Ravens vs. Chargers: Baltimore Blows Big Opportunity to Reach Super Bowl

The Baltimore Ravens could've had it all—the AFC North, the top seed in the conference and a relatively clear path to the Super Bowl.

But, as they demonstrated with an embarrassing display in a 34-14 loss to the San Diego Chargers on Sunday night, they just couldn't handle all the success that was coming their way.

That's what happens when your enigmatic quarterback, Joe Flacco, throws interceptions on back-to-back possessions in the third quarter. That's what happens when your offensive coordinator, Cam Cameron (with whom the Chargers are intimately familiar), practically abandons the running game, despite Ray Rice and Ricky Williams showing that they can move the ball at a clip of nearly six yards per carry between them.

Worst of all, that's what happens when your defense, usually one of the best in the NFL and the unit on which your success is predicated, surrenders 34 points and 415 yards.

In total, though, that's what happens when your team, as a whole, struggles so mightily to win on the road. The Ravens are undefeated at home but have won only three of their seven road games this season, two of which came against the Rams and the Browns.

The combined record of those two teams—6-22.

It's not that Baltimore can't beat good teams on the road—the Ravens beat the Steelers in Pittsburgh in Week 9—but rather that they've been such a Jekyll-and-Hyde act away from M&T Bank Stadium. In no instance was that more evident when, after winning three games in a row in convincing fashion, John Harbaugh led his team into Jacksonville and came away with an unwatchable 12-7 loss to the Jaguars on Monday Night Football.

For that, and for getting shellacked in San Diego for all to see, the Ravens are now in danger of dropping from the two-seed, which would ensure a first-round bye and a home game on the way to the AFC Championship Game, to the five-seed, from which position they'd pretty much have to win three road games to earn a trip to Indianapolis.

Oh, the irony.

Of course, there's still much work to be done on the Steelers' part. They'll have to win in San Francisco on Monday night, either without Ben Roethlisberger or with him on one leg.

But if Pittsburgh emerges victorious, it'll have a one-game lead in the division and a relatively easy path to a 13-3 finish, with only St. Louis and Cleveland standing in the way.

At which point, the Ravens, with the Browns and the Bengals left on the docket, would be forced to overcome their biggest bugaboo—winning on the road—to finally fulfill the franchise's long-standing Super Bowl potential.

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