Steve Davis: Ravens At The Bye
I think the Ravens are in a pretty good position. Prior to the season, I would have picked them to be 7-3. That is because I would have looked at the games in Indianapolis, Cincy and Pittsburgh as very tough games. They lost all those, which is reasonable to expect.
The one that hurts is losing at home to the Bengals; that puts them behind the eight ball a little bit. Now they need to make up for that and steal one on the road. They have the Saints in New Orleans when they get back. That is unlikely. The Saints, even though they just lost at home to San Fran, are very tough in primetime home games. That would be a major coup if they can win that.
The other road games are in Houston and Miami. I would be happy if the Ravens can win one of those. That puts them at 6 losses. Then, they have to run the table at home, which is very possible, with games against San Diego, Jacksonville and Cleveland to close the year. Can you imagine playing Cleveland for the division title?
I don't know what to make of the Ravens. They really don't have any signature wins. They look like a decent team, but not exceptional. My sense is this is not a team that is about to get hot. I think the injuries in the secondary and the defensive line have rendered the defense not much better than good.
I think a lot rides on Flacco. He has been rather pedestrian the last month. If he can get hot, then maybe the offense can carry the team. I am not so sure we have seen evidence of that happening, but the AFC doesn't seem to have great teams. New England, Denver and Indy all look better than the Ravens, but I think it's conceivable the Ravens could get hot on a given day. Unfortunately, we haven't seen them do it against a really good team yet.
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