Big Win Against Rival Steelers

I know I've been slacking a little on these posts, but it's been a pretty hectic week for me to say the least. But with all that has happened this past week, the highlight was when Billy Cundiff's field goal in overtime gave the Ravens a much-needed victory over the much hated Pittsburgh Steelers. I still smile as I think back to be leaning on my crutches in M&T Bank Stadium, watching hundreds of Steelers fans walk out of the stadium, trying to hide their "Terrible Towels". I had to sit through three games last year as the Steelers barely edged out the Ravens to sweep them and knock us out of the playoffs. Sunday night felt awesome. I feel like I had something to do with the victory, especially when I woke up Monday morning with a nice, hoarse voice after yelling so much the previous night.

However, even though the Ravens won, it wasn't the prettiest game, but they found a way to win. This is the mark of a good team. And I'm glad that for once this season, we were on the positive side of a close game. And I will give credit to where it is due.

Thank you Ray Rice for having a Pro Bowl caliber season; otherwise, we would be eliminated from the playoffs already.

Thank you Paul Kruger for finally making an impact on this team, and for making Dennis Dixon look like he has never started an NFL football games, even though it took until overtime for you to show up.

Thank you secondary, mainly Lardarius Webb and (I can't believe I am about to say his name) Chris Carr. They both played out of their minds to hold the Steelers wide receivers from absolutely destroying us.

And thank you Billy Cundiff for not being Steve Hauschka.

But it is a team game, and the Raven showed up and played a wonderful game. Now they can't loose again, at least in my opinion, if they want a chance to make it to the playoffs. There are too many teams bunched up right now, so the Ravens cannot afford a loss. The two toughest games we have are coming this Monday night, and then 20 days after that, as the Ravens travel to Green Bay and Pittsburgh. As long as they can pull these two off and take care of the Lions, Bears, and Raiders, I see no reason why the Ravens can't make another surge for the AFC Championship, and possibly their second Super Bowl appearance.

We all know what happened last time the Ravens made it to Super Sunday...

Just Not Enough to Take Down the Undefeated Colts

The Baltimore Ravens had a hard fought game on Sunday afternoon against the AFC South leading Indianapolis Colts. The Colts came in as one of two remaining undefeated teams, joining only the New Orleans Saints. The Ravens knew that they were going to have to play extremely well to shut down Peyton Manning and his high powered offense, and for the most part, they did. The Ravens came up just short of pulling up a huge upset that would have drastically shaken up the AFC North.

The Ravens defense was able to hold the Colts offense to only 17 points, which in most games would seem like enough to pull off a win. However, once again, the Ravens offense struggled to finish their drives, and were only able to amass five Billy Cundiff field goals for 15 points. Cundiff made five of his six field goal attempts in his Ravens debut, with his only miss seemingly being the could have been game winner. But before people start pointing fingers at Cundiff, we may need to look at a few other situations that could have given the Ravens this must needed win.

With 12:08 left in the fourth quarter, the Ravens got a first and goal on the one yard line, ran the ball three times, and did not get into the end zone. With the Ravens offensive line, and running backs such as Le'Ron McClain, Ray Rice, and Willis McGahee, there is no excuse for not getting seven points out of that drive.

The other play game later in the fourth quarter, with 2:49 seconds left. Joe Flacco dropped back to pass, and threw an interception to Gary Brackett on the Indianapolis 13 yard line, well within Cundiff's range to add three points and give the Ravens the lead. No excuse for throwing a pick. It was a great defensive play by Brackett, but as the leader of the offense, Flacco should have been more careful with the ball.

It was an extremely disappointing loss for the Ravens, especially since both the Steelers and the Bengals lost on Sunday. So instead of staying in the same third place position, the Ravens could have moved up to be tied with the Steelers, and only one game back of the Bengals. But since that didn't happen, the Ravens probably can't afford to lose another game, especially one to the Steelers. And they will get their first crack at Pittsburgh come Sunday night when the Steelers visit Baltimore.

All Eyes On Cundiff

As Matt Stover gets set for his triumphant return to Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium, all eyes will be on the Ravens newest addition, kicker Billy Cundiff. Cundiff is going to be this city's savior now that the Ravens have cut Steve Hauschka, or at least he better be.

After Hauschka hooked yet another field goal, and got an extra point blocked, he was cut last night, and today, he was replaced by Cundiff. Cundiff has kicked in five games this year for the Browns, going six-for-six on field goals and four-for-four on extra points. The most shocking thing about this is that I didn't even know the Browns had scored four touchdowns this year for him to make these extra points, but apparently, they have.

We'll see what happened Sunday, as Cundiff has one chance, and if he fails, who's the next guy up in this position?

Our savior, Billy Cundiff, shown above, making a game winning field goal as the Browns stomped the Bill earlier this season 6-3.