Last January, a promising Baltimore Ravens season ended heartbreakingly. They lost to the same Buffalo Bills team in the exact location where the current campaign began with a loss.
No one will ever forget the agony of either evening. Maybe the Divisional Round was a little more painful because of its finality, but what we feel now is torture. We’re trying to avoid a slow death caused by 1,000 stab wounds.
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Here’s what’s crazy about that playoff loss. Mark Andrews caught more passes than any other Ravens receiver. He snagged five receptions for 61 yards. No one remembers that. Everyone remembers his lost fumble and his drop on the two-point conversion attempt.
That’s the world we live in. That’s the way the oblong ball bounces sometimes. Good play is expected (and sometimes forgotten). Bad plays are magnified. Andrews deserves better, though. He has been a good teammate and player, and he is a Raven, through and through. There’s no doubt about it.
Another Ravens loss is fresh on our minds, and again, we’re talking about missed opportunities. Andrews didn’t necessarily single-handedly precipitate a defeat, but he was asked about a couple of mistakes after Sunday Night Football.
There was a fumble on the lateral attempt. He earned a false-start penalty when he had assumed it was the New England Patriots who had jumped offside.
«[It was] really just a bad decision on my part. [It] shouldn’t have happened. I shouldn’t have done it. I don’t know if it was actually a lateral, but it was just a bad decision.»
It’s good to see the accountability, and the good news is his fumble didn’t lead to any Patriots points, but the false-start infraction came later. What on Earth was he thinking about there?
«It was just one of those situations where the guy across from me, I felt like he was far enough over that I felt I could point at.»
Sometimes, shot memories are necessary in football. Two games remain, and Andrews and his teammates must turn the page quickly.
We’ve talked about the razor-thin margin for a few weeks now. That’s np more. There is no margin for error now. Baltimore must pray for two wins to close their season, and they must hope the Pittsburgh Steelers drop their next game before the two rivals meet in the regular-season finale.
This article originally appeared on Ravens Wire: Ravens’ Mark Andrews accepts accountability after a challenging outing
