1a. A few things about the Ravens. First, the helmet/mascot design is the Corvus corax, the common raven; if you’ve been telling people it’s Corvus cryptoleucus then you’ve been sounding like an idiot—I mean, you’d have to go down to the Southwest to find those. Second, while Lamar Jackson and the offense has fallen off this year, it hasn’t fallen off that far.
Before we get into the encouraging stuff, a look at why there has, objectively, been a dropoff.
i) The retirement of Marshal Yanda, who was still playing at an All-Pro level at right guard; his replacements, Patrick Mekari and before that Tyre Phillips, have played at… shall we say, less than an All-Pro level.