Who wants another shot at Lamar Jackson and the Ravens?
Anyone? Bueller… Bueller… Bueller?
Battered and bruised – as they typically are on their way home from a game in Baltimore – the Denver Broncos should be thinking one thing: How can we beat the Ravens when it matters most… in January?
After a 41-10 pummeling in Baltimore on Sunday, the plane ride home had to be long and grim. The lopsided affair was a reality check, a lump in the gut like a kid’s belly the day after Halloween, a reminder that the young and fun Broncos still have a ways to go before returning to the list of true contenders in the NFL. They’re not there yet, and the Ravens made that perfectly clear to anyone who bothered to watch.
“We got whooped today,” Broncos head coach Sean Payton said following the game.
On a cold, grey morning in Denver, the notion that the two teams will meet again in the playoffs seems silly at best.
Baltimore’s 6-3 record is deceiving; as long as Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson stay healthy, the Ravens are a Super Bowl contender.
Upon review, the Broncos five wins might be Fool’s Gold. Sure, they earned them – but only against the league’s bottom feeders. Denver has yet to beat a team with a (current) winning record. Their five wins have come against opponents with a combined winning percentage of just .295, and after an encounter with the Ravens – who don’t even lead their own division – earning a trip back to New Orleans feels like a pipedream.
But on the first weekend of November, nobody can predict how a 17-game season plays out. Nobody would have predicted the Broncos five wins heading into the second half of the season. Nobody has any way of knowing how the playoff bracket looks.
Some food for thought though:
Bo Nix will continue get better (he’s already done so by leaps and bounds).
Sean Payton will learn a lot from the loss in Baltimore (more on that later).
There’s a decent chance that a Lamar Jackson-led Ravens team can find a way to flub things up before or during the postseason (history tells us so; the two-time MVP has never been to a Super Bowl).
And, the Broncos are better than yesterday’s final score might indicate. Payton’s first half decision-making appeared desperate; it was almost as if even he wasn’t confident in his team’s ability to keep the game close when, in fact, they were. Had the coach kicked field goals instead of going for it on fourth down twice in the first half, and had he managed the clock more effectively to end the half, his team could have headed into the locker room down 17-16.
Anything could have happened from there.
“Alright, if we played them again next week, what would we have done differently?” Payton mused prior to the long flight back to D.I.A.
There’s a long list to choose from.
That’s not to say the Broncos are an even match for the Ravens; they’re not. When considering the electric playmakers and proven commodities on the Ravens league-leading offense, Denver’s talent on the offensive side of the ball isn’t even comparable. But the two teams do have comparable defenses. If a fourth down gets converted, if the offense stays on the field just a bit longer, if there’s a turnover instead of a penalty, who knows what could happen in a close-game scenario?
Luckily for Payton and his Broncos, they don’t have to play Baltimore next week. If they’re lucky, they’ll face the Ravens in the playoffs.
There are no moral victories in the NFL. But if there’s a silver lining from Sunday’s massacre in Baltimore, it’s that the Broncos can and will learn from their first big test of the season. If Payton is worth his hefty salary, the next time around should look significantly better.
On a cold and snowy “Monday Morning After,” a rematch with the Ravens sounds about as good as gazpacho. But these Broncos are different. They’re a work in progress worth watching. Two months from now, anything is possible.
A Ravens rematch? Sign me up.