Going back to the days of Brian Billick, it’s been a staple of Baltimore Ravens teams: they play better as the underdog. Linebacker Jarret Johnson, a Raven since 2003, admitted as much during an interview this week, and any devoted purple faithful can attest to it – they’ve just never handled being the favorite well. [...]
The Houston Texans, fresh off their first playoff victory in franchise history – a 31-10 spanking of the Cincinnati Bengals – come to Baltimore for the second time this year hoping to earn a berth in the AFC Championship game. As I said several times this week, the Texans are to be commended for their [...]
First off, I was curious as to how the numbers from this year’s Week 17 Bengals-Ravens match up compare to the stats going into the same game last season… /hops in handy-dandy purple time machine, sets date to Week 17 2010 /time machine returns Well, what I learned was that these teams are pretty much [...]
With the favor the San Francisco 49ers did for the Ravens in beating Pittsburgh on Monday night, Baltimore is back in control of their own destiny for the AFC North crown and a playoff bye. The Houston Texans lost to the Indianapolis Colts on Thursday night as well, and while not particularly important as long [...]
A trip to visit a 6-7 team shouldn’t make a fan base this uneasy, especially one of a team that has rolled off four consecutive wins to position itself on the inside track for the #1 playoff seed in the conference. Even if the Ravens hadn’t already went on the road and laid eggs against [...]
With the Cleveland Browns doing the Ravens no favors in losing to the Steelers on Thursday night, the Ravens will have to do something Sunday that they haven’t done in over a decade: beat the Indianapolis Colts. Fortunately for the Ravens, the conditions for a win over the horseshoes have never been better. They limp [...]
The Ravens travel to Cleveland this week for the first matchup of the season with the division rival Browns, looking to avoid another road letdown like the ones that befell them in Seattle and Jacksonville (I’m still OK with the Tennessee loss – they’re a decent team, and damn near “good” with Kenny Britt). They’ve [...]
The HarBowl is finally upon us, Baltimore. A game that looked to be a cake win when the schedule first came out is now anything but, as John’s brother and ex-Ravens quarterback Jim has his San Francisco team riding high on an 8-game winning streak. The 49ers can actually clinch a playoff spot with a [...]
Instead of having some breathing room entering this Week 11 divisional clash with the upstart Cincinnati Bengals, thanks to their third road hiccup against an inferior opponent, the Ravens find themselves needing a win on Sunday to avoid falling to third place in the AFC North. As ridiculous as that proposition seemed just two weeks [...]
The Ravens head to Seattle this week to take on Pete Carroll’s squad as well as the famous “12th man” crowd at Qwest Field. The last time the Ravens made this trip, they were smacked around by Matt Hasselbeck (hey, sound familiar?) as Troy Smith made his first NFL start, and I was inspired to [...]
