Steelers Vs Ravens Can Shake Up Race to Playoff

When the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers met before for a slot in the Super Bowl was at stake.  Now, the matchup could be a big role in what team will reach the post season.  The North rivals from AFC will meet Sunday in Baltimore with both of them not in first place and searching for answers.  Pittsburgh (6-4) beat Baltimore (5-5) that has been there for three times in 2008 and eyeing for its record sixth title for the Super Bowl and winning the AFC title 23-14 may have been most bruising of the bunch.

The defensive battle had the teams punt seven times and the Steelers putting the game way ahead especially with Polamalu’s 40-yard interception went back for a touchdown with a few minutes left.  Both teams are behind North leader Cincinnati.  These teams will meet twice in the next five weeks and the wagers are different from the last 10 months that they played.

Two Infractions Makes Lewis Fine $25k

Ray Lewis the linebacker of the Baltimore Ravens was fined by the NFL amounting to $25,000 on Friday for two separate plays.  It also included a helmet-to-helmet hit on Chad Ochocinco the receiver of the Cincinnati Bengals. The Ravens stated that an appeal will be filed by Lewis.  Both plays happened in the fourth quarter of the Baltimore’s 17-14 loss last Sunday.  The league considered that Lewis did not need to kick the opponent and later struck a defenseless receiver without a cause. 

On the latter play, Lewis hit Ochocinco following a pass from Palmer that was incomplete and a 15-yard penalty for pointless roughness helped in setting up the winning play that created a touchdown with only 22 seconds remaining.  Ochocinco lost his helmet in the collision, but immediately rose from the lawn.  After the game, the active receiver asked NFL commissioner Roger Goodell by using his Twitter account to for leniency and said it’s just part of the game.

Ravens Gets Tyree the Hero

The Baltimore Ravens tapped the services of David Tyree the former Super Bowl XLII hero, who played in 73 games for the New York Giants before he was released last month.  Terms of the deal was not revealed.  Tyree is estimated to contribute his special skills for Baltimore and could contribute as a wide receiver behind Kelley Washington, Mark Clayton and Derrick Mason.  Jason La Canfora an NFL Network reporter said that Tyree is scheduled to work out for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who also signed former Raven Yamon Figurs and is also looking at ex-Jacksonville Jaguar Matt Jones. 

Tyree made a very spectacular catch in the 2008 Super Bowl history against the New England Patriots.  He pulled down a 32-yard pass on a third-and-5 by using his helmet to tap the ball. This triggered a drive that resulted in a touchdown winning the game for the Giants.  Tyree was not able to play last season due to a hamstring injury and also two preseason games this summer due to some series of injuries.

Gaither Still Out Against Bengals

Jared Gaither Ravens offensive tackle did not play last Sunday’s game versus the Cincinnati Bengals. This is because of the neck injury he sustained after he was carted off the field a week earlier. He got his injury while playing against the New England Patriots. The 340-pound left tackle was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital for tests on his shoulder and neck after colliding in to the backfield, good thing, X-rays revealed no problems. But he was still listed as questionable during the week.

The Ravens want to transfer rookie Michael Oher to left tackle and move reserve guard Marshal Yanda, at right tackle. Other inactive players of Cincinnati included Tank Johnson defensive tackle, who is nursing a foot injury, Jalen Parmele running back, Prescott Burgess linebacker, Oniel Cousins offensive tackle, Kelly Talavou tight end and Paul Kruger linebacker. The other inactive players were Tom Nelson safety, Rashad Jeanty linebacker, Andre Smith and Scott Kooistra tackles, and Jerome Simpson tight end.

BALTIMORE (-8.5) vs. Cincinnati

Baltimore is still winning games, but the Ravens are doing things a bit differently this season by winning with a better offense and an ordinary defense rather than a dominating defense and an ordinary offense. The Ravens actually haven’t been all that great so far, as their improved offense is only 0.3 yards per play better than average (6.0 yppl against teams that would allow 5.7 yppl to an average team) while their defense has given up 5.2 yppl to a collection of teams that would average only 5.2 yppl against an average team. The Ravens were able to limit bad offensive teams Kansas City and Cleveland to an average of just 187 total yards but they gave up an average of 397 yards at 6.1 yppl to San Diego and New England.

