OTL: Ravens Can’t Afford Another Hiccup

It is now or never, make or break, the last chance for the Baltimore Ravens. However you slice it, this is it for the 2025 Ravens. Their bad start and a terrible showing at home against two AFC North opponents combined to put their season on life support.

Winning out may not be completely necessary, depending on what Pittsburgh does, but it’s their only path that doesn’t require help, and a step toward that is getting healthy:

Ravens returning to practice: QB Lamar Jackson (illness); LT Ronnie Stanley (ankle/knee); MLB Roquan Smith (knee); OLB Kyle Van Noy (quad).

Still sidelined: CB Chidobe Awuzie (foot), ILB Teddye Buchanan (knee).

New absence: NT John Jenkins

— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) December 18, 2025

Seeing these guys return to practice is good. We already knew about Lamar Jackson’s status for yesterday’s practice, and they are going to need all the help they can get, so getting these guys back for Sunday is going to make a huge difference. Not having Chidobe Awuzie might sting – he may be the most underrated player on the Ravens ‘ defense.

We got through Lamar’s annual “sick” absence, but but it’s still hard to trust this offense. Usually, a Ravens unit led by Lamar would be firing on all cylinders by this point, but unfortunately, the 2025 Ravens don’t operate that way.

We need one thing from this offense: execution.

Ravens OC Todd Monken: “you have to maximize the plays that you do get. At times, we did that Sunday. At times, we didn’t.” pic.twitter.com/og0gpPh2Qd

— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) December 18, 2025

It is time for the blunders and player mistakes to stop. Not to attack Zay Flowers, because he had an overall good game, but his drops were disappointing and could have swung the game against a better opponent. One led to a pick, and the other was a missed touchdown. Against a better team, not the dead Bengals, those are costly mistakes that can cost you ball games. Then the offensive line has got to play as a unit. Hoping for personnel changes is a fool’s errand at this point, so all we can do is cross our fingers for a stretch of better play. The OL is the main culprit as to why they have been so bad in the red zone. A good red zone offense requires a team to actually move bodies and protect, two things this team has shown it can’t do regularly.

Beyond just simple execution, this team needs one thing to make the playoffs and somehow go on a magic run: focus.

Lamar Jackson on Patriots: “they have an explosive defense, an explosive offense. We’ve got to lock on.” pic.twitter.com/UlA4zaiRiq

— Jeff Zrebiec (@jeffzrebiec) December 18, 2025

We saw a new level of focus from the defense last Sunday. As Dre’Mont Jones said, they knew from the jump that the defense would have a good game. That level of focus is what will be needed. If this team focuses on winning every drive, those drives will turn into wins. If the players do something good on each drive and stay focused, they will win on Sunday and keep their season alive.

It is going to be tough to do that against a legit, well-coached team like the Patriots, and not the awful Bengals, who seemed satisfied with their win on Thanksgiving.

Will they be able to execute against a much better team? Who knows at this point, but stranger things have happened in the NFL than a 1-5 team making it to the playoffs and going on a long run.

Now, would that be the healthiest thing for the long-term health of the franchise? Debatable, but that is for another day.

If the Ravens execute and focus on the mission, they will win Sunday.

The post OTL: Ravens Can’t Afford Another Hiccup appeared first on Russell Street Report.