While the Steelers had arguably the toughest stretch of matchups in their last five games out of any NFL team, the Ravens had to deal with one of the toughest overall schedules throughout the year. Head coach John Harbaugh had to acknowledge how hard the Ravens fought to reach this point.

“I appreciate you mentioning that. We don’t talk about that too much. It was a tough schedule, and we played teams when they were at there best quite often. “You get forged. You get tough. When you come from iron, you become iron.”

It was Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry who paved the way to the Week 18 win, finishing with a combined 201 rushing yards on 29 carries against the Cleveland defense.

Ravens will experience tough AFC playoff road

As the Ravens have steamrolled into the playoffs, they do have a difficult challenge of potentially playing their first-round game without their top wide receiver.

Zay Flowers went down with a knee injury that could potentially cause him to miss time. The second-year wideout has been the Ravens’ best weapon in the passing game, reaching his first 1,000-yard season. His absence would truly be a concern no matter who Baltimore clashes with next week, as he’s helped balance out the the offense, taking much of the pressure off of Jackson and Henry.

Harbaugh has built the Ravens into a resilient force. It will take much more than a setback to completely shatter the confidence to make a run. While Henry’s addition to the offense was massive this season, the Ravens still have most of their key assets carried over from their AFC championship team in the 2023-24 campaign.