The Horseshoes are Back in Town

On Sunday afternoon, the former Baltimore football franchise comes back into town as the Colts take on the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. This is probably going to be the toughest game that the Ravens have played this season, which isn't a promising statement considering the Ravens have already lost four games. Not to mention, Peyton Manning owns the Ravens, with a record of 6-2. The last time the Colts lost to the Ravens was on December 2, 2001 when the Ravens won 39-27. Since then, it has been all Colts. The last meeting with these two teams came last year when the Colts destroyed the Ravens in Indianapolis by a final score of 31-3.

The Colts bring their undefeated 9-0 record into Baltimore after a last second come from behind victory over the Patriots on Sunday night. It may have been somewhat of a gift from Bill Belichick as he went for it on the now infamous fourth and two, and didn't get it, giving Peyton Manning a short field, which is never a good idea.

Honestly, I want the Ravens to win so badly, and I'll be there screaming at the top of my lungs in section 522, as if it is going to help the corners cover Reggie Wayne and Dallas Clark. But I do not have a good feeling about this game. Domonique Foxworth hasn't lived up to his contract, and Fabian Washington and Lardarius Webb aren't shut-down corners. The only hope the Ravens have is that there is a strong pass rush, which may be even more unlikely now that Terrell Suggs is out for an extended period of time. Let's hope Paul Kruger can live up to his hype.

And the Ravens offense needs to show up. They only scored one offensive touchdown on the Browns! That's unacceptable. Period. Monday night should have been a 38-3 trampling, not a 16-0 slopfest. Ray Rice keeps doing his thing, but Joe Flacco has looked average at best lately. They need to take advantage of this banged up Colts defense and put some points on the board.

My prediction for this week (as I forgot to get online and put one up last week) is not going to please the masses around here. Peyton Manning is just too good. Even though I want the Ravens to pull off this upset, I feel that they will lose. And the final score I am guessing is 34-17, a game that Peyton Manning puts away in the early fourth quarter. Let's hope I'm wrong about this, but after watching the games that each one of these teams has just played, I do not see any other outcome.

Ravens vs. Brown at M&T Bank this Sunday

After starting off the season 2-0, the Ravens are riding a high wave of emotion as they prepare for their week 3 match-up against the Cleveland Browns. The Browns are struggling this season going 0-2 so far by being defeated by the Minnesota Vikings and the Denver Broncos in two games that ended up being relative blowouts. The Ravens were able to hold off a last second come back at San Diego to secure their fourth regular season victory going back to last season.

The Ravens were able to sweep the season series in 2008 against the Browns, and look for their third straight win against the Ravens former city this upcoming Sunday. The Ravens have not lost to the Browns since November 18, 2007, when they had to go into overtime to decide the victor.

There are some intriguing match-ups to look for as these two teams take the field at 1 p.m. on Sunday afternoon. As many people have been discussing this week, if the Ravens have one weak spot in their defense, it may be in the secondary. With that being said, the Browns do have a talented receiving core with Braylon Edwards as their number one and Joshua Cribbs as their number two. Even though he is a little banged up with a hamstring injury, former Raven running back Jamal Lewis looks to have a break-out game against the NFL's number one rushing defense, giving up a staunch 41 yards per game.

Now it's time for some outside opinions on the status of our beloved Baltimore Ravens. Is the Ravens secondary as terrible as people are trying to convey? I mean, Dawan Landry had an interception last week, and already has 14 tackles in two games. Dominque Foxworth, while having some troubles defending receivers that had substantial height advantages, still had two passes defended against San Diego. Fabian Washington and Frank Walker did all that they could to contain the Chargers' receivers. Oh yea, and there is that other guy back there, what was his name again?? That's right, Ed Reed. He's not a bad ballplayer. So is it the secondary's fault? I mean, we could blame it on the pass rush, since Coach Harbaugh was hesitant to blitz so that the speedy Darren Sproles wouldn't have more room to work with. And Trevor Pryce seems to not have his motor running up to speed quite like he has in his past three seasons here in Baltimore. I guess we'll see the game plan this Sunday, and see if our secondary, and for that matter, our defense in general, can play well enough to reassure the rest of the NFL that Baltimore's defense is still a force to be reckoned with.