Game 3:
Sunday, January 6, 2013
1:00pm – CBS
Indianapolis Colts @ Baltimore Ravens
 |
| Rookie WR T.Y. Hilton has been one of the most explosive players of 2012, and I don't see Baltimore containing him. Photo credit to Bleacher Report. |
The Ravens have been a tale of two seasons. They opened up
the campaign with a blowout victory over the Bengals before losing to the Eagles
at the mercy of the replacement officials. Clearly Baltimore should have won
that game.
They bounced back, though, and edged the Patriots to start a
4-game win streak that ended in a blowout loss to Houston right before their
bye.
Baltimore won their first four games coming off their week
of rest, but they seem pretty insignificant now. They beat the Browns, the
Raiders, the Steelers (barely) with Ben Roethlisberger out, and the Chargers.
Now the Ravens have lost four of their last 5. Yes, their
losses have been to good teams – Batch didn’t turn the ball over eight times,
so I’ll give Baltimore credit for that loss, even though they never had to face
Big Ben this year – but guess who they’re playing on Sunday? A good team, that’s who.
Indianapolis struggled early, losing to the Bears – not
exactly an awful loss to have, the Bears were solid early in the season – as
well as the Jaguars and the Jets. But their only losses since have been to New
England and Houston. They have won nine of their last eleven, so not only are
they a good team, they’re a hot team,
and that usually goes a long way in the postseason, just ask the Packers, the
Steelers, and the Giants twice.
The Colts’ defense was terrible early in the season, but
somehow they scraped a winning formula together and the defense has done what
it needed to when Andrew Luck most needed the help.
In case you haven’t noticed, Luck is not a particularly
great quarterback, or at least he hasn’t been this year. What he has been is clutch. He has a very poor
completion percentage because he really only plays well in the clutch. Of
course, some people would argue that him being clutch is exactly what does make him a great quarterback.
But Baltimore’s defense is shot right now and I don’t trust
them to slow down Vick Ballard or their likely #2 guy, Mewelde Moore in the run
game. Yes, Ray Lewis will be back, and he will deliver a boost. I just don’t
think it will be enough.
They also will have a lot of trouble limiting the
explosiveness of T.Y. Hilton, who I think will be the difference-maker on
offense for Indianapolis. I think the game will have a close feeling to the
end, but the Colts will put the dagger in late, making the score look more
lopsided than the game ends up being.
Puff’s Pick:
Indianapolis Colts –
20
Baltimore Ravens – 7
Well that didn't work out too well for you, did it?
ReplyDeleteYou too fell for the "Old And Slow Raven D" that the majority of "experts" were touting.
I wonder if the Ravens planted the idea of old and slow to lull everyone to sleep?
I wouldn't say I fell for an idea that the Ravens' D is old and slow, I just didn't factor in Ray Lewis's return as much as it apparently counted for.
Delete