FanSided has released their Week 3 NFL power rankings and the Baltimore Ravens have fallen mightily since being ranked No. 9 in the preseason rankings.
In this week’s release of the power rankings, the Ravens are ranked 24th of the 32 NFL teams. Few could have imagined that Baltimore would open the season with its worst record in franchise history. Here is where the FanSided staff had to say about the Ravens:
You cannot argue with anything said there. A lot of “experts” were high on the Ravens entering the season, but they have done little to show that they are capable of advancing to the postseason. As my colleague Brandon Austin explained, the Ravens just aren’t a good football team right now.
The front seven has played well, but the secondary looks worse than it did a year ago. Outside the Joe Flacco and Steve Smith Sr. connection, the offense has done very little. The running game has been nonexistent. No one outside of Smith has stepped up on passing downs.
That’s not to say they cannot turn it around. They head to Pittsburgh this week to face a Steelers team that will be without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Then they have 10 days off before welcoming the Cleveland Browns. They can get back to 2-3 before their next round of West Coast games, and the schedule gets much more favorable the second half of the season.
While the Ravens are the lone team in the division to be winless, they actually were not the lowest-ranked team in the AFC North. That title still goes to the Cleveland Browns. As expected, the Cincinnati Bengals are the highest-ranked team. Here is how the rest of the division stacked up:
Cleveland Browns: 25th
Pittsburgh Steelers: 10th
Cincinnati Bengals: 4th
The Ravens can go a long way of creeping up the chart with a win over the Steelers this week. They did not want to be winless heading to Pittsburgh, but they have an opportunity to steal the game with Big Ben on the sidelines.
Next: Joe Flacco to Steve Smith Sr. Connection Thriving
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