Ravens dig a hole which is hard to climb out of

The Baltimore Ravens starting what looked like a promising season with two straight losses is very disheartening, both for the players and the fans. The team has dug themselves a hole which they must now attempt to dig out of. The good news is that only 3 teams in the AFC started the season with two straight wins, so the Ravens are only 1 game back from the NINE teams tied at 1-1, although that is pending Monday night's Colts vs. Jets matchup, which could result in either 2 more 1-1 teams (Colts win) or 1 more 2-0 team (Jets win).

Either way, the ranks of those 1-1 teams include the Raiders, Jaguars, Titans, Browns and Dolphins, so there is much hope for the Ravens to make the playoffs, especially as a wild card. The bad news is that it has been historically hard for teams starting 0-2 to make the playoffs, and it is even more rare for those teams to make the Super Bowl:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Since 1990, NFL teams that started --&#10;&#10;2-0 made playoffs 63% of time&#10;1-1 made playoffs 41% of time&#10;0-2 made playoffs 12% of time</p>&mdash; ESPN Stats &amp; Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNStatsInfo/status/645945642926235648">September 21, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

However, they are in good company:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">0-2 teams: BAL, HOU, NYG, PHI, CHI, SEA, NO, DET.&#10;&#10;Only 12% of teams to start 0-2 under the current playoff format made the playoffs.</p>&mdash; SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) <a href="https://twitter.com/SportsCenter/status/645815936050700288">September 21, 2015</a></blockquote>

<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Seattle, Philadelphia, and the Ravens are all teams with playoff aspirations, and I expect them all to make a run at a playoff spot. The Ravens and Seahawks both started the year with 2 road games, so the degree of difficulty is really only slightly harder. The Ravens are only about a .500 team on the road, so if they can win 7 games at home they would need to win just 3 of the remaining 6 road games to make it to 10 wins. Not easy, but doable. Let us hope the team can bounce back and start ticking off some wins in the coming weeks.