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Steve Davis: Must Win For Ravens

It's hard to say that the Ravens, with 4 games to go and at 7-5 are tied for the second wild card, are in a must win, but I think they are.

Here's why:

I think if the Ravens want to win the division, they have to get to 11 wins.

The Bengals have 8 wins now, and I think they will at least go 2-2 down the stretch, so the Ravens need to get 11 to get past them.

The Dolphins have 2 easy games left vs. the Jets and Vikings. So they seem likely to get to 9 wins. They probably lose in New England. If they beat the Ravens, they finish with at least 10 wins, and would win a tiebreaker over the Ravens because, not only head to head, but they they would have a better conference record than the Ravens, which is a lame 3-5 right now. So, the Ravens have to beat the Dolphins, I think.

The other thing, if any other teams finish at 10-6, the Ravens would likely lose tiebreakers with them, again because their conference record is so bad. Now, it is totally conceivable that there isn't a logjam at 10-6 because the Chargers, and Bills have brutal schedules remaining, and KC and Pittsburgh have difficult schedules remaining. That said, it's hard to imagine that none of them get to 10-6. As a result, I think the Ravens need to beat Miami this weekend.
 


 

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