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Two weeks in a row, the Ravens have held a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.
Two weeks in a row, the offense has failed to put the game away, the defense has given up two late scores, and the Ravens have blown their lead and had to head to overtime.
That's not a trend that John Harbaugh would like to see continue.
The Ravens got away with their poor fourth quarter effort on Sunday when Ray Lewis ripped the ball away from Bills tight end Shawn Nelson in overtime, allowing Billy Cundiff to boot the game-winning field goal.
But if Baltimore hopes to become one of the NFL's elite teams and make a run at a Super Bowl (and, unless I'm mistaken, I believe that those are goals this team shoots for), they have to be better at closing out games when they have a lead.
That's something that Harbaugh is well aware of.
"Certainly, we're concerned about [the blown fourth quarter leads]," Harbaugh said. "We're not happy about it. We need to get stops in the fourth quarter. We need to find a way to do that. We need to get first downs in the fourth quarter, and I would prefer if we score some points. You can look at each of those two games and see where those things didn't happen. You have to look at it specifically, play by play, and try to improve in those areas."
Offensive coordinator Cam Cameron and defensive coordinator Cam Cameron have come under fire recently for their play-calling late in the loss to the Patriots two weeks ago, and, albeit to a lesser extent, for their calls in the fourth quarter on Sunday against Buffalo.
That's certainly part of it. The Ravens' offense went into a shell late in the New England game, and their defense sat back and let Tom Brady pick them apart. On Sunday, I might have liked to see Cameron run the ball a little more late in the game with the Ravens facing the NFL's worst rushing defense, although had they done so and failed, it would be easy to second-guess and say that Cameron should have attacked more.
But beyond the play-calling, what it boils down to is that the players simply need to make plays.
Flacco and the offense seem incredibly comfortable when they go into the no-huddle and run a hurry-up set, but they've struggled this season when it comes time to put together a long, time-consuming drive to milk clock late in a game and seal a victory.
The Ravens' pass defense was porous against the Pats and Bills, and regardless of how many men are sent at the quarterback, Baltimore's inability to create a consistent pass rush - especially with a lead late in the game, when opposing offenses will clearly be airing the ball out - is an issue.
The coordinators will get a lot of the heat, but the guys wearing the helmets need to step up late in games and close these tight contests out.
"Those are things that we [need to improve]," Harbaugh said. "We could have won both of those games. Obviously, this one, but neither one of them would have gone into overtime. But, that's a concern."
