What the Ravens said after the Patriots loss

The 41-7 loss suffered at home sets the Ravens back a bit as they now need help to enter the postseason.

Either Miami or San Diego need to lose next week as Baltimore holds the tiebreaker over both teams. If there's a three-way tie for sixth place, then Miami gets the nod.

After Sunday's game against New England, Ravens players spoke about the setback and how important this next week is.

Here's what they had to say:

Joe Flacco

On being in the position they're in now in re the playoffs, needing some help: "I don't think we've ever needed some help and a win. We've always kind of controlled our own destiny. We've had to win on the last game of the season against the Bengals a few times to get ourselves into the playoffs. We've had to win to win the division, I think, once. But we've never had to rely on anything else. I don't know what those scenarios are. I'm not going to worry myself now. We're just going to worry about go getting a win."

On how disappointing the overall performance was: "It's disappointing. You know, we're used to going out there and playing well when we need to when playoffs are on the line. We came out today hungry and ready to go get ourselves into the playoffs or make that next step towards it, and we just didn't do it."

Ray Rice

On not running the ball as much on third-and-one: "I'm not the play caller, that's not my job to say ‘should've, would've, could've.' One thing I know is we could've executed better. We can and we've got a great quarterback on our sideline, but we have to execute at a high level. Sometimes you've just got to keep that guy [Tom Brady] off of the field. He does a great job of rallying this group. He's got some guys over there who probably don't have the biggest names in the NFL who made some better plays."

On next week's game against Cincinnati: "Just win. I don't know about that help stuff, we just need to take care of business in Cincinnati. That's all we've got to do is win."

On the tie-breaker scenarios: "As far as the tie breakers go next week, what we really control is going out there and we've just got to win. It's a huge game for us. It's probably not a huge game for Cincinnati, but we've still got to go out there and win."

Terrell Suggs

On whether still being in the playoffs helps: "Today was just one game. Next week is a division opponent. If we win, there still is a chance we can get in. We'll take that any day."

On what went wrong today: "I don't know. You will have to look at the tape. Actually, you could burn the tape. It's not even worth looking at. They played a good game. They won the game. You have to take your hat off to them."

On if needing help to get into the playoffs is weird: "It is. The whole time up until now has been, ‘Handle your business, and everything will be alright.' We let one get away, but we have next week. Thank God for next week."

Torrey Smith

On whether nothing went right today: "I can't really say that because defensively they made some big stops. Offensively, we were moving the football; we just couldn't score. That's kind of been our Achilles heel. You can't win games as an offense if you're not scoring touchdowns. You can only have K Justin Tucker out there so much and be successful. That puts a lot of pressure on our defense. We take great pride in what we do on offense, but we've been coming up a little short moving the ball and scoring touchdowns."

On if it's weird needing help getting in the playoffs: "It is especially for me. Since I came in, you can't tell me it's not handed to you every year. Now it's tough. We played the games. We are what we are because we earned it. If we would have won the division and been undefeated right now, we would be there because we earned it and because of the way we played. There is no secret to it. It's on us to go out there and take care of business next week. It's not a really great feeling that you know that you need help. I'm not going to lie, it's awesome when you know three weeks out that you're going to make the playoffs. That's not this season, so we really can't worry about that now."

Dennis Pitta

On the frustration level on not controlling your destiny: "This is a game we wanted to win, and obviously we did everything under our control to try to do that. But it just didn't happen. You can point to a million different things, but they just made the plays, and we didn't. All we can do is move on from this one and focus on getting a win next, and giving ourselves the best chance we can to make the playoffs."

On Head Coach John Harbaugh's message to the team after the game: "The message was to put this behind us because there's nothing we can do about it [today's game]. The game was closer than the score indicated but it got away from us and snowballed at the end. So we have to put this game behind us and get ready for Cincinnati. That's the only thing that we can control."

James Ihedigbo

On the outcome of today's game: "It's a tough pill to swallow - definitely a frustrating loss. We got beat. It doesn't matter if you lose by one point in overtime or lose by 30 - it's still a loss, and we need to move forward and think about next week. Next week, it's everything. It's win or go home. What we lost today was an opportunity to win our division, and now we've got to play for that Wild Card and go to Cincinnati and get a ‘W.'"

On the resiliency of this team all year long: "Yeah, we've been through ups and down. I think the frustrating thing is because it's the Patriots. That's what makes it so frustrating. We didn't play our best ball, but hats off to them. They won and God-willing, we look forward to playing them again."

On why he thinks they didn't play their best today: "It could be multiple things. [We've] got to look at the tape, but it comes down to execution at the end of the day. On offense, defense, special teams, that's what it comes down to, especially in big games. They made plays, and like I said, they won the game."