NFL: Are the Baltimore Ravens Peaking at the Perfect Time?

The Baltimore Ravens may well be turning into one of the most dangerous teams to have to face as the NFL playoffs draw near.

It’s not just that Baltimore has an 11-4 record or that the Ravens have outscored opponents by 104 points. It’s that the Ravens, a team with a good offense that nevertheless relies on a punishing defense, is seeing the defense start to rise up. They’ve won five of the last six games, after Sunday’s win over the Cleveland Browns.

In that stretch, they’ve allowed just six touchdowns in the five wins, and have outscored the opposition 129-74 in those games.

And the offense is starting to pick things up, too.

Quarterback Joe Flacco had a midseason slump in which he threw just three touchdowns over the course of six games. But in the last six games he’s thrown for nine scores, including a couple of touchdowns in Sunday’s 20-14 win over the Browns.

When you mix in the fact that running back Ray Rice has 614 yards over his last six games, after having just 161 yards in the four games prior, it seems that the Ravens are catching postseason fever.

Baltimore has one game left, playing the Bengals in Cincinnati next Sunday. It was a 31-24 win over the Bengals in Baltimore on Nov. 20th that got this recent surge going.