As I prepare to make my predictions for the NFC and AFC
Championship Games, I am doing a lot of research, most of which will show up in
my previews on Saturday. Today and tomorrow, though, I want to look back at how
these teams got to this point.
I will do a similar thing for the two Super Bowl teams next
week or the week after, but in order to avoid writing the same thing twice,
here are excerpts from, and links to, posts I have written this season, all
regarding the four remaining teams in the postseason.
Week 1, 44-13 Win vs
Cincinnati Bengals
Monday night saw the final two games of the first week. The
first game featured the Cincinnati Bengals playing Baltimore against an
emotional Ravens team just days after the passing of Art Modell. The Bengals
struggled mightily, but I really didn’t think it was because the Bengals are a
bad team. In fact, they look like a pretty solid team. The Ravens are just, to
use a cliché, “that good!” Joe Flacco ran a no-huddle offense, thanks in part
to Peyton Manning’s former coach in Indy, Jim Caldwell. It was actually scary;
Flacco looked as comfortable as Manning ever has running that offense. His
throws were right on target, even dropping a couple passes just over defenders’ outstretched arms for big completions. The
Ravens already have a game advantage on Pittsburgh, and they could roll through
their schedule this season.
Week 2, 23-24 Loss at
Philadelphia Eagles
I place the blame for the Ravens’ loss about 65-70% on the
officials and the remaining 30-35% on Baltimore’s offense. Joe Flacco threw a
beautiful touchdown pass into tight coverage to Jacoby Jones in the fourth
quarter. An official threw a flag (not a yellow penalty flag, mind you, but a
blue beanie used to mark the spot of a fumble, or of the beginning of a punt or
kickoff return) and called offensive pass interference against Jones.
Now, throwing the wrong flag is forgivable. The ref is still
new to this; he grabbed the wrong one and threw it. Okay, I’ll give him a pass
on that. But I’ve watched as many replays of that play as I could find online,
looking for as many angles as I can get. Unfortunately, there aren’t many
replays available. But from every one I’ve seen, there is very little contact
by Jones on Nnamdi Asomugha. Yes, Jones extends his arm out, but he doesn’t
touch Asomugha with his outstretched arm. It was a BS penalty that would have
been picked up had the real officials been out there and conferenced after the
play.
So that terrible call is a big part of why Baltimore lost. I
can’t place all the blame on the
officials though. After all, there were bad calls all game (though the second
worst call was a fumble call against Michael Vick that was reversed by challenge). More importantly, Baltimore did get the
ball with another chance to drive downfield with less than two minutes left in
the fourth quarter. They fell short after an incompletion on 4th
& 2.
Week 3, 31-30 Win vs
New England Patriots
The Sunday Night game was interesting. There were a lot of penalties, but the game moved at
a quick enough pace that it didn’t lose my interest like many games over the
past two weeks have.
Of course, the story of the night was Ravens receiver, and
Maryland grad, Torrey Smith, who played despite his younger brother Tevin being
killed in a motorcycle accident early in the day. Smith had 6 catches for 127
yards and two scores.
Flacco played well, as did Ray Rice. Baltimore’s defense, as
always, was strong. But the Patriots did not look very good on offense. Brady
had a decent second half as New England finally got Wes Welker involved in
their game plan, but Brady has not looked like Brady this year when he’s
throwing to just about anyone else.
With little time remaining, the Ravens were in range for a
27-yard field goal try. Last year Billy Cundiff missed a 32-yard field goal
that gave New England the AFC Championship and a Super Bowl bid. This year,
rookie Justin Tucker was the man to try and give Baltimore the win. His kicked
sailed high over the uprights, but the official beneath said it went directly
over, which constitutes a successful field goal attempt. The kick gave the
Ravens a 31-30 victory and a 2-1 record.
New England drops to 1-2 with the loss. Their streak of
consecutive games played without being below .500 ends at 145, a streak that
spanned nine seasons. In 2003 they lost their season opener, 31-0 against the
Chiefs. After that they won two straight games, lost to the Redskins, then did
not lose again as they went on to win the Super Bowl against the Carolina
Panthers.
Week 4, 23-16 Win vs
Cleveland Browns
Week 5, 9-6 Win at
Kansas City Chiefs
Baltimore played to a 9-6 win in Kansas City, hardly a
must-watch game. Baltimore gave up 140 rushing yards to Jamaal Charles, but
Kansas City turned the ball over four times. It was possibly the most boring
game of the day, despite several blowouts during the later games. Matt Cassel
went down with a head injury, and the crowd began cheering. It is still not
apparent if the cheering was for Cassel getting injured, for Brady Quinn
entering the game, or for Cassell when he got up and was leaving the field, but
it was enough to send one Chiefs player on a tirade about football players not
being gladiators.
Week 6, 31-29 Win vs
Dallas Cowboys
Week 6 was a week of surprises, upsets, and failed
expectations. Atlanta barely stayed undefeated against Oakland, the Cowboys’
poor time management may have cost them a win in Baltimore, Cleveland kicked
the winless bucket and the Jets made it difficult to call their rout of
Indianapolis a fluke.
