On a personal level, I think it's great that there's an NFL game on Thursday night's during the second half of the regular season. I'm a big football fan and really haven't gotten excited about Thursday night primetime since George Clooney left "ER," so it works for me even if it apparently doesn't work very well on either a commercial or competitive level.

Sure, the Thanksgiving night game was great because it was a terrific matchup between the Ravens and 49ers, but the idea of certain teams being taken out of their regular routines in the heat of a playoff race just doesn't seem right. Throw in that a lot of the games aren't very good -- because you've got teams working on short prep weeks -- and you can make a pretty good case that it damages the integrity of the overall competition.

This year, in particular, the difference between the offensive performances of Thursday night teams vs. teams playing on Sunday or Monday is stark, particularly in the first half of those games. The first five games played on Thursday (not counting Opening Night) have featured an average of 11.6 total points in the first half, which is about half the first-half average (22.0) for teams playing on Sunday over the course of Weeks 2 through 11.

Obviously, I left out the opening Thursday game and the first slate of Sunday games, since I'm making a point about the short rest, which wouldn't apply in those cases.

That's a pretty dramatic difference. You can give some credit to the solid defensive performance of the Ravens and Packers on Thanksgiving Day, but it's pretty clear that teams playing on three days rest are a little slower off the ball. The 49ers and Lions are two of the highest-scoring teams in the NFL, and they combined for three points in the first two quarters on Thursday.

True, it's a small sample, and the first-half performance of teams last year was much closer to the overall average, but I'm wondering if the whole NFL Network thing is worth the trouble, especially when the league is having trouble selling the commercial spots for those games. If that wasn't the case, I don't think you'd get to see that "Top Five Plays" promo every 10 minutes throughout the broadcast.

I like my highlights at halftime, thank you.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)
Categories: Just football
        

If you've been reading my column, you know that no one has harped more about the Ravens' problems against struggling teams more than I have, but I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that it won't be a problem any more.

Here's why: The Ravens suffered their apparent letdowns at a point in the season when they were going back and forth between high-intensity games against really good teams (and winning most of them convincingly) and seemingly less-significant games against teams that they were expected to beat. It's on them that they didn't beat some of those teams, because they'd be sitting pretty in the AFC home-field derby right now if they had won even one of the three games they lost, but the past is the past.

The difference now is multi-fold:

1. The Ravens will have plenty of time to moderate their emotions after their uplifting Thursday night victory over the 49ers. Ten days between games is almost like coming off a bye week, which will help the Ravens get healthy and mentally refreshed.

2. There are no more of those super-intensity games until the season finale against the Bengals on the road, and who knows if that one will still be significant. If the Ravens take care of business in Cleveland, that will be the end of the emotional roller coaster. They'll just need to remain on an even keel to get through the games they are supposed to win.

3. There can be no doubt in any corner of the lockerroom that the Ravens have no margin for error the rest of the way if they want to be playing home games in the postseason. Every game is a must-win game, and the Ravens have won every game they've felt that way about this year.

Been wrong before, of course, but I can't see the Browns making a dent in the Ravens defense this weekend. The key for the Ravens is pretty simple. Don't turn the ball over and the rest will take care of itself.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 12:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Just football
        

If you haven't already, you can check out my take on the Harbaugh hype surrounding Thursday night's game between the Ravens and 49ers right here. If you're still reading, here are a few more thoughts on the game.

I'm picking the Ravens, because I think AFC teams are generally better than NFC teams (except the Packers, of course) and because every intangible involved in this game seems to be working in favor of the Ravens.

They might be harried by the compressed work week, but what they are going through is nothing compared to the Niners, who have one less day because they have to fly coast-to-coast in the wrong direction and will have to deal with jet lag for the second time in three weeks.

The last time I looked, the Ravens were listed as a 3 1/2-point favorite, which sounds about right. The oddsmakers are basically saying that home-field advantage will be the deciding factor, but I'm not convinced these are equivalent teams in spite of the 49ers' glitzy 9-1 record. The Ravens have the better defense and have played a tougher schedule, which is a good thing considering how they have played this year against their lesser opponents.

My prediction: Ravens 27, 49ers 16.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Just football
        

If you want my take on the Ray Lewis injury situation, I'll have a column posted on the Web site a little later today, but I still had more to say when I ran out of room in tomorrow's paper, so here goes.

