Friday afternoon that means just 48 hours til game time. Here’s how the ExtremeRavens staffers see the upcoming Ravens game against the Houston Texans…

Baltimore Ravens (5-3, W3) at Houston Texans (3-5, L1)

Danielle: Texans 17, Ravens 12. Houston has won three straight at home, and the Ravens (even with wins at Miami and Cleveland) still struggle on the road. Is Baltimore capable of winning this game? Absolutely. The result lies with the Texans’ backup quarterback, Sage Rosenfels, ability to exploit a pass defense that has been exposed in the past.

John: Ravens 23, Texans 17. Texans have won three straight at home. Rosenfels hits a big play to Andre Johnson, but also turns the ball over a few times which makes the difference in the game. The Ravens three-headed monster will carry them to fourth straight win.

Andrew: Ravens 31, Texans 14. The extremely talented Andre Johnson will get his numbers, but the Ravens will shut down the Texans run-game and will harass Sage Rosenfels all day. On offense, Jared Gaither will be able to keep his ACC-rival Mario Williams incheck while the Ravens continue to progress on offense.

Dan: Ravens 27, Texans 10. The Ravens are averaging more than 30 points per game over the last three games, including to games on the road. This week, against a young secondary and coming off a strong performance, Joe Flacco will really show off.

What’s your take?

It’s just 48 hours to game time, the injury reports are in, the match-ups are locked; you’ve had all week to think about this weekend. So now it’s time to lay it on the line. The 3-4 Browns against the 4-3 Ravens, in Cleveland, for a whole lot of momentum heading into the 2nd half of the season.

Here’s what our staff has to say…

Debbie Downer, I mean, Ken: Browns 24, Ravens 10. With a weakened secondary and a suddenly undisciplined offensive line, the Ravens return to their struggling ways away from the comfort of the purple seats. The Browns have found a winning stride, while the Ravens are still trying to handle theirs.

John: Browns 17, Ravens 14. Defensive struggle for most of the game. Neither team puts up impressive numbers. Browns and Ravens have trouble running the ball. Anderson hits a big play through the air that makes the difference.

Andrew: Ravens 24 Browns 21. The Browns will pick on the Ravens battered up secondary quite a bit, but for the most part the Ravens front seven will get enough pressure on Derek Anderson. The Ravens offense will continue to progress and get just enough production to win. This will be a close one.

Spen: Ravens 17, Browns 14. The Ravens and the Browns meet for a tough close game. Flacco has a rough day and yards are hard to come by but the Ravens grind out around 17 points. The Brownies score late to make the game appear closer than it was. Good guys continue on their road trip happy.

Danielle: Ravens 17, Browns 13.  Just as easily could go the other way with the same score. It’s going to come down to who’s effective in the red zone. Right now the advantage is to Le’Ron McClain over Jamal Lewis.

John B.: Ravens 31, Browns 10. Cleveland’s overall defense is still near the bottom of the league, while Baltimores offense is slowly creeping up overall. The pressure from the defense on Anderson will neutralize Edwards, Winslow & Jamal Lewis. The chants for Brady Quinn will be heard in the backround by mid way thru the 3rd quarter.

Dan: Ravens 26, Browns 6. Take a look at the numbers and you’ll see that even in their recent victories, the Browns haven’t exactly been shutting down their opponents. They won’t find much room to move against the Ravens this week.

The midway point of the season is upon us as the Ravens enter their eighth game of the season against the Browns - the first divisional rematch of the season for either team in 2008. Oh, how things have changed since that game win Week Three in Baltimore.

The Ravens enter at 4-3, riding their second two-game win streak of the season, and feeling good again. Not only are they winning, but the offense has shown signs of life against two weaker opponents.

Meanwhile, the Browns enter at 3-4, have won three of four games, including beating the defending champion New York Giants. The Browns reversed that 0-3 pretty quickly and confidence is running high in Cleveland these days. The big question is can the Browns keep up and truly return to the playoff-caliber team we saw last season?

As we look at this Week Nine match-up, here are two key player-to-player battles to keep an eye on…

Ravens Defense vs. Browns Offense

LB Terrell Suggs vs. QB Derek Anderson

The Ravens defense must not have liked getting embarassed by the Colts three weeks ago in Indianapolis. Since then, against two weaker offensive opponents, the Ravens defense has found its fire again, and the Dolphins and Raiders were the victims of all their built up rage.

