Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports
Baltimore has reached the AFC Championship Game for the fifth time in 28 seasons as a franchise.
The Baltimore Ravens punched a ticket to the AFC Championship Game on Saturday afternoon and did so in rather impressive fashion.
It may have seemed like things were going to be dramatic in the first half of the game, but Baltimore played like the team we saw for most of the season in the second half and took away any kind of doubt over and over and over again.
Ravens fans sat pretty comfortably throughout the fourth quarter and likely began to make plans for an AFC Championship Game that is now officially going to be held in Baltimore. This is significant for the Ravens in an obvious sense, but it is the first time that they will ever play a conference championship game in their home building.
As a franchise the Ravens have only existed for 28 years but have now reached the penultimate game of the season an incredible 5 times. They are now ahead of teams that have been around forever like the New York Jets, Los Angeles Chargers and Cincinnati Bengals, who have each been there only four teams.
From a coaching perspective, John Harbaugh now has a dramatic lead on any other coach in team history in terms of conference championship game appearances. All but one of them belong to Harbaugh as the other was the 2000 team led by Brian Billick that went on to win Super Bowl XXXV.
If the Ravens win today, John Harbaugh will be only the second coach in NFL history to have a 10+ year gap between Conference Championship appearances.
And considering Dick Vermeil had a 15-year spell of not coaching, I think tiebreaker goes to Harbaugh.
— Mookie Alexander (@mookiealexander) January 20, 2024
The Ravens are in. Who else will join them?
The Buffalo Bills and Kansas City Chiefs p lay on Sunday to determine the answer to that question.