Cincinnati’s offense is somewhere in between, as the Bengals are not as bad as KC and Cleveland but not as good at the Chargers and Pats. Cincy is actually slightly worse than average offensively so far this season, averaging 5.0 yppl against teams that would allow 5.2 yppl to an average team, but the Bengals’ defense has played well in allowing just 5.1 yppl (excluding the fluke 87 yard tipped pass TD by Denver that beat them in week 1) to teams that would combine to average 5.4 yppl against an average defensive team. The Ravens only have a small edge on Cincinnati overall from the line of scrimmage, but they have an edge in special teams and in projected turnovers. The math model favors Baltimore by just 5 1/2 points and it is best to lean with the Bengals plus the points despite a solid 176-98-5 ATS statistical indicator that favors Baltimore.

Rookie Cut From Ravens Dies in Washington

Tony Fein, an Iraq war veteran and NFL rookie linebacker who played with the Baltimore Ravens during the preseason, has died of unexplained causes after collapsing at a friend’s house in what his agent said appears to be “an accidental situation.” Fein, 27, an undrafted rookie free agent from Mississippi, was lying face down and lifeless, vomiting and barely breathing when the med teams arrived at a house outside Port Orchard on the Kitsap Peninsula just before 9 a.m PDT Tuesday, Mike Wernet said, a battalion chief and medical officer with South Kitsap Fire & Rescue.

The medics put a breathing tube down Fein’s throat after he stopped breathing and administered medication, but he went into cardiac arrest during the drive to Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton, across Puget Sound from Seattle, and was pronounced dead at the hospital at 9:48 a.m. PDT Tuesday. A man and woman who were there described Fein as a friend who was living with them. They told the aid crew they woke up and found him indifferent and vomiting.

Lewis, Reed Avoid Fines

Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis and Safety Ed Reed will not be fined for their post-game remarks criticizing the officials in the team’s 27-21 loss to the Patriots. Who would’ve thought that there were no fines, I guess you could do anything you want now. Lewis for one just went off on the officials in the game. He just snapped in their face and at first thought he might’ve wanted to hurt them in some manner. But in reality, both players were criticizing the league’s recent moves to protect quarterbacks. As Lewis sees it, the new rules and interpretations make it unfeasible for a player to hit a quarterback without getting flagged.

No word yet on whether John Harbaugh will be fined for his in-game antics, which drew a personal foul, and his post-game remarks which were analogous to Lewis and Reed. I would expect Harbaugh to see a hefty fine by this week.

Roughing The Passer Rule Needs To Change: Why Tom Brady Needs to Stop Complaints

Football is and will forever be a tough game. There’s a reason there are only 16 games in an NFL season. Players need time to recuperate from being crushed for 60-minutes every week. But, if breathing too hard on a quarterback is a penalty now then do they really need a week to recover? For those that haven’t seen the plays in the Patriots-Ravens game on Sunday, there were two very questionable roughing-the-passer calls. Terrell Suggs barely touched Tom Brady’s leg and Brady started complaining like Tonya Harding hired someone to come after him.The second was when Haloti Ngata grazed Brady’s helmet. Maybe Brady was worried Ngata would mess up his hair because again Brady begged for a flag to be thrown.

Now I’m all for protecting the quarterback, if you’re an offensive lineman. I understand that quarterbacks have to stand in there and take hits when they are basically defenseless. And roughing-the-passer should absolutely be called when a quarterback is hit hard late. But looking threateningly at a quarterback is not a penalty. At what point do we just give these guys a red jersey and make it a game of touch-football? If quarterbacks don’t stop complaining every time someone gets near them, maybe they should just wear those pink shoes and wristbands every week.

Pats Beat Ravens

Mark Clayton was open and waited for the 4th-down pass that could keep the Ravens’ hopes alive. Joe Flacco reached his target inside the Patriots 10-yard line and past the first-down marker, but Clayton didn’t hold on with 28 seconds remaining. New England did—eking out a 27-21 victory over Baltimore on Sunday. The game was certain when Clayton dropped the ball and the Patriots ran out the timer as they kept their unbeaten record against the Ravens with their fifth win.

