Baltimore Ravens confident of progressing through to playoffs – NFL News
The Baltimore Ravens are seeking to keep momentum of their victories during the late season to confirm them the title of American Football Conference (AFC) North division this year.
If they manage to stay atop the division, this will be their second consecutive divisional title win. They beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns to claim the division in the 2011 season during which they also took away
the tiebreaker advantage from the Steelers to make the playoff opportunity a hard fight for them, at the end.
This year again, the Ravens are comfortable atop AFC North at 9-2, while their rivals are struggling a number of points behind them. Either the Cincinnati Bengals or Steelers will have to win their all remaining games and see the Ravens lose theirs to claim
a possibility of the title win, but these teams’ respective performances this season do not help their cause.
The season’s start was rather sluggish for the Steelers and on the way to end of the season they are easily being beaten by sides such as Cleveland Browns given their key players are out with respective injury scares.
On the other hand, the Ravens are lucky to receive encouraging news on the defensive line. After earlier than expected return of linebacker Terrell Suggs from an Achilles tendon injury, reports are linking LB Ray Lewis to make such a comeback sometime next
month, which should give boost to the defensive line.
Coach John Harbaugh thinks and is all prideful for defence having performed well despite suffering with absence of key players. He said:
"Defensively, we played pretty well throughout. But as the game went along, we got better on defence. We tackled better. We defended better. We are improving on defence, and we improved throughout the course of the game."
He is probably right given the team have been thin on the defensive line during initial part of the season, and yet sustaining against all sides on the field is a job well done by the Ravens.
This will be their fifth consecutive playoff entry if they manage to progress through to the second round this year.
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