Brian Billick: Ravens Can Overcome Adversity, Make a Run Like Super-Bowl Winning 2000 Team Did
The loss to the Steelers made the Ravens’ path to the playoffs tougher, but certainly not impossible.
Former Ravens Head Coach Brian Billick said the main reason for fans to keep the faith is that while the Ravens have flaws, they’re as talented as any team in the AFC.
“Clearly they’ve got some things to improve on and they have to play better, but the rest of the [conference] is in the exact same situation,” Billick, who was in Baltimore over the weekend to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the 2000 Ravens’ Super Bowl win, said on “Glenn Clark Radio.” “I can make the same points for any of the top teams as to why they’re going to win the Super Bowl, and I can give you four or five reasons why they’re just not going to get there.
“New England seems to be the only team right now that has been able to keep the consistency, so that group probably is an outlier, but everybody else is in the exact same position. So, the talent’s there for Baltimore. If they’ll just keep their focus, and I know they will, and keep working through it.”
Billick recalled how the 2000 team rallied after going five consecutive games without scoring a touchdown in Weeks 5-9, and he believes this year’s team also is equipped to overcome adversity.
“It’s day to day, player by player, coach to coach interaction with one another, supporting one another, not turning on one another, and going, ‘We can still do this,'” Billick said. “And that’s the thing they have to grasp. Once we came out of that tough month in October and started to get on a roll, having faced the crucible where most teams would’ve fallen apart, that team did not. They stuck together, and in doing so gained a strength because every opponent we played from that point on it was, ‘Hey, we don’t care what happens. We’ve stood at the abyss. We’ve already fought through this. We’re not going to fall apart.’ And it buoyed us all the way through the next 11 games and winning the Super Bowl.
“This team is capable of doing that. Even though obviously there’s difficulties they’re going through and strategically and tactfully some things have to get better, they’re as good as anybody in the AFC right now. The goal for them [is] to get to the playoffs and then use that pedigree to make that run.”