Brady completed 21 of his 32 passes for a total of 258 yards, one TD and no interceptions. Flacco, on the other hand, went 27 for 47 for a total of 264 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. Trailing 17-7 at the half, Baltimore made it 17-14 when Terrell Suggs hit Brady for a sack and knocked the ball loose. Dwan Edwards recovered the football in the end zone for a touchdown with 6:19 left in the third quarter. But Brady led the Patriots on their next possession, a 79-yard drive ending with his 14-yard touchdown pass to Randy Moss.

Ravens Showing Confidence in Subtle Humor, Irony

If you saw Ravens Head Coach John Harbaugh’s press conference Monday afternoon, you couldn’t help but chuckle about the exchange he claims to have had with special teams stand-out Brendon Ayanbadejo. When asked his thoughts on Ayanbadejo’s increased roll on the team’s defensive sub-packages, Harbaugh was a little uneasy about the Pro Bowl linebacker’s mindset.

It is uplifting to see that even though the Ravens take their game very seriously, they don’t necessarily take themselves too seriously. A team that can enjoy with some good-natured ribbing shows that they have a assured level of confidence and trust in one another, which translates into performance come Sunday. Tight end L.J Smith is one more example. Smith had been fighting a hamstring injury since training camp and finally saw his first regular season game action last week against the Browns. After producing a first quarter reception for a first down, Smith came to the sideline and was quickly greeted with even more Raven spoof. If the Ravens go on and show thick skin, the result will definitely be more wins.

Lions Swap Out Wide Receivers

The Lions have signed wide receiver Adam Jennings, and set free wide receiver Yamon Figurs. Figurs had been getting reps at returner alongside Aaron Brown. Jennings is also superior at kick coverage than Figurs, who has been criticized for being too brittle. Jennings was the Lions’ best returner last season, but he was released by the Lions this offseason.

Figurs was a high draft pick by the Baltimore Ravens, but he never managed to show his worth. Jennings was drafted by the Falcons in the late rounds of the 2006 draft, he also never made a huge impact with the team. Can he make the best out of this new opportunity? This may be the blessing that the Lions are hoping for. After their victory against the Redskins, are we to expect more from them or was it just a road block to their improbable run to destroy history’s longest losing streak?

Cleveland Vs. Cincinnati

The Brady Quinn era ended pretty quickly in Cleveland, as the Browns’ Quinn-led offense has averaged just 3.9 ypp. Cleveland has played 3 teams that are good defensively (Minnesota, Denver and Baltimore), but those are bad numbers even when you take that into account. Derek Anderson takes over and should be better, but Anderson has not been able to back up his very good 2007 season. Anderson has averaged just 5.1 yards per pass play in 11 games since the beginning of last season and that’s where I’ll rate him heading into this game.

The Browns have to face another good defense this week, as Cincinnati has allowed just 5.2 yppl to teams that would combine to average 5.6 yppl against the normal defensive team. Cincy has been about average offensively so far (5.1 yppl against teams that would allow 5.1 yppl to a normal team) but the Bengals’ attack should have flourished against a sub-par Browns’ defense which couldn’t stop the run (5.6 ypr allowable) and has only gotten worse than the usual contrary to the pass too (6.8 yppp allowed to quarterbacks that would combine to average 6.4 yppp). My ratings favor Cincinnati by 7 points and using this year’s games only (and adjusting for Anderson at QB for Cleveland) results in a prediction of Bengals by 8 points. There are good situations favoring both teams in this game, so I’ll stick to the math and lean with Cincy minus the points.

Patriots Vs. Ravens

Baltimore has looked very good so far on both sides of the ball, but dominating Kansas City and Cleveland at home is expected and their win at San Diego isn’t really impressive given that the Ravens were out-gained 5.4 yards for each play to 7.1 yards per play by the Chargers. It’s pretty obvious that Baltimore is improved offensively in quarterback Joe Flacco’s second season but their pass defense has been poor (6.8 yards per pass play allowed) and Tom Brady should be able to exploit that weakness in this game. The Patriots are worse than average defensively as expected, allowing 5.4 yards per play to the teams that would combine to average 5.1 yards per play against an average defensive unit, so Baltimore should move the ball as well.

My ratings favor Baltimore by 2 points, but the Ravens apply to a negative 25-57 ATS road letdown situation following last week’s easy win over the Browns.

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