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“The Day After-Worse Than Day Before”

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There’s an old phrase a former Chargers head coach told me when I was the Voice of the Bolts back in the day, and it rings true in 4-different NFL cities right now.

They’re disappointed in Houston, in Minnesota, in Seattle.  But to quote Edgar Allen Poe ‘never more’ than in Baltimore.

In Houston, they will find it hard to move past blowing a (24-0) lead in Arrowhead Stadium and letting Kansas City reel off 41-stright points.  In Seattle, it was too much cold weather-too much Aaron Rodgers-too much Aaron Jones-Davonte Adams  in their loss in Green Bay.  It was all too much defense from the 49ers as they flattened Minnesota.  But in the Charm City, so much expected, so bad the hurt now.

Never more so in Baltimore though, where a (14-2) Ravens team saw its 12-game winning streak come to an end in a destructive fashion.

It was like a funeral in that stadium in the second half of the beating they took at the hands of the Tennessee Titans.  It had to be like a funeral inside that Ravens lockeroom too.

Instead of a day to celebrate the record setting season they had, the Ravens were left to sort thru the debris and an off season of mourning of a missed opportunity to get to the Super Bowl.

The end of the playoff season, when you are supposed to win a game, is so sudden, it’s like a head on auto crash.  The stunned silence when you lose like that is so painful.

The 12-game winning streak was replaced by 3-hours of utter failure.

Endings like this will replace the memories of success, for the final season loss will linger all off season.

History repeated itself again for the brilliant young QB-Lamar Jackson.  The 2-interception-1 fumble day and the home field loss is even worse than last year’s home field loss to the Chargers, the one where he had 3-fumbles and threw a pick.

The potential MVP went MIA for the second year in a row and his team had nowhere to go to get him help.

The Ravens offensive line got mugged bay Jurrell Casey and rookie Jeff Simmons.  LB’s Rashaan Evans and David Long went sideline to sideline to make plays.  The defensive front of the Titans was in the backfield all day.

Jackson had no pocket, for it kept collapsing, and everywhere he tried to move the pocket, he saw guys in white shirts hitting him,.  The run game was clogged up in traffic.  The wide receivers were plastered downfield.

It was hard to stomach, seeing what went right all season, going so wrong in their final night of postseason play.

It wasn’t just Lamar Jackson.  It was Titans heavy duty running back Derrick Henry and his 195-yards rushing of toughness.

A dark night turns into a dark off-season. and it won’t feel any better tomorrow, a week from tomorrow, or a month from tomorrow.

It’s the NFL, where when you are good, winning is the only thing that counts.

Longtime Chargers coach Bobby Ross, who led his team to the Super Bowl termed it correctly.

“The way you play-the day you play” makes the difference.  All Tennessee.  All for naught Baltimore.

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