No time to mince words, just be blunt: it was a rough week for the Top Ten. Three of last week’s top ten lost, and three more snuck away with wins in the most absurd of ways.

The Patriots and Cardinals fell out of the rankings this week. The Patriots lost to the Steelers by a wide margin at home. In a sentence, they offense got shut down and the defense failed to show up. It was almost expected though; defense has been the Patriots’ problem all season long.

For the Cardinals, they just got outplayed by the Eagles. In the process, they lost yet another chance to clinch their division. Though, I must admit, it would be kind of fun to see a team get into the playoffs at 7-9.

The two new arrivals this week, taking over the spots of the Pats and Cards, are the Cowboys and Falcons. Both teams have won eight games and are fighting for the second wild card position in the NFC. Unfortunately, both will likely end the season with better records than the winners of the NFC North and NF C West.

The full list is after the jump… Read the rest of this entry »

It’s still midweek, so we’ve got time to take one more quick look back at the Ravens loss to the Colts on Sunday. But it’s definitely time to start looking forward to the next game, in Miami, against a Dolphins team that can’t quite decide how good they are (kind of like the Ravens).

The Ravens lost on Sunday. Most of you know that despite the fact that you didn’t watch much beyond the first quarter of the game. They lost pretty bad. In looking back at some of the pre-game analysis on this site and others I am still disappointed by the fact that the Ravens lost every important match-up in the game. The Colts running game and passing game were both successful against the Ravens defense, and the Colts defense was extremely successful against both Baltimore units. Even the individual match-ups were one-sided.

Last week I wrote about what I thought would be two of the biggest match-ups in determining the game’s outcome. The first was Le’Ron McClain against a small Colts defensive front; the second was the Ravens secondary against Marvin Harrison.

To recap: the Ravens blew it on both fronts.

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I’d like to take a moment to address two topics. First - season expectations. Second - Joe Flacco and our season.

In the words of Willy Wonka, “wait… go back… reverse that.”

Let’s talk about Flacc first. Read the rest of this entry »

The NFL is sending it’s #1 announcing team to Indy this weekend to call the Ravens-Colts match-up, and we’re going to try and follow suit with our very best predictions of the game right now.

It’s going to be a tough match-up, but one Baltimore fans should be familiar with: the unstoppable force vs. the immovable object. This year, though, the unstoppable force that is the Colts offense has been a little shakier than normal…

Here’s how we see it:

Ken: Colts 28, Ravens 13. Following tradition, the Ravens’ defense finds itself struggling along with the offense against Manning and the Colts.

John: Ravens 17, Colts 12. Ken’s tradition tanks, and a new one begins. Ravens pound the ball the way they did against Cinncinatti.

Danielle: Colts 23, Ravens 13. Preseason I predicted 5 wins for the Ravens this season and they’ve already found two of them… nothing more, nothing less from this team this year.

Andrew: Colts 27, Ravens 13. The Ravens will not be able to generate a consistent pass rush on Peyton Manning. With time to throw, Manning should have no problem dissecting a beaten-up Ravens secondary. The Colts will jump to a quick lead which will cause the Ravens to abandon the running game. The Ravens simply do not have the passing attack to play from behind, and will turn the ball over trying to do so.

Dan: Ravens 24, Colts 10. I almost wrote the same score with the names switched… it could go either way. But I think the Ravens offense breaks out this week. If the Texans could score 27, there has to be some hope for us, right?

Following two devastating losses in consecutive weeks - in two games the Ravens certainly feel like they should have won - things get no easier as the team hits the road for five of its next six games. The first of these games is against the Colts, and no reference to where they used to play or how Baltimore fans feel about the game is necessary.

Lucky for the Ravens, the Colts might be one of the weaker teams they face in this dreaded six game stretch. At 2-2, the Colts have underperformed so far this season and were only able to squeak out a win against Houston last week thanks to an astonishing 21-point surge in the final four minutes of the game. Once able to score at will against opponents, the Colts’ offense appear to be missing something this year. All the weapons are there, but the functionality is not. Similarly, a strong defense from past seasons is struggling this year to contain the run.

Heading into Sunday, here are two key match-ups to keep an eye on … Read the rest of this entry »