Rapid rebuilding a tribute to the pluck, luck of the Ravens

Starting over in the NFL is often about taking chances. On Sunday, the Baltimore Ravens hope to prove that's true -- again.

The Ravens have been making their own luck all season. Consider their search for a new head coach to replace longtime Ravens mentor Brian Billick. Team owner Steve Bisciotti -- the 48-year-old Philadelphia native who made his fortune in the temporary employment business -- had settled on Jason Garrett, the offensive coordinator of the Dallas Cowboys.

But Garrett turned him down. So Bisciotti took a chance on John Harbaugh, the former special teams coach of the Eagles who comes from a football lifer family. His father is a coach. His brother, Jim, played quarterback in the NFL for 14 years and now coaches Stanford.

On draft day in April, Bisciotti took another gamble. Getting antsy after the Atlanta Falcons snatched Matt Ryan (the Ravens' first choice) out of Boston College, Bisciotti approved of the bold move of taking quarterback Joe Flacco of Delaware, just the second Division I-AA quarterback taken in first round. And he signed off on moving up to get Flacco.

On the first day of training camp, Harbaugh took another chance. He told his team, which included hardened veterans such as Ray Lewis and Ed Reed, that the comfy ways of Camp Billick were over.

"I wanted to build strength in our team," he said. "The old Marine Corp way: tear them down and then build them up again. I told them that I had one goal: that we would be strong enough to play meaningful games in December."

And here it is, the final week of the season, and the Ravens are playing a meaningful game in December. The Ravens -- 5-11 and last in the AFC North last season -- will make the playoffs if they beat the visiting Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.

That's possible because Harbaugh took another chance. When Flacco was inserted as the starting quarterback back in the final week of the preseason because Troy Smith was ill, Harbaugh stuck with his rookie QB and didn't coddle him.

"From the beginning, we threw everything at him," said Harbaugh. "We didn't want him being a so-called manager of the game. We wanted him to make plays. And to his credit, he's been careful but he's stayed aggressive with his throws."

Thus, in the past 10 games, the Ravens -- offensively challenged throughout their short but brilliant history -- have averaged 28 points per game. During that stretch, they are 8-2 -- finishing strong as Harbaugh had boldly predicted back in training camp.