Winter is coming. Well, it's here but the the final regular season game of the year is coming on New Years eve. New Year's Eve? Ugh. Now I have one more thing to try and work into an already busy evening. Not sure how much commentary I (or we all) will have here. The Bengals have gone from suspect to proven awful. Marvin Lewis is gone at the end of the season. Andy Dalton might be moving on too. The offense is currently ranked dead last in the league, 31st in rushing, 28th in passing yards and averaging just 15pts per game in their last 4 with a player like AJ Green. Still, this has trap game written all over it. With the Ravens barely squeaking by the equally miserable Colts last week it is impossible to tell with any certainty which Ravens teams will show up. If the one that knows that they are likely done (unless both the Bills and Titans) if they lose AND are able to play like it, then we should finally see another post season. Further, these Ravens-Bengals season finales are all too common and have not gone our way as of late. The team has to treat this game like a Championship or risk getting caught with it's pants down. As shoddy as they've grown this season, the Bengals managed a win against Detroit. It was costly and virtually meaningless win, with key injuries to Joe Mixon, Vontaze Burfict and his b/u Jordan Evans and SS Shawn Williams. Starting LT Cedric Ogbuehl also continues to be questionable after missing this game. This could be all that is needed for the Ravens to overcome an already beleaguered team. The defense could have a big day again, though I doubt we'll see another shutout of the same team in the same season (that may never have been done, or at least in the modern era). Without Jimmy Smith we may see Dalton and Green keep things interesting, but even with Smith, Green has usually had his way with our defense in the past. Dalton has thrown only 12 INTs and had just 4 lost fumbles. His ball security is better than average, but he has been sacked 38 times though so anything can happen there. Mixon may have a high ankle sprain and doubtful for the Ravens. While he's flashed some talent hasn't been exactly a world beater. Neither has Gio Bernard who will assume the bulk of the rushing duties. The real contest will be the D-line putting pressure on Dalton and the secondary keeping pace with Green & Co. The Bengals D has dropped off since their week 1 meeting and is now ranked 20th overall. They're 31st against the run so Collins and Allen should have success on the ground. Their 7th ranked secondary however will possibly be without Shawn Williams (concussion). His loss could create room over the top for Wallace and Moore and even at the 2nd and 3rd level for our running backs with Clayton Fejedelem as their next man up. I'm going to be optimistic for a strong win to build momentum into the post season. Ravens 34 - Bengals 17 Other games to track: Bills @ Dolphins and Jags @ Titans.
The Ravens haven't swept the Bengals since 2011...so, lets hope that continues! Haha Obviously, the Ravens should win this game. They are the better team. The Bengals, though, aren't as bad as the stats suggest, and they would love nothing more than to eliminate the Ravens from the playoffs. I would imagine they will play it tough and it will be a pretty good game. Ravens 24 - Bengals 20
Can the Bengals play spoiler again? If they didn't screw the Lions then they were looking good this week. If they were motivated to spoil the Lions you can bet your ass they will be to spoil the Ravens.
This is how the AFC playoffs will look: 1. Steelers (HOMER ALERT: Jets spoil Pats) 2. Patriots 3. Jaguars 4. Chiefs 5. Ravens 6. Chargers - The Jaguars have nothing to play for against the Titans, who will be playing for their playoff lives. However, the Jaguars are that much better than the Titans and will be motivated to prevent the season sweep (Titans beat Jaguars in week 2 this season). - Dolphins have nothing to play for against the Bills, but if there's anything the Bills know how to do it's f**k up their chances. - Chargers are at home against the Raiders, who are traveling all the way back across the country on a short week. Of all the teams in the hunt, their victory is the most easily predicted IMO. - Ravens should crush the Bengals. Maybe not shut them out again, but this Ravens team is well-equipped to handle business against the orange thugs of Ohio. And just for the record, the NFC playoffs: 1. Eagles 2. Vikings 3. Rams 4. Panthers 5. Saints 6. Seahawks - Vikings over Bears and it's not even close to give the Vikings their first-round bye. - Rams give Jimmy Garroppolo his first loss. - Not only do the Panthers upend (and eliminate) the Falcons in Atlanta, but the Bucs stun the Saints to give Tampa ownership a pause as to whether or not to fire Dirk Koetter. This gives Carolina the division in a shocking turn of events. - Fun trivia: the Panthers actually have a chance to earn a first-round bye in the playoffs. They need to win and have the Vikings, Rams, and Saints all lose. The Saints and Rams don't have this opportunity - both will play in the wild-card round regardless of what happens. - Seahawks scrape by the Cardinals and earn the last playoff spot for a wild-card round featuring two divisional rivalries.
Sessler mentioned him as 1 of 7 players that matter most in week 17. If at any point, the Ravens cease to run the ball a minimum of 27 times given this offense Mornhinweg should be fired on the spot. If an NFL.com writer knows this stat then so should our OC. The only excuse would be if Joe is calling audibles for whatever reason. In either case, I'd like for this to be Mornhiweg's last season and the Ravens can part with him on good terms en route rehiring Kubiak. It's pretty amazing that we were able to find a diamond in the rough in Collins. I like West but unless Collins is injured I doubt he sees the field again as a Raven. His contract is up at the end of this season and he'd probably want more money or at least the $1.8m HE'S EARNING NOW. That's a shame for a hometown guy like that.
Something else to consider in the Ravens race to the play offs: Overcoming injuries. The higher up the chart the more success the team has and the larger the bubble the higher the quality of player was lost. The farther right on the chart is the total number of missed games from lost players. Makes all the bitching we did all season seem misguided.
How so? Seems like bitching is appropriate, a fairly medium sized bubble, larger than the median average it seems there, and the most amount of total days missed. Closest person to our level of success have nearly 50 less days of injury. Indy and new england seem to be the 2 real stand out injury issues with regards to quality, kansas too i suppose. but we are right there with SFO, NYG, WAS in quality of injuries but we have more days worth of injury. In conclusion, bitching seems fairly appropriate. 2k
Seems to me the more days of injury the less cause we have to bitch. The only other teams with our success with similar injuries are NE and KC. KC started out looking like a world beat too. NE is always a contender. We didn't know it at the time because the result at the bye was 4-5, but imo we should feel better knowing we are contenders even with such extensive injuries from early on.
Some are feeling the hype surrounding the Ravens 2nd half of the season turn around: http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap30...urnaround-shadys-freshness-scoreboardwatching My chief concern is that they have not had a very difficult schedule so some of this hype is purely...well, hype. If they end up drawing KC (likely) they stand a chance of moving on. That team is ion worse shape than the Ravens. They have talent, but their defense fallen way off and defenses generally win playoff games. Best case is that the Chargers don't make it since they're looking dangerous. While I'm getting ahead of myself here (they have to beat Cincy first and without major injuries) looking ahead they face the Pats if the Jags win and the Steelers if the Titans win. Either of those is going to be a HUGE game.
