only go so far.
“It’s different from this season; it’s a different team; different circumstances; different, everything except the record is about the same and the bye,” Harbaugh said, via a transcript from the team. “I remember the experience and the choices we made, but the decisions we made, we made for certain reasons, and we thought they were the right decision. What impacted what [and] how in terms of us not playing our best football that day, it’s really hard to say what the cause and effect was. We just didn’t. We didn’t go out there, and we didn’t do it. That’s the thing I kind of take from it the most. Of course, you want to be better. We have to play way better than that next game if we want to win, and we do want to win. But you have to look at everything from the framework or through the lens of today – this team and the challenges that we’re facing – and that’s what we’ll try to do.”
One of the decisions the Ravens have to make this week is how much to play starters, if at all, ahead of their week off and their ultimate call on that front is sure to be compared to the 2019 call to rest players.