I'm going against the odds and the experts in guessing that Ray will show up on the field tomorrow. If you're able to read between the lines of the John Harbaugh quotes that have been published or blogged, it certainly sounds like Ray will be inactive, but we're talking about Ray Lewis and he may have something to say about that on Sunday morning.

Whether he should play is another matter, and a complicated one. He clearly is the spiritual and motivational leader of the team, but that didn't count for all that much last week against the Seattle Seahawks. I don't know when exactly he suffered the toe injury, but he didn't look very mobile and the Seahawks took advantage of that on at least one key play late in the game.

Everybody loves the Ray-Ray intro dance and everybody puts a lot of stock in Ray's pre-game Sunday-cone-to-meeting speech to his teammates, but we've come to a point in this strange season when you have to ask whether it is making any difference. Ray has made that speech three times before games in which the Ravens didn't look particularly imspired against lesser opponents, so there's room to wonder if the message is still getting through.

However, his contribution on the field -- when healthy -- is without question. Even at 36, he leads the Ravens in tackles and (like Cal Ripken in his later years) is able to make up for whatever physical ability he has lost to age with his terrific instincts and vast knowledge of defensive football.

I'm guessing he'll thumb his nose at Father Time for at least one more season, but it's hard to speculate on what he'll be able to over the next few weeks. We'll obviously have a better idea tomorrow.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Just football
        

If anyone can figure out why the Ravens haven't showed up for three very winnable games that could have helped them put a stranglehold on home-field advantage for the playoffs, please write. John Harbaugh has tried to chalk it up to bad execution (which is certainly part of it), but we've reached the point where it's fair to connect the dots and wonder why his team seems to let down whenever there's an opportunity to put some frosting on the cake.

I'll be back in town today after a fairly lengthy trip west, which included a visit to the West Wing, the Ravens hangout in Hollywood that we featured on a WBAL program last season. The gang was all there, including several people I recognized from home and several people who recognized me.

Former Ravens.com guy Mike Duffy was in the house. He's working in the music business now. Also spent some time watching the game with Connor Byrne, the son of Ravens vice president Kevin Byrne. Except for the outcome, Mrs. Lincoln, it was a great experience and I'm looking forward to going back the next time I'm on the West Coast on an NFL Sunday. Here's a photo of the group taken before the stark realization that the Ravens were about to make another bad team look good.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 3:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)
Categories: Just football
        

Manager Buck Showalter is getting closer to finalizing his coaching staff -- apparently with the help of new VP Dan Duquette -- and I'm certainly not alone in thinking it would be great to see Mike Bordick back in a major league uniform as a full-time infield/first base coach.

That's partly based on personal preference, because Bordick is one of the really good guys in the game and it was such a pleasure to cover him all those years after he came to town to take over for Cal Ripken at shortstop. Since retiring as a player, he has proven to be a terrific coach and minor league instructor, which is the only reason I might have mixed feelings about him moving up to the major league staff.

Like minor league pitching coach Mike Griffin, Bordick might be more valuable in his player development role. The minor league system still needs a lot of work and pulling the best people out of it might be counterproductive, though Duquette may be looking to shake things up anyway.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Just baseball
        

On this Veteran Day -- as we honor everyone who has ever donned a military uniform and served our country -- I don't have to remind you that the "Greatest Generation" is slipping away from us, so this would be a pretty good time to remember what hundreds of thousands of World War II vets did in the jungles of the South Pacific and the European theater.

It's not hard for me to remember, because I'm in California at the moment visiting the last surviving World War veteran in my immediate family. My dad, a U.S. Marine major (at retirement) who served in Asia in WWII, passed away when I was 20. My mom, who was a Navy Lieutenant who helped patch up the wounded at the Naval hospitals along the West Coast in 1944 and '45, is 92 and still has amazing recall about the war years.

She's also a Red Sox fan for some reason, but you can't hold that against her on Veterans Day.

I bring this up because we still tend to stereotype our war veterans as men, even though thousands of women served in the two world wars and women have had a steadily increasing presence in our fighting forces ever since.

