Did you see this coming?

[Steveg85321]

A month and a half ago, after being destroyed at home by the Broncos for their third consectutive loss, this team seemed like a trainwreck. Many on this board were able to see what was wrong, but I think we have to give credit to Harbaugh et al for making the changes necessary: shuffle the OL, shuck the OC.

I think we also have to cite the Ray Lewis retirement announcement. People questioned the timing of that, but I think it gave everyone a greater sense of urgency and inspiration. This team is just plain tough.

[demopublican]

Not just no. Hell No.

Glad to be wrong. I never completely gave up on them but I figured one or two payoff wins was the MOST we could expect.

[Ravens2006]

Would I have put money on it? No. But combine Ray's return, Ngata's slight health improvement, and probably most importantly of all... Caldwell and company's re-shuffle of the O-line... and it's sort of a different team.

The one that lost to the Broncos had an O-line arrangement about as bad as we've ever seen here. A couple of alignment tweaks coupled with Yanda's return... and they look like a different group. They're giving Joe time to work and time to throw. He had NONE in the first Broncos game. Many fans and pundits saw the overthrows and misses and assumed "Bad Joe was here to stay". Nobody bothered to take the time to analyze what was really happening that day. The INT TD throw was the icing on a gross cake that day, and it skewed how people viewed the team.

[Eastside Terp]

I never ruled it out because we were really banged up, especially on defense ......

we were one of the best teams in football, got really banged up and had a bad month .......

we were signing linebackers off the street during the week and playing them on sunday .....

teams getting healthy at the right time has been happening a lot the past few years with the packers, giants, etc .......

[cprenegade]

No. But then, it seems like the last decade most of the teams that get to the superbowl are not necessarily the best teams as defined by the regular season, they just get on a roll. The Ravens made adjustments and outplayed everyone in the playoffs.

[can you hear me now!]

I did......the Giants game was proof.....This team got healthy at the right time....this is a resilient bunch that experienced a lot of adversity....they could have imploded but came together.....they really are playing for each other which is not usually a hallmark of this team at times....

[elj1201]

big BRYANT MCKINNIE

playing like that pro bowl LT that he was and still can be

he put in work all off season and it shows

[Far from home]

A month and a half ago, after being destroyed at home by the Broncos for their third consectutive loss, this team seemed like a trainwreck. Many on this board were able to see what was wrong, but I think we have to give credit to Harbaugh et al for making the changes necessary: shuffle the OL, shuck the OC.

I think we also have to cite the Ray Lewis retirement announcement. People questioned the timing of that, but I think it gave everyone a greater sense of urgency and inspiration. This team is just plain tough.

Honestly, I didn't know they were going to the Super Bowl, but I was actually encouraged by what I saw on offense. Flacco completed some great throws during that game, and for the first time it seemed like they were going to be able to consistently move the ball.

I thought the D was really on the way down, though - and that was going to be their downfall if they didn't make it.

Now, they just need to win against the only NFC team that actually matches up well with them.