Look, we were bound to have a losing season at some point. Under Harbaugh, We have gone 7 seasons without being below .500. I think people have forgotten just how hard it is to win in the NFL. It has nothing to do with the message getting stale, Harbaugh losing the locker room, or players lacking heart. We have to take a look at the Ravens in a proper historical context to get an understanding of what is going on and how successful the Ravens have been overall. In fact, our 5 consecutive playoffs appearance from 2008-2012 is actually impressive when you realize that the record for most postseason appearance going back to 1950 are the Cowboys from 1975-1983 with 9 straight. The only other team with 9 straight playoffs appearance are the Colts from 2002-2010. The teams with 8 straight postseason appearance are the Steelers in the 70s, the 49ers in the 80s, the Rams in the 70s, and the cowboys from 1966-1973. As an expansion franchise, the Ravens have been a huge exception in term of winning. In just 20 years, we already have 2 superbowls, the best winning playoffs percentage, tied with the Packers for most road wins in the playoffs, and winning seasons overall. Now, the Ravens have done all of this in the salary cap era. The only team with 9 consecutive playoffs appearance on that list above that played in the salary cap era are the Colts who had the greatest regular season quarterback of all time in Peyton Manning. All the other teams are from before the salary cap and free agency era so they had the ability to keep all of their core players. Furthermore, the Ravens have based their organizational philosophy on the Steelers. From 1933-1971, the Steelers only made the playoffs once. They were the worst franchise in football for 38 years with multiples coaches, GMs, and instability in term of what they actually wanted to do. It was only once they got Noll and stuck to a coach for a while that they achieved success. Under Cowher, the Steelers were 64-32 from 1992-1997. They hit a rough patch with a 7-9 record in 1998, 6-10 record in 1999, and 9-7 in 2000. Steelers fans wanted Cowher gone because they felt that he had overstayed his welcome and that the team was no longer responding to him. However, the Rooneys stuck with him because they were confident that he could repeat his earlier successes and it worked out with them going 13-3 in 2001 and eventually winning the Superbowl with Ben. This is important because Newsome is not on the hot seat over one bad season and neither is Harbaugh. The Ravens are not going to overreact and try dismantle everything.