My mom (right) graduated from the world-renowned nursing program at Johns Hopkins in 1943 and -- along with much of her graduating class -- answered the recruiting call for nurse/officers to assist in the war effort. She never regretted that decision, though she had a fine job waiting at the hospital upon graduation.

I'm just glad I have never been faced with a decision like that. I was lucky to reach adulthood between the Viet Nam War and all that has happened the past 20 years in the Middle East. My brother went to Viet Nam and I ended up partying my way through college and watching baseball games for a living.

If you sense a tinge of guilt there for being one of the few members of the family who didn't serve, you're pretty perceptive, but it's mostly a sense of gratitude that I think all of us share for those who made that sacrifice so we can sit around imagining we're patriotic because we belong to one of the major political parties or the other.

Thanks Mom, Dad, big brother Paul and Uncle Jack (two Bronze Stars in Europe). My heroes have always been veterans.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 2:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)
Categories: News of the day
        

There's going to be a lot of discussion about the wisdom of hiring former Boston Red Sox GM Dan Duquette to replace Andy MacPhail as the Orioles new head of baseball operations, but one thing is not in doubt.

Duquette is no puppet. He was always a very strong presence and personality in the Red Sox organization and he'll put his stamp on this team. He may not have been the first choice, but he's a solid guy with all the elements of experience the Orioles were looking for.

What will be interesting to see is the chemistry that will develop with manager Buck Showalters. They are both strong personalities who are pretty confident in their vision of how to run a baseball team. That dynamic could be a big plus in getting Peter Angelos on board with what they want to do -- once the come to a consensus themselves.

Can't wait to see how this develops.

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (11)
Categories: Just baseball
        

Let's stipulate right from the start that I wasn't in any meetings involving Toronto Blue Jays executive Tony LaCava and the ownership component of the search committee trying to find a replacement for Andy MacPhail. So, I don't know if LaCava (below) was just saying nice things about the Orioles after he turned down the job because that's the classy thing to do, or if the Orioles handled his recruitment just fine and simply lost out because he really decided he was already in the best situation.

What we do know is that it's November 2 and Orioles owner Peter Angelos has had a pretty good idea for the past two or three months that he was going to need a new head of baseball operations. What we also know is that the Orioles are the only team that will arrive at the opening of the free agent market tomorrow without someone in that role. Whether you believe that anything was going to happen in the first two weeks of free agency either way -- and I don't -- that still represents a lapse in corporate management that could make other good candidates shy away from the Orioles.

Somehow, the Angels -- who were in the AL West race until the last week -- were ready to announce the hiring or former Arizona Diamondbacks assistant GM Jerry Dipoto the minute the World Series ended.

Somehow, the Chicago Cubs were able to pry one of the most respected young GMs in the business away from the Red Sox earlier this month, and somehow the Red Sox already had their GM-in-waiting ready to take Theo Epstein's place.

Dipoto was the first guy to interview with the Orioles, but there was no indication he was their first choice, so this is not really about who they chose. Just how.

LaCava looked like the perfect candidate, with his solid scouting and player development credentials. He interviewed last week and came back on Monday for a sit-down with Peter Angelos. Some mixed signals came out of that meeting, but the Orioles offered him the job and LaCava said they did everything right during the interview process.

I don't doubt that LaCava is in a great situation in Toronto and it would have been hard to decide to leave, but I can't help thinking that something happened during that discussion with Angelos that left LaCava wondering just how much authority he would actually have to remake the players development department.

It's common knowledge at the Warehouse that there are people in the player development system who can step out of the chain of command and talk directly to the owner, which can only create organizational confusion. So, I believe it's fair to wonder if the future makeup of the player development executive staff became an issue during the final meeting between LaCava and Angelos.

It's also fair to wonder if LaCava might be here right now if the Orioles had been quicker on the trigger and offered him the job after the first interview. He indicated otherwise, but the O's gave the Blue Jays a lot of time to sweet talk him back to Toronto...and they did just that.

Who knows if the Orioles were outflanked or simply unable to convince LaCava to move to Baltimore, but this little episode did nothing to change the public perception that they unable to compete -- on a management and ownership level -- with the other 29 teams in the major leagues.

Associated Press photo

Posted by Peter Schmuck at 1:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (31)
Categories: Just baseball