Wild-Card Preview: Ravens vs Colts

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

MVP: T.Y. Hilton

Sunday Football Afterword: Week 12 Early Games

Julio Jones made an impressive touchdown catch
with Leonard Johnson defending.
Photo credit to J. Meric/Getty Images)

I had another pretty solid week picking games. I have only gotten two picks wrong so far this week, with only the Monday Night contest left, and both of those incorrect picks came in yesterday’s early games.

I had the Titans beating the Jaguars, but that didn’t happen as Chad Henne had a really solid day. He threw for exactly as many yards as Jake Locker on the other side, but had a much higher completion percentage and two scores and one pick to Locker’s one touchdown pass and two interceptions. The Titans made it close in the final minutes but Locker’s second pick iced the game as Jacksonville got just their second win of the season.

Another team that has had a few big wins but has struggled overall, the Cleveland Browns, got a win over a division rival. The Browns never pulled away, but three interceptions took care of Pittsburgh third-stringer Charlie Batch. Mike Wallace only had one reception for nine yards, coming on the final Pittsburgh drive of the game.

The other game that I picked wrong was Atlanta at Tampa Bay. The Buccaneers kept it close and probably deserved to win the game, but the Falcons have won games they should have lost all year and that is why they are still sitting pretty at 9-1.

Neither quarterback had a particularly good or bad game, but T.Y. Hilton practically won the game by himself for Indianapolis. He returned a punt 75-yards in the first quarter. After getting rocked on his next punt return they tested him for injury but he came back and made an 8-yard touchdown reception in the third quarter. Those would be the Colts’ only touchdowns of the day in a 20-13 victory.

Carson Palmer’s homecoming was very happy for his former team. Andy Dalton had a huge game. After throwing 14 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in Cincinnati’s first eight games (he threw at least one pick in each of those contests), he has thrown nine touchdowns and zero interceptions in the last three games. The game was never close.

In a game that shouldn’t have ever been close, Kansas City made a game of it against the Broncos. They led 6-0 until the final 30 seconds of the first half when Peyton Manning found Jacob Tamme for a short score. Peyton was hurt on the play and tested for a concussion. He came back in the game and threw another touchdown pass but was a little less accurate. Denver held on and won 17-9.

In Miami, the Seahawks took the lead several times only to have Ryan Tannehill lead his Dolphins to matching scores. Russell Wilson played well, but it wasn’t enough as the Dolphins defended their home field and ended a 3-game losing streak. The Seahawks continue to struggle away from Seattle. They are 5-0 at home but just 1-5 as the visiting team this season.

Chicago looked ready, at times, to let Minnesota back into the game. After holding a 25-3 lead at halftime, Minnesota drove down the field for a score and Twitter-hell broke loose with people like Michael Wilbon (@RealMikeWilbon) complaining that DC’s FOX affiliate switched to the Falcons/Bucs game. But 25-10 was as close as it would get as the Bears added another field goal before the third quarter was over and nobody scored in the fourth quarter.

Check back later for my Sunday Football Afterword for the four late games. Thanks for reading everyone!