The ‘Super Bowl Curse’ has struck again.
It’s now just under halfway through the NFL season, and the Baltimore Ravens look a shell of the team that swept aside the San Francisco 49ers in last year’s Super Bowl.
The ‘Super Bowl Curse’ is often used to refer to the team that loses the Super Bowl in a given year and struggles to post a winning record the following year.
The other more significant side of the curse, is that the Super Bowl winning team fails to repeat its dominance the next year. Since the inception of the Super Bowl era, only ten teams have made back-to-back appearances in the championship game.
The legendary Pittsburgh Steelers of the 70s did it twice in a decade, winning the ’75 and ’76 Super Bowls, along with the ’78 and ’79 championships. The 80s belonged to the 49ers, who went back-to-back in ’89 and ’90. In recent times, the New England Patriots have been the dominant force, with repeat appearances in ’04 and ’05.
But it is the current Ravens – a vastly different team from last year’s season – that have to do it all if they wish to make history.
If you win a Super Bowl, you pay your quarterback. That’s exactly what the Ravens did – they re-signed Joe Flacco to the largest contract in the NFL at the time. Flacco stands to make $20.1 million a year over the next six years, for a total of $120.6 million.
It sounds great in theory, but Flacco has thrown the same amount of interceptions as touchdowns (8), so far this year, and the Ravens have a rather worrying record at 3-4.
The Ravens also traded Anquan Boldin, who was arguably the most important player on the field in the Super Bowl. He caught six catches for 104 yards and a crucial touchdown. Strangely, the Ravens received only a sixth round pick for the wide receiver, who now plays for the San Francisco 49ers.
Ageing centre Matt Birk retired, three-time Pro Bowl fullback Vonta Leach had contract disputes and almost left the team, and star receiver Jacoby Jones, who equalled an all-time record by returning a punt 109 yards for a touchdown in the Super Bowl, has been injured for much of the first half of the year.
But, it is on defence where the Ravens have truly been gutted.
The Ravens defence allowed only 21.5 points per game in the 2012 regular season, ranking in the top half of the league. Boasting names like future Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Lewis and hard hitting, feared safeties Ed Reed and Bernard Pollard, the defence was a major reason why the Ravens made it all the way to the Super Bowl.
#FlashbackFriday The last time the #Ravens wore #black & #pink, @LWebb21 had a 73-yd #interception return #touchdown! pic.twitter.com/9SEV9ObZ6T
— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) October 11, 2013
Having played his whole career at Baltimore, Lewis retired in the off-season. He led his team in tackles for 12 of the 14 seasons he played.
After Reed’s contract expired, he went on to sign with the Houston Texans. He holds the record for the most interception yards in NFL history and has 61 interceptions to his name. Reed is also a nine-time Pro Bowl player.
Pollard was traded to the Tennessee Titans. Starting linebacker Dannell Ellerbe found a new home at the Miami Dolphins, and the team released linebacker Brendan Ayanbadejo.
The Ravens drafted players to fill these spots – most notably first-year safety Matt Elam and linebacker Arthur Brown – but no post-season move was more fortuitous than the signing of ex-Denver and Pro-Bowl linebacker Elvis Dumervil.
The short version is that while at the Broncos, Dumervil’s contract would be upheld if he were on the roster by 2:00pm on March 15th (this year), his salary for the year would be guaranteed, and he would remain a Bronco for the 2013 season.
Unfortunately, Dumervil’s agent faxed the necessary paperwork six minutes late, and the Broncos were forced to release him. Dumervil signed with the Ravens nine days later. He also fired his agent.
The new-look Ravens have struggled so far in 2013. Their three wins have come against the Cleveland Browns (3-4), the Houston Texans (2-5), and the Miami Dolphins (3-3). The revamped defence gave up 49 points in the first week of the season to Peyton Manning’s Denver Broncos. Manning threw for seven touchdown passes – equalling a record which has stood since 1943.
Last Sunday, they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers, who have a 2-4 record, to fall two games behind division leaders Cincinnati.
The Ravens’ offence is sputtering without injured star running back Ray Rice. His peers voted the 26-year-old the 13th best player in the league, for 2013, and he is currently the second all-time leading rusher for the Ravens franchise. Through six games of the 2013 season, Rice has rushed for only 197 yards and three touchdowns.
Baltimore’s next game against division rivals Cleveland looms as pivotal. If the Ravens lose, they will drop into third in their division with a less-than ideal run home, with games against the Chicago Bears, Cincinnati Bengals and Patriots still to come.
It’s still early in the season, but the ‘Super Bowl Curse’ is a hard one to break.
Jordan Witte is a second year Bachelor of Journalism (Sport) student at La Trobe University. You can follow him on Twitter here.
(Photo: Twitter – @Ravens)
