Getty Lamar Jackson plays the Titans in the 2020 playoffs.
The Baltimore Ravens just got finished losing in the playoffs after a 14-2 season, so while looking forward is difficult at this point in time, it could be necessary for the sanity of fans.
Next season is already on the horizon, and a look at what the Baltimore schedule looks like for 2020 has already been revealed. Here’s a quick glance at the breakdown for the Ravens:
For those who missed it earlier, here are the Ravens’ 2020 opponents …
Home: Jaguars, Titans, Cowboys, Giants, Chiefs, Bengals, Browns and Steelers
Away: Redskins, Eagles, Colts, Texans, Patriots, Bengals, Browns and Steelers
Dates and times will be announced in April.
In addition to their usual games against the rivals of the AFC North, the Ravens will play against the NFC East and AFC South. The difficulty will be a first place schedule as a result of how Baltimore finished in 2019.
Obviously, the Ravens will have to win big in order to match what they were able to do during this past regular season, but given how things ended in the playoffs, it’s fair to say most people will only care about getting to the playoffs and what happens there moving forward.
Ravens Already High in 2021 Super Bowl Odds
A look at some very early odds was revealed by Caesars on this past week, and perhaps surprisingly, the Ravens were high on the list in spite of their frustrating finish to 2020. As a whole, the Ravens have the second best odds to take home the Lombardi Trophy at 7-1 a year from now.
Here’s a look at some of the early odds for next season:
Next year’s Super Bowl odds released from @CaesarsEnt today:
Chiefs 6-1
Ravens 7-1
49ers 8-1
Saints 11-1
Patriots 14-1
Steelers 15-1
Cowboys, Packers 18-1
Seahawks 22-1
Browns, Eagles, Rams, Vikings 25-1
At this point, of course, very little of this matters considering the current Super Bowl hasn’t even been decided, the offseason hasn’t taken place and neither has the draft. Little is known about what shape teams will take moving forward and what will play out next year in terms of injuries or other pitfalls that take place.
For now, though, Las Vegas isn’t exactly betting on the stench of failure hanging over the Ravens for very long. That’s true regardless of the difficulty of the schedule they will play.
Ravens Will Have to Overcome a Choke
Some folks don’t think Baltimore’s recent loss to the Tennessee Titans was that significant, but others think it was quite a big deal. One of those people can be counted as Peter Schrager of the NFL Network. On Monday’s episode of Good Morning Football, Schrager debated with his co-hosts about the severity of the loss and where it leaves Baltimore’s legacy after this season, and admitted he thinks this one will cut Baltimore deep for a long time to come.
“This is the most brutal loss a tam can have in franchise history, 14-2, you’re out by the divisional round and were embarrassed on your home field,” he said. “This is as big a gut punch. This is now just a forgettable team in NFL history. They didn’t even make it to the championship round.”
As for what the Ravens’ legacy is now following this failure to start off 2020, Schrager thinks the answer is quite obvious, and it’s not a great one for Baltimore fans.
“Their legacy is they couldn’t get it done. They couldn’t finish the job and when they needed to, they laid and all-time egg,” he said. “An absolutely brutal, destructive loss for a team that was so fun, that we were thinking was the future. This one is one that sits with you for decades. There were few teams in NFL history that were as fun and as fascinating as this. No one is going to remember Mark Andrews came into this one banged up. They’re going to remember they couldn’t get it done.”
Plenty on how 2020 is remembered will hinge on what happens later on this year, and then again in 2021 if the Ravens get back into the postseason to get another crack at ending their current losing streak in the playoffs.
This schedule will be the first step to getting on the path to that.
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