Ravens: Don't assume anything
It's pretty tempting to look at Monday night's game against the Cleveland Browns as a break in the schedule, but you might want to check with the Green Bay Packers and their fans about the folly of assuming that a struggling team will continue to struggle.
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were the longest money-line bet on the board in Las Vegas over the weekend, paying 4-1 for a straight up victory. The Packers were about a 10-point favorite going into Sunday's game in Tampa. The Ravens are listed as a 10 1/2 to 11-point favorite Monday night in Cleveland.
Strange things happen on Monday nights, but the Ravens should be able to handle the Browns before a short week of preparation for a visit from the Colts.
Browns coach Eric Mangini said on his conference call today that the Ravens are pretty much the same team that trounced the Browns earlier this year at M&T Bank Stadium, even though they've lost four of their last five games.
"They present a lot of the same challenges,'' he said. "I really like the (offensive) system that they run. They've got a lot of good skills players."
The defense certainly doesn't look like the same one that stifled Browns quarterbacks Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson the first time around, but Mangini dismissed the notion that the Ravens will be more vulnerable this time.
"You go through different periods,'' he said, "but that is a good defensive football team."
Guess we'll see.
> 
Comments
Pete, Let's not forget that the Browns nearly upset the Bengals in overtime earlier this season.
The question isn't whether the Ravens are a good defensive football team (any defense that holds the high-powered Bengals to only 17 points twice is good), but whether they are a great one?
So far they are not.
Posted by: Ken Francis | November 11, 2009 1:18 PM
....... " on any given Sunday . " er , Monday .
Posted by: the artist formerly known as jack in hebron | November 11, 2009 4:21 PM
Absolutely--I didn't see the last game, but I listened on the radio, and I also saw the game agains KC.
In both games, the Ravens made big defensive plays, but they also gave up some plays as well.
So, they had better strap it on, and find whatever they had against San Diego and Denver, bottle it up, and distribute it through the whole team.
If not, we can kiss the playoff hopes, and 2009 goodbye.
But that would hold true to the Billick years--good year, bad year, good year, bad year (like 13-3 2006 followed by 5-11 2007 you get the trend).
Posted by: logiopath | November 11, 2009 10:23 PM
The Ravens are just driving us all crazy. I huddled up with my kids this past weekend to watch what should have been a great game. After a pair of 3 and outs by us and 3 consecutive scoring drives where our CB's perfected the "slip and fall" defense, I was beside myself. What's worse, so was my 4 year old daughter (who is whacko for Flacco) and my 6 year old son who declared "I've had it". So we went to the pool at the start of the 2nd quarter.
Bummer that the Ravens are taking after the Orioles. They need to knock that nonsense off right away.
Posted by: Frank | November 12, 2009 12:14 AM