The Baltimore Ravens came up shy again in the postseason, but star safety Kyle Hamilton doesn't see major gaps in the roster.
Hamilton joined The Mina Kimes Show on Wednesday and suggested Baltimore has the pieces in place to contend for a Lombardi Trophy.
"I've had so many people ask me what the Ravens are missing. I'm like, literally nothing," Hamilton said, via the team's official website. "We have everything you want to win a championship. It's just we haven't been playing well when we got to the point that we need to win. There's no excuses for that. It's just offense, defense, special teams, we have to do better."
The Ravens closed the regular season with four consecutive blowout wins following their Week 14 bye, outscoring their opponents 135-43. Baltimore then trounced the Steelers in the Wild Card Round, 28-14. Hamilton noted that while the Ravens entered the Divisional Round against Buffalo playing their best football, all the blowout wins might not have had them at their sharpest before falling, 27-25, to the Bills.
"During the regular season every year I've been here, it seems like we get in a groove, and there's like a six-week stretch where we're just blowing people out, and I think we sometimes struggle with playing from behind because we don't do it a lot," Hamilton said. "So in the playoffs, on the road, hostile environment, playing from behind was just unusual territory, so we have to lock in that much more. Obviously don't plan on playing from behind in the future, but if it does happen, we have to be able to respond correctly and just execute."
Hamilton noted that a slow start by the defense, which allowed Buffalo to score three TDs on its first four possessions, and two turnovers by the offense put the Ravens in a tough spot in the postseason.
"Specifically on this Bills game, we had a couple turnovers, our defense didn't start well," he said. "Offense came out and scored on the first drive and we gave up a touchdown right back. We don't want it to fall on our offense to have to go down and score; we want it to be on the defense to get that stop and win the game for us. Both sides of the ball, obviously it's going to be a tough offseason to have to live with that. But we have another year and hopefully right that wrong."
The Ravens certainly could use upgrades to their roster, from additional edge help to another DB or two to revamping the left side of the line to adding another wideout. But Hamilton is mostly correct: The foundation is in place for Baltimore to continue to contend in the AFC.
