Getty Marcus Peters celebrates the Ravens big win.
The Baltimore Ravens are one of the top teams in the NFL this year, and whether they are to be assumed as the best of the best simply depends on who you ask.
According to Colin Cowherd of Fox Sports, the Ravens are the best team in the league, and it isn’t particularly close. This week, in his Herd Hierarchy, Cowherd placed Baltimore in the top spot over the San Francisco 49ers. As he said, it was a pretty easy call because of what the Ravens have managed to do on the field most of this season so far against the best of the best.
“Baltimore’s beaten all the best teams,” Cowherd says in the clip. “They beat Seattle in Seattle, they beat San Francisco, in a weird way, their loss to Kansas City is great because they will probably have to play Kansas City or New England again. Kansas City jumped on them at Arrowhead and they got down.”
As Cowherd explained, there are actually very few weaknesses with the Ravens, considering their offense is particularly explosive and their defense is suddenly playing with an edge.
“They’re averaging 33 points a game, since Marcus Peters arrived, I think they are more aggressive and better defensively. Well coached,” he said.
Cowherd also used the Ravens portion of the segment to laud Lamar Jackson for his work at quarterback so far this season, and perhaps admit he was wrong on his talent.
“Lamar Jackson’s better than I thought, faster than I thought and his efficiency is remarkable for his age,” he said.
When a team has a quarterback doing those kinds of things, it’s not a shock to see them rated incredibly high, and not a shock to see Baltimore continuing to be mentioned as one of the NFL’s truly elite whatsoever by Cowherd.
Ravens Making Statements in 2019
As Cowherd accurately states, the Ravens have beaten some of the best teams on their schedule this season in order to crack the 11-2 mark. It’s not easy to beat the Seahawks on the road, nor is it easy to beat the 49ers. In addition to those wins, Baltimore has also beaten the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Los Angeles Rams and most recently the Buffalo Bills. Those are some of the best of the best thus far this season.
With an impressive body of work as a whole, the Ravens have made statements not only in the fact that they have won, but how they have gotten the job done. The offense has put up points and yards, while the defense has managed to keep the opposition in check as well. That type of two-headed attack only proves how dangerous the Ravens have been and could be the rest of the way.
Ravens Super Bowl History
The Ravens have a chance to make some serious noise in 2019 thanks to their solid start, and if they are able to get back to their Super Bowl roots, it will become the third time the team has taken home a Lombardi Trophy. The 2000 Ravens managed to cruise to the title with defense, and the 2012 Ravens shocked plenty of folks to take home Super Bowl XLVII with their solid teamwork.
With the team coming back to relevance behind an exciting young quarterback and a defense which is also playing well, fans will undoubtably see parallels between this squad and some of Baltimore’s better teams of the past. All it takes to invigorate a fanbase is a winning team with captivating personalities.
Baltimore’s Super Bowl winners of the past have had these elements in spades. Names like Ray Lewis, Tony Siragusa, Shannon Sharpe, Haloti Ngata and certainly Smith himself come to mind as examples of Super Bowl winning players who have made a statement in the city.
Will names like Jackson, Earl Thomas and Marquise Brown join them? Fans should be excited to watch and see, and certainly, Smith sees them trending in that direction as the season pushes into the home stretch for 2019.
Right now, it’s hard to find many analysts who don’t love what the Ravens are doing. It’s a breath of fresh air to see.