The Baltimore Ravens are the NFL's defending Super Bowl champions, but the recently-retired Ray Lewis doubts they'll be able to repeat in 2013, he told USA Today Sports.
Ray Lewis doubts Ravens’ ability to repeat as Super Bowl champs
After the Ravens lost so many of their core players following their victory in Super Bowl XLVII, former Baltimore great Ray Lewis doubts they can repeat.
USA TODAY Sports
More: Ravens blog, Baltimore Beatdown
“It’s going to be very hard, after you lose that much chemistry,” Lewis told USA TODAY Sports. “But who knows? It’s unpredictable, as always. Hopefully, they try to pull enough together, use their youth and try to make a run. But it’s hard to try that formula. That formula usually doesn’t work.”
The Ravens did lose a lot of the players who helped them win the franchise's second Super Bowl, and not just Lewis. They traded Anquan Boldin to the 49ers, whom they defeated in the Super Bowl, and they lost several others to free agency. All in all, they'll have to do without Ed Reed, Bernard Pollard, Dannell Ellerbe, Paul Kruger and Cary Williams. They did add Elvis Dumervil, Chris Canty and Michael Huff, but it would be hard to expect those players to mesh in the Ravens' defense right away the way Reed and Lewis have done over the last several seasons.
The Ravens finished the regular season with a 10-6 record before defeating the Broncos and the Patriots on the road to get to the Super Bowl. In 2013, they'll be facing not only the Steelers and Bengals twice each, but the Broncos, Texans, Packers, Bears and Patriots. The whole team will need to be firing on all cylinders to reach the post season again this coming season.
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