Baltimore Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton said Wednesday that the Ravens have all the pieces they need to win a championship.
“One thing I’ve talked to a couple of people about is just, during the regular season, seems like every year I’ve been here, it seems like we get in a groove, and there’s like a six-week stretch where we’re just blowing people out,” said Hamilton.
“And we kind of, I think, sometimes struggle with playing from behind sometimes, because like we don’t do it a lot. So in the playoffs, on the road, hostile environment, playing from behind was just, like, unusual territory. So we’ve got to lock in that much more. Obviously we don’t plan on playing from behind in the future, but if it does happen we got to be able to respond correctly and then just execute.”
Hamilton pointed specifically to Baltimore’s Divisional Round loss to the Buffalo Bills as an example. The Ravens scored on their first possession, but the defense gave up a touchdown on the following Bills possession. Quarterback Lamar Jackson threw an interception late in the first quarter. Jackson also coughed up a fumble in the second quarter that was returned by linebacker Von Miller deep in Baltimore territory, setting up a Buffalo touchdown. A pass interference call set up another touchdown. Tight end Mark Andrews fumbled in the fourth quarter, setting up a Buffalo field goal.
The Ravens also missed two separate game-tying two-point conversion attempts, including one that would have tied the game with 1:33 left in the game, but Jackson’s pass was dropped by Andrews. The Ravens then failed to convert the onside kick, which effectively ended the game.
“I’ve had so many people ask me, ‘what are the Ravens missing?’” said Hamilton. “I’m like, ‘literally nothing.’ Like, we have everything you can want to win a championship, it’s just [that] we haven’t been playing well when we got to the point that we need to win. And there’s no excuses for that, it’s just offense, defense, special teams, we’ve got to do better.”
“We don’t want it to fall on our offense having to go down and score,” he said. “We wanted to be on the defense to get that stop and win the game for us. So [for] both sides of the ball, [it’s] obviously going to be a tough offseason to live with that, but we’ve got another year [to] hopefully right that wrong.”
“I think whenever you don’t go to the Super Bowl and win, it’s always a disappointment,” Ricard said as the team cleaned out their locker rooms after the loss. “But you still have to have pride and just look at the memories and the season that we had, everything we’ve accomplished as a team, individually. This is one of the most fun [seasons] I’ve had playing football ... I got to play with the best running back in football, best quarterback in football, so there’s a lot to hang my hat on.
“But at the end of the day, I want a Super Bowl. I want Baltimore to have another Super Bowl.”
Ricard said that the key to Baltimore’s long-term success is Lamar Jackson. “I think as long as Lamar is here, you'll have a shot every year of getting a Super Bowl,” he said. “As long as ... he has a good group of guys around him that play hard for him, that’s all he needs.”
