Just not good enough

It was fantastic to see the Ravens hold the Colts to 17 points, so half of the team we needed to see showed up. Unfortunately, the offense couldn’t get in the end zone. When you can’t score on the Colts when you have the ball 1st and goal from the 1, you don’t deserve to go to the playoffs. The offense actually looked OK, doing a pretty nice job controlling the ball and the tempo of the game, but they need to score touchdowns, not field goals. Just one could have done it.

As has been the case all year, it comes down to a handful of plays, any one of which (a missed short FG, getting stopped at the 1, throwing the INT) goes the other way, maybe it’s a win.

I think it will take 11-5 to get into the playoffs, and the Ravens still have the Steelers twice (although they just lost to KC), and the Packers in Green Bay. I don’t see this team making it through those three games without a loss, and while I’m confident about the Raiders and the Lions, you can’t write the Bears off, either. If the team that showed up today shows up for every remaining game, and they score a touchdown instead of a couple of those field goals, then all of these games are winnable individually, but I don’t know that any team could go into this stretch and win them all.

Oh, and Ed Reed needs to stop lateraling. Seriously.