Fronting the charge for this defense in both games, though, was not Super-Raven Ray Lewis. Instead, it was Lewis’ younger, pass-rushing protege Terrell Suggs that was really on top of his game and giving the defense its life.  Over the course of the season, Suggs has shown his strength not only as a Pro Bowl caliber player, but as a legitimate defensive leader. Read the rest of this entry »

Here we go… the ExtremeRavens staff picks for the Raiders-Ravens game this weekend at M&T Bank Stadium…

John: Ravens 35, Raiders 9.  Ravens have won 4 out of 5 against the Raiders. And out of those 5 games Oakland has averaged 9 points a game.

Spen: Ravens 20, Raiders 17.  The Ravens start strong but allow the Raiders back in the game. A long, time-consuming drive and Matt Stover field goal seal the game for the Ravens.

Danielle: Ravens 17, Raiders 10 (or 6).  It could be an ugly game. It could be a nail-bitter. It will probably be both.

Ken: Raiders 17, Ravens 14.  In over their heads in trash talk, the Ravens become the second consecutive victim to a game-winning Raiders’ field goal.

Andrew: Ravens 28, Raiders 6. The Ravens show the Raiders that the bad boys of the East are more dominant than the bad boys of the West. The Ravens will shut down the Raiders run game early, and then turn up the pressure on JaMarcus Russell, while Joe Flacco will manage the game well enough to win the battle of the 6′6″ quarterbacks.

Dan: Ravens 26, Raiders 9.  Offensively, the Raiders don’t have anything that should worry the Ravens. Joe Flacco is given some room to work and shows up…

Have your say, what do you see coming this weekend?

The Raiders might be the worst 2-4 team in the NFL in recent memory. Offensively and defensively, the team lacks consistency. In their losses, they tend to look as bad as anyone in the league. In their most recent win, they somehow slid past the Jets despite allowing more than 400 yards of total offense and more than 200 yards rushing. The team’s strongest unit is probably their special teams, anchored by (former 1st round draft pick…) kicker Sebastian Janikowski. Punter Shane Lechler isn’t too shabby either, averaging nearly 50 yards per kick and putting 14 inside the opponents 20 so far this year.

But that might be where praise for the Raiders stops… they have struggled on both offense and defense in a number of respects and are still trying to establish their identity as a unit.

Come Sunday, here are two match-ups that will be critcal in either team’s success.

Ravens’ Offense vs. Raiders’ Defense

QB Joe Flacco vs. Oakland’s Secondary

The Raiders defense is far from the league’s strongest. They allow 136 yards per game rushing and more than 220 per game passing. Those numbers rank 24th and 22nd in the league respectively, leaving the Raiders at 26th overall.

That said, the unit still does its fair share in protecting against the pass. The Raiders are in the league’s top 10 in both interceptions (7) and sacks (16). They have also allowed just 8 passing touchdowns so far this season.

Now, none of these numbers are jumping off the page at you, I know. The Raiders, with Rob Ryan (brother of Raven’s Rex) at the helm of the defense, are still just plain average. But that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to be a major factor in this game. The secondary is more than capable as a unit, especially in the hands of DeAngelo Hall and Gibril Wilson. Both are known for being prone to mental lapses, but both have the ability to change games when they need to. Read the rest of this entry »

Less than 48 hours to kick-off, here’s what ExtremeRavens.com’s staff thinks about the upcoming game…

Ken: Dolphins 24, Ravens 10. Cam Cameron’s offense struggles against his former team, and the strong offense of Miami does more than enough damage to leave the Ravens in sorry shape.

John: Ravens 34, Dolphins 7. Chad Pennington is not Peyton Manning and the Ravens D will remind him of that Sunday.

Dan: Ravens 23, Dolphins 20. First, yes, I realize that I have picked the Ravens in all the games this year, but my picks are made weekly and based a bit on the week before. As for this pick, the Dolphins offense will be shut down by the Ravens and we’ll be wanting to believe in the unit again.

More to come as we update… what’s your take?

It’s been a challenging three weeks for the Ravens, facing three solid teams - all with playoff expectations - and losing all three in difficult fashion. Each game has provided the Ravens with different challenges and new problems for not getting the ‘W,’ but none more so than the Indianapolis loss last week. The Ravens self-destructed against the Colts and lost just about every match-up.

Things will have to be very different in Miami for the Ravens to win against the Dolphins. Luckily, however, the Dolphins are a very different team from the Colts.

Here are two key match-ups to watch heading into Sunday.

Dolphins’ Offense vs. Ravens’ Defense

Dolphins Head Coach Tony Sparano vs. Ravens’ Defensive Coordinator Rex Ryan

Who’s tricks are trickier? 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.

Read the rest of this entry »

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?