I believe the team overachieved and was not nearly as good as everyone thought it was. With this I am not trying to knock the team's accomplishments this season, which was indeed memorable (a 14-2 record and MVP year by LJ), but just trying to understand what happened in the divisional game.

Of the twelve games, half were against the Jets and the sorry AFC North. The other half included teams that we thought were good at the time, but which eventually proved to be mediocre: Patriots, LA Rams, Houston, and the Bills. The only quality opponents were Seahawks and San Francisco. I think the Ravens sneaked up on the Seahawks a little bit (this was near the beginning of the streak). San Francisco had to travel to the East Coast for a 1 pm game and the Ravens squeaked by them in a monsoon (they probably should have lost that game).

Once again, it's very impressive and hard to win 12 games in a row in the NFL, no matter what the competition is. And they had some blowouts in there too. They caught lightning in a bottle, but only faced two of the top teams in the NFL. From the four teams in the CGs, they did not face three in the regular season. The one team they beat was SF, in a game that they probably should have lost.

The team this year was good, but they were not great. They did not get good WR play and their defensive front 7 was very mediocre. Recall that they had to go to the "garbage heap" in mid-season to get two of their starting LBs.

This is what I am seeing and it explains how they could lose 26-12 to the #6 seed at home. As a fan, I hope they are aware of this and the need to improve in all areas, especially WRs and the defensive front seven, in the offseason. If they think everything is alright and the Titans game was a fluke, they will not do well next year.