Roquan Smith is a four-time Pro Bowler. He's been a First- or Second-Team All-Pro five times. Strip that away, and you'll find he's not much different from the rest of us. Just like you, he's tired of the devastating losses. Just like you, he's running out of patience with a problem the Baltimore Ravens haven't solved. He's tired of seeing leads slip away and his team being beaten to the finish line.
He has seen the Ravens' defense play at a level capable of controlling games, only for that standard to disappear before the final whistle. After another loss in which Baltimore failed to sustain its first-half performance, Smith acknowledged that the frustration extends beyond the latest result. The team keeps talking about consistency, but it still hasn't found a way to sustain it.
“It's definitely something I'm tired of hearing as well. [It's] not just you guys. But it's about what I said, chasing that consistency, and finding that missing piece to where that consistency that we're chasing. There's something in there that's missing, but obviously, [it's] there a lot, but it's not there all the time.”
Roquan Smith says Ravens must find the missing piece
Smith's frustration stems from the gap between what Baltimore has shown it can do and what it has sustained. He described the problem as something the entire team must confront, not an issue one player or one position group can solve.
“Definitely at times (his answer to whether he feels the Ravens can play with disregard to results), but it's not about doing things at times. It's about doing things consistently throughout and being able to be counted on to do the things regardless of the circumstances, regardless of the situation. Obviously, looking at it, we didn't do that. So, it falls on all of us, and we have to figure it out. It's like a missing piece that we have to figure out, and [we] have to get it done. So, that's what we're chasing.”
That search requires more than a strong stretch. Smith said Baltimore has shown it can play effectively for a quarter or a half, but it has to hold up when the game gets tougher. The defense can't let one setback turn into a sequence of mistakes. They also can't let those mistakes so easily change the game's outcome.
“When you're building a tower, there's a piece [and] if the piece is not there, things can crumble. So, it's about finding that piece to have that consistency play in and play out, because obviously we've shown we can do it for a half. We can do it for a quarter, but it's about doing it for four quarters consistently, and when the moment's big, that's when we should step up at our biggest, including myself.”
Smith says frustration must lead to accountability. The veteran linebacker didn't pretend that repeated defeats are easy to shake off. He said the latest loss would sting, particularly because it came at home, but emphasized that the team cannot let disappointment become an excuse to lose focus on the work ahead.
“It's definitely going to sting today because, as a competitor, you love the game, and you play the game to win. But, it's a very long season. Obviously dropping two in a row is not fun. So, it's about letting this sting, learning from it and just finding a way to figure out that method of consistency.”
He also pushed back against the idea that the team can address its problems collectively without individual reflection. Every player, including Smith himself, must examine what he can do better rather than waiting for someone else to supply the missing answer.
“We all have to look ourselves in the mirror and see what we can do better. What can I do better? Each and every person should ask themselves that because, at the end of the day, no one played [perfectly], regardless of it.”
Smith's comments reveal the difficult part of Baltimore's search: the Ravens aren't simply trying to discover whether they can play winning football. They've already shown that. They need to identify why that level keeps slipping away and take responsibility for preventing it. Until they do, the same questions will keep coming back, no matter how promising the team looks before things start to unravel.
This article originally appeared on Ravens Wire: Roquan Smith is tired of the Ravens’ repeated collapses