The Ravens can talk all they want about the clean slate they earned with Sunday's 20-10 comeback victory over the Cleveland Browns, but they'll need more than an eraser to get past the late-season problems that made Week 17 so suspenseful.
They have to find a way to get the offense moving quicker. They've got to find a way to keep downfield receivers on the radar. They've got to stop making stupid mistakes at key times … like that offsides penalty in the third quarter that helped keep the Browns' touchdown drive alive.
Sunday's game started with a first offensive series that featured a false start on first down, a dropped pass and a bobbled snap, which -- as Joe Flacco pointed out after the game -- was only the top of a too-long list of mistakes that had the M&T Bank Stadium crowd booing at several points during the second and third quarters.
Flacco all but said that he couldn't blame the fans for their frustration, since the Ravens were plenty frustrated themselves. Those boos turned to deafening cheers when Flacco and Torrey Smith hooked up on two huge pass plays midway through the fourth quarter to put the Ravens on top for the first time in the game.
The stress level was understandable. Everybody in the stadium could see that the Kansas City Chiefs were gift-wrapping a playoff berth for somebody and the Ravens looked for three quarters like they would leave it under the tree.