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.

Some Teams Just Want It More...

It's taken me a few days to even want to relive the embarrassing performance put on by the Ravens this past Sunday against the Bengals. Baltimore now faces an uphill battle the rest of the season that will test every aspect of the team.

Once again, the Ravens defense let Cedric Benson run for over 100 yards, seemingly destroying the reputation that it is hard to run on the Ravens. One cause for this may have been that Haloti Ngata did not suit up, despite any positive thoughts I was allowing myself to believe going into the game.

After a few early scores by the Bengals, the Ravens defense did tighten up, not allowing any second half points, but overall, it wasn't their most impressive performance. The receivers were somewhat contained, but because of sub-par efforts on both sides of the ball, the Bengals dominated the time of possession battle by twice as much, 40 minutes to 20 minutes.

And I have no idea what our new, high-powered offense was doing on Sunday. The Ravens offense was averaging 28 points a game coming in and they were only able to put up one touchdown on Sunday. Without Ray Rice and his 135 yards of total offense and one touchdown, our offense would have been non-existent. And for the first time in his short career, Joe Flacco looked, how can I put it nicely, god-awfully terrible.

But hey, the Ravens may be down, but they are most certainly not out. This upcoming week, the Ravens play the cure-all Cleveland Browns, and man, do they need it. The Ravens need to regroup and get back on the winning track, as they have a tough schedule down the stretch.

Ray Rice and Cedric Benson both have good offensive days, both accumulating over 100 yards.

Big Game Against the Bengals

The Ravens travel to Cincinnati this upcoming Sunday to take on the Bengals, which is going to be an extremely intriguing game. The Bengals are coming off of a bye week, so they have had two weeks to prepare for the Ravens. And you know they were very interested in that Ravens beat down of the Broncos last week. Fans are going to be tuned in to see who learned more from the first meeting between these two teams when they took on one another on October 11, a game in which the Bengals took 17-14. I expect a similar type of game this week.

If I am John Harbaugh, I am worried that Carson Palmer is going to do what Kyle Orton didn't: throw the ball down field. And a lot. The Bengals are going to force the secondary to stop their talented receivers. Chad Ochocinco has had an extremely productive season, and they have a few other capable receivers with the likes of Chris Henry, Andre Caldwell, and Laveranues Coles.

In order for the Ravens' secondary to perform well, they will need to rely on the pass rush up front. And this could be a big problem this week, as Haloti Ngata is nursing his injured ankle. If he can't go, the likes of Justin Bannan and Kelly Gregg are going to have to fill his role, with help from the rest of the defensive line. However, Ravens defensive coordinator feels good about Ngata's chances to play, saying, "I think Haloti will do what he has to, to play." This is great news for Baltimore. If the Ravens defense can play like they did against the Broncos, they should be able to pull out another victory. The Ravens need to shut down Cedric Benson just as they with the Broncos running attack, as well as containing the receivers.

We'll see come Sunday. I'm going to add another new twist to this here blog, and that is my weekly prediction of the Ravens game, and maybe a few other games here and there. So this week, I'm taking the Ravens to put on a good performance, beating the Bengals 24-13. We'll see what I know come Sunday afternoon.

Another disappointing week for the Ravens

After sitting on top on most people's NFL power rankings for the first three weeks of the season, the Baltimore Ravens have now dropped two games in a row to fellow AFC powerhouses. And just when Baltimore thought things couldn't get much worse, they now how to travel into the loud Metrodome to take on the undefeated and very impressive looking Minnesota Vikings, who are steadily climbing week to week up the power rankings. The Baltimore Ravens are currently #11 on ESPN's power rankings.

Not only did the Ravens look rather dismal against the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday, but they also broke a streak that had been lasting for the past 39 games, going all the way back against the Kansas City Chiefs on December 10, 2006. On that date, Larry Johnson ran for 120 yards on the stout Ravens defense. On Sunday, Bengals running back Cedric Benson also ran 120 yards to break the 39-game streak. Yes, that is correct. You just read the name Cedric Benson. The same Cedric Benson that looked like a complete bust for the Chicago Bears after being drafted number four overall in the 2005 draft. Benson didn't rush for over 700 yards in a season for his three seasons in Chicago, and just barely eclipsed the 700-yard mark last year for the Bengals. This season, Benson is leading the NFL (yes, the entire NFL) in rushing yard with 487 yards, ahead of running backs like Adrian Peterson, Chris Johnson, Steven Jackson, and Ronnie Brown. I know, it seems impossible, but unfortunately, it is not, and the Ravens go from taking on the number one rusher in the league this past Sunday to take on the number two rusher in the league this Sunday.

Let's just hope this upcoming game wasn't like our last. The game against the Bengals was a very disappointing game that very much resembled the Patriots game from the previous week. The Ravens were in both games until the very end, with our offense coming up just sort, and our defense not making the big stop at the end to put them away. Not to mention questionable officiating that may or may not have swung the momentum in the other direction, but let's not go there again.

But Baltimore, do not give up hope yet! I mean, we are playing the NFL all-time leader in interceptions this Sunday. Oh yea, he is also the NFL all-time leader in touchdowns too. But hey, he is 40 years old now; we should be able to beat him, right?