Following yet another brutal, close loss, Head Coach John Harbaugh was asked whether he is "worn down" by the injuries the Ravens have faced this year.
To Harbaugh, there is no such thing as being worn down. Not by injuries, not by a 1-4 record, not by anything.
"It doesn't wear me down," Harbaugh said. "I don't get worn down. That will not happen."
The Ravens are in a hole – a big hole. They're at the bottom of the AFC North standings. They're in uncharted territory for the first time in the past eight seasons.
In the team's 20th anniversary season, it's 1-4 for the first time in franchise history.
But Harbaugh made sure to point out that his Ravens have faced adversity before. Whether from personal struggles or three-game losing streaks, like the one they faced to begin the season, they've been through the grinder and responded.
"It's not going to be a matter of how we handle this adversity of being 1-4; we'll handle it," Harbaugh said. "And we'll compete, and we'll fight, and we'll practice, and we'll prepare. We'll put the best football team out there that we can, and we'll expect to win the next time we play."
That said, Sunday's 33-30 overtime loss to the Browns – a team the Ravens hadn't lost to at home since 2007 and had a 13-1 record against during the Harbaugh era – stung quite a bit. It was certainly felt in the locker room after the game.
This latest loss, just when it looked like Baltimore might gain some momentum after a season-saving overtime win in Pittsburgh last Thursday, may be harder to shake.
"It's not a lot of time to sit and worry about being 1-4, even though it's hard to look past – very hard to look past – but we have another game," cornerback Jimmy Smith said. "Every game for us from now on, even this one, is a playoff game. We have to take that mentality for the next 13 weeks, 15 weeks, or however many."
Quarterback Joe Flacco echoed the one-game-at-a-time mentality, but said, "it's not the easiest thing to do in this situation."
"It's not going to be easy, but there are no better guys for it than the guys in that locker room," Flacco said, pointing out of the press conference room.
All four of the Ravens' losses have played out in similar fashion. The defense hasn't gotten needed stops late in games. In three of the four defeats, the offense has put up big point totals, but failed to put the nail in the coffin down the stretch.
On Sunday, the defense gave up an unfathomable 457 passing yards to Browns quarterback Josh McCown, the third-most passing yards ever surrendered to an opposing quarterback in franchise history. The offense was on the 10-yard line with a chance to win the game but had to settle for a field goal and overtime after a Justin Forsett injury, then went three-and-out on its only overtime possession.
Left tackle Eugene Monroe said, in not exact terms, that the team is "ticked" off.
"We know we're better than what we're showing," he said. "We can talk all we want, but, [shoot] we've just got to go out and win games. … I don't think anyone in here thought we'd be where we are, but we're here. So we've got to dig ourselves out of it."
Defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan warned against division in the locker room, particularly between the offense and defense.
"The worst thing we can do is give in and point fingers right now. That's not what a family does. We've got to stick together and figure this thing out," he said.
"We just can't hang our heads. It'll be easy to. It'll be real easy to just say, 'Bump it,' and have our heads hung low and just give up. But that's not what we're going to do. That goes for everybody. We're not going to give up."