Week 7, 13-43 Loss at
Houston Texans
Some games just plain were not exciting. Baltimore played a
lousy game, continued to ignore their all-pro running back by only giving Ray
Rice nine carries in the game, and got blown out by Houston 43-13. On the new
Total Quarterback Rating system, which rates everything a quarterback does on a
scale of 0-100, Flacco scored 0.3, the lowest for any quarterback since 2008.
The bright side was that Terrell Suggs was not only back but also phenomenal,
but it did little to slow down the Texans attack.
Week 8, Bye
Week 9, 25-15 Win at
Cleveland Browns
Baltimore’s defense was not good, but they shut down
Cleveland’s offense when it mattered most, holding them to five field goals and
allowing the offense to put up enough to get the road win, 25-15.
Week 10, 55-20 Win vs
Oakland Raiders
What more can I say about the Raiders than that they were
not ready for Baltimore. Oakland always seems to struggle on the east coast,
but yesterday was particularly troubling. The Ravens scored a franchise record
55 points against a defense that hasn’t been great this year but at least has
been physical enough not to give up
that many points.
Week 11, 13-10 Win at
Pittsburgh Steelers
The Sunday Night game was interesting, but not particularly
exciting. The Ravens won as I expected, but the Steelers kept it close and
almost improved to 2-0 this season when they wear their throwbacks. They beat
one team that plays in Maryland, but couldn’t top Baltimore. The only real
excitement I got from that game was near the end of the fourth quarter when the
Steelers were trying to put a drive together and, on consecutive plays, Corey
Graham and Bernard Pollard lit up a pair of Pittsburgh receivers with perfect
defense and excruciating, but legal, hits. Those to plays alone made it worth
my time watching a game that was, for all intents and purposes, a drag.
Week 12, 16-13 Win at
San Diego Chargers
Baltimore allowed San Diego to outplay them for must of
yesterday’s contest in southern California, but as their story has been all season,
the Chargers collapsed in the second half to the tune of allowing a short pass
to Ray Rice turn into a conversion on 4th & 29 late in the game.
The spot didn’t look accurate to me, but with how poorly San Diego opposed that
play, they didn’t deserve the stop anyway. The Ravens netted a field goal on
the drive to force overtime and ultimately won the game with another Justin
Tucker field goal.
Week 13, 20-23 Loss
vs Pittsburgh Steelers
Baltimore played poorly against the Steelers for the second
time this season. Last time the Steelers just played worse and lost by three.
This time the Steelers were clearly the better team and should have won by more
than the 23-20 final spread. Flacco was off all night and a week after the
Browns forced eight turnovers against Pittsburgh, Baltimore forced two
turnovers but also turned the ball over twice themselves.
Week 14, 28-31 Loss
at Washington Redskins
Washington kept pace with Dallas, who edged the Bengals in
Cincinnati, by overcoming an 8-point deficit late in the fourth quarter with
Kirk Cousins under center following a knee injury to RG3. Cousins overcame 2nd
& 20 following by an intentional grounding call against Griffin III with a
15-yard completion followed by an 11-yard touchdown strike to Pierre Garçon on
a scramble. He then ran the ball in himself for the conversion. A huge
defensive stand in overtime opened the door for a 60-yard punt return followed
by a game-winning field goal by Kai Forbath. RG3 is not expected to miss much
time as he was diagnosed with a knee sprain and is day-to-day, but I think the
team and fan base would have been comfortable with Cousins leading the team if
RG3 were to miss extended action.
Week 15, 17-34 Loss
vs Denver Broncos
Denver’s win in Baltimore felt like a bigger blowout than
the 34-17 final score indicated, but I found it disturbing that Joe Flacco said
it feels like they are 0-14. That game, while important, was not the
end-all-be-all of the season, and Flacco’s comments should be very indicative
to Ravens fans of what kind of postseason they can expect: a short one.
Week 16, 33-14 Win vs
New York Giants
With the Giants’ season hanging in the balance, they needed
a win against Baltimore, and completely flubbed it up. The Giants have been
sliding as of late, just like they did last year. This time, there are other
teams to take advantage of it (enter Dallas and Washington). Their secondary
has been terrible after really pulling it together for much of the season.
Their defensive line had issues committing penalties all game, and that opened
it up for Baltimore to get not only Ray Rice over 100-rushing yards but Bernard
Pierce, too. Flacco completed 69% of his passes for a little over 300 yards and
two touchdowns. I said my peace yesterday about this game’s meaning, so I won’t
get back into that now.
Week 17, 17-23 Loss
at Cincinnati Bengals
Baltimore only played their starters early in the game, and
Cincinnati followed suit shortly after, but Cincinnati proved to have a
slightly better second team than the Ravens. Both teams will play next weekend
and I will preview their games later in the week.
Wild-Card Playoffs,
24-9 Win vs Indianapolis Colts
Divisional Playoffs,
38-35 Win at Denver Broncos
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