From 0-2 to back-to-back division champs: Ravens embody resiliency and brotherhood

This year’s team is battle-tested and peaking at the right time as they get ready to embark on a playoff run.

Before the 2024 regular season even got underway, the Baltimore Ravens had already been through the ringer and experienced a tremendous amount of adversity which made Saturday’s clinching of a second straight AFC North title with a 35-10 win over the Cleveland Browns all the more meaningful.

“It’s really an unbelievable feeling,” Pro Bowl tight end Mark Andrews said. “It’s a credit to the men in this locker room and the organization that clawed and fought all year long, the type of team that we have. We’re excited about this. It’s a huge accomplishment and we’re looking forward to this next game in the playoffs.”

Over the summer, franchise legend and Super Bowl 47 hero, Jacoby Jones passed away just days after turning 40 years old. During training camp, offensive line coach Joe D’Alessandris came down with an acute illness and passed away.

Between August and September, several players were involved in car accidents in which they were lucky to walk away from win minor to no injuries with Andrews experiencing the scariest of the bunch but was saved by his seatbelt.

Despite all they had been through off the field, expectations were still high heading into the season coming off a 2023 campaign in which they won the most games in the league and made their first conference championship appearance in over a decade.

However, when they got off to an 0-2 start after dropping their first two games in dramatic fashion to the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs and underwhelming Las Vegas Raiders, it was as if the sky was falling for them everywhere but outside their building.

All of those trials and tribulations were part of the crucible that has helped forge this team into the juggernaut they appear to be heading into the postseason. They also weren’t lost on veteran outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy after the game when he stepped to the podium to address the media in a press conference.

“I think back to even before everything, we’ve gone through so much as a team,” Van Noy said. “I just want to take the time to shout out Joe D. and his family. I got chills saying that, because Joe D. is with us. Jacoby Jones, his family, we know they are with us, and we’re just so grateful to put on a proud display of football for them and go through what we’ve gone through as a group, whether it’s car accidents, injuries with players [or] the sicknesses that we’ve had. I know all teams go through it, but just this specific group, coaches included, starting 0-2, just the journey of the season, to be where we’re at with the strength of schedule that coach [John Harbaugh] just talked about, to be where we’re at, division champs in arguably the best division.

“I know everyone thinks [it’s] the NFC North, but … Still the AFC North, I think, is the toughest division, and to come out champs, it’s awesome, and we’re grateful to celebrate that tonight, but we have bigger and better things to worry about, which is the Wild Card Weekend. I was here last year for the AFC Championship, and this is all great, but our mindset has changed to get this first game. All the focus … We’re not guaranteed anything after next week, so our main focus is to get to next week and to get that 1-0 mindset.”

The 11th-year pro is one of several players on both sides of the ball who had a career year. He ended the season on a heater with at least one sack in five straight games and far surpassed his previous career-high total he set last year of nine by recording double-digits for the first in his career.

As one of the stalwart leaders on a unit that struggled mightily to slow down opposing offense through the first 10 weeks after finishing with the top overall defense last year, he is proud of the complete 180 turnaround they’ve made since Week 11. The Ravens have been especially dominant defensively since returning from their Week 14 bye and are the best defense in the league by several advanced metrics.

“Honestly, we just had to take it upon ourselves as players,” Van Noy said. “We felt like coaches were doing enough, and as players, we needed to step up individually and take ownership, really just battle it out. We had high expectations coming off a season like we did the year before. [We had] the expectations to do that right again with the changes that we had with the same players. It was kind of like our job to fix it, and I think we rallied together.”

The Ravens had to wait until Week 14 to have their bye—the latest in the league—and were one of four teams that had to play three games in 11 days in December. They not only went 3-0 during that stretch but dominated while doing so, recording 30-plus points in each and outscoring their opponents by a combined 100-33. After being two games back of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the race for the division coming out of their bye, they surpassed their archrivals who ended the regular season on a four-game skid and will be coming back to Baltimore for a third matchup in the Wildcard round of the playoffs.

“It’s a week-to-week league, and you really just have to take it one week at a time, one day at a time, one play at time, and our guys have done a really good job of holding onto that,” Harbaugh said. “That 1-0 T-shirt that we all wear around is real, and so, four wins later, we’re the AFC North Champions.”

The mindset of the 2024 Ravens is one of never being satisfied because they all possess the same single-minded focus on achieving the ultimate goal of winning a Super Bowl championship. No player personifies and echoes that belief more than two-time MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson, who is poised to receive the honor for the third time and second time in as many years.

Despite making history while notching a fourth-straight blowout win to close out the regular season, he expressed how proud he is of how far they’ve come as a team while still being critical of his unit’s performance because he knows they can execute at an even higher level.

”We [are] far ahead [of] what we [were] back then [with our] 0-2 start. Just today, I was getting ticked off out there, because I’m feeling like [there were] drives we didn’t finfish [where] we [were] driving the ball [and] moving the ball [and] we [were] getting great field position from special teams and defense, and we [were] not completing the drive. But it happens sometimes in division games, [and] we [are] not trying to let that happen going into the playoffs. So, [there’s] still room for improvement, but I feel like we [are] taking steps in the right direction.”