Canty won’t fill the Ravens’ big need upfront at nose tackle, but he’ll provide cheap and valuable depth for them. He played well last year before getting hurt and is probably a better player in a 3-4 than the 4-3 he played in with the Giants anyway. He’ll provide valuable and cheap (3 years, 8 [...]
Trade for Baltimore: I get that the Ravens were going to cut Anquan Boldin if they couldn’t find a suitor via trade and given that it’s good that they got something for him, but I question the logic of cutting him in the first place. He was just as big a reason why they won [...]
I hate when teams overpay based off of a short period of uncharacteristically strong play. I always like to consider where a guy was a year ago when grading moves. Well with Joe Flacco, you don’t even have to consider where he was a year ago. All you have to do is consider where he [...]
Before the 2011 season, Eli Manning called himself a top-5 quarterback. Everyone laughed. He won the Super Bowl. Before the 2012 season, Joe Flacco called himself the best quarterback in the NFL. Everyone laughed. He won the Super Bowl. There really seems to be something to this self-proclaiming greatness thing. I am so getting laid [...]
I did a Super Bowl preview last week, which can be read here, and now I’m going to do an actual Super Bowl pick. For those of you who don’t want to read the whole preview now, here’s a little bit of a summary. The 49ers have been arguably the best team in the NFL [...]
Colin Kaepernick vs. Joe Flacco. That’s our Super Bowl quarterback matchup. In the era of the quarterback, that seems inconceivable. A guy with 9 career starts and…well Joe Flacco. In the last 20 years, there’s been one quarterback to win a Super Bowl without first making a Pro-Bowl and that was Eli Manning (version one), [...]
I’ve gone back and forth on this one. On one hand, some of the reasons I didn’t like the Patriots last week are still true. They’re still a terrible post-season spread team, going 2-7 ATS in their last 9 post-season games and 4-8 ATS all-time as favorites of more than 4 in the post-season. Last [...]
Both the Patriots and Broncos are both around 9.5 point favorites against the Texans and Ravens respectively. Both teams blew out their current opponent late in the same season. I took the points with the Texans because I thought the line was too big, but I’m not going to do the same thing here for [...]
For analysis on Indianapolis click here For analysis on Baltimore click here The public is all over the dog on this one and it’s not just the public. I can’t tell you how many media people I’ve seen make the Colts their upset pick. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, whenever everyone is predicting the [...]
The Ravens defense was destroyed by injuries this year and as a result more has fallen on the offense than ever before. They’ve responded well. Joe Flacco statistically doesn’t seem to be having a year any different than any of his other seasons, but he’s led the Ravens to a career high 24.8 points per [...]
Baltimore Ravens (10-5) at Cincinnati Bengals (9-6) In spite of that big win in Pittsburgh last week, Andy Dalton and these Bengals still have a lack of success against playoff teams over the past two years. After going 0-8 against playoff teams last year, they’ve had very limited action against playoff teams this year. They [...]
Last week: 8 (+0) Record: 10-5 Net points per drive: 0.31 (10th) DVOA: 11.1% (8th) Weighted DVOA: 9.5% (10th) Studs QB Joe Flacco: 25 of 36 for 318 yards and 2 touchdowns, 1 throw away, 1 hit as thrown, 1 drop, 100.9 adjusted QB rating, pressured on 14 of 36 drop backs (11 of 14, [...]
New York Giants (8-6) at Baltimore Ravens (9-5) The Giants stunk it up last week in Atlanta, getting shut out, losing 34-0. I generally like taking teams off a blowout loss. Teams in this situation tend to be overlooked, undervalued, and embarrassed. The most recent case of this was the Cardinals’ blowing out the Lions [...]
Last week: 5 (+0) Record: 11-3 Net points per drive: 0.67 (5th) DVOA: 37.2% (3rd) Weighted DVOA: 39.5% (3rd) The NFC is the much deeper conference, but I think the AFC has more top level talent as they have 3 of the top-5 top tier teams. The Broncos are in 5th, 3rd out of the [...]
Last week: 7 (-1) Record: 9-5 Net points per drive: 0.21 (11th) DVOA: 9.2% (10th) Weighted DVOA: 3.3% (13th) The Ravens could easily lose their final 2 games and go into the playoffs on a 5 game losing streak and 9-7 as either a wild card or a weak division champion, depending on what happens [...]
Denver Broncos (10-3) at Baltimore Ravens (9-4) Before losing to the Steelers at home a few weeks ago, the Ravens had ripped off 16 straight home wins, dating back to 2010. Given that, it’s kind of weird to see them as home dogs here. It’s also kind of funny to see how far this team [...]
Last week: 9 (+2) Record: 9-4 Net points per drive: 0.31 (10th) DVOA: 12.0% (9th) Weighted DVOA: 9.8% (10th) With the Ravens losing to the Redskins, the Bengals and Steelers had great opportunities to move within a game in the division, but both blew them and right now it looks like Baltimore is going to [...]
Baltimore Ravens (9-3) at Washington Redskins (6-6) Every once in a while, I like to look ahead and see which games I think I’ll take for big plays and upset picks. Last week, I looked at this one and I really expected to take the Redskins for a big play. The Ravens struggle as non-divisional [...]
Last week: 7 (-2) Record: 9-3 Net points per drive: 0.35 (9th) DVOA: 12.6% (9th) Weighted DVOA: 9.6% (10th) Studs LG Jah Reid: 1 quarterback hurry on 40 pass block snaps RG Marshal Yanda: 1 quarterback hurry on 40 pass block snaps, run blocked for 27 yards on 5 attempts RT Kelechi Osemele: Did not [...]
Pittsburgh Steelers (6-5) at Baltimore Ravens (9-2) 2 weeks ago, the Steelers were riding high at 6-3, including a recent win over the Giants in New York and looked like they had a chance to take control of the division with a win at home against the then 7-2 Baltimore Ravens. However, Ben Roethlisberger got [...]
Last week: 7 (+0) Record: 9-2 Net points per drive: 0.39 (9th) DVOA: 13.7% (9th) Weighted DVOA: 12.6% (9th) Tier 2: Quasi-Contenders Studs RB Ray Rice: Rushed for 97 yards (65 after contact) on 22 attempts, 5 broken tackles, caught 8 passes for 67 yards on 9 attempts, 1 drop, allowed 1 quarterback hurry on [...]
Baltimore Ravens (8-2) at San Diego Chargers (4-6) The Chargers haven’t beaten a team other than the Chiefs since week 2, when they beat the Titans, who aren’t exactly great either and then before that they beat Oakland. Why would anyone pick them to beat the Ravens? Well, that seems to be the public sentiment [...]
Last week: 7 (+0) Record: 8-2 The Ravens are 8-2, but I’m still not sold. They’re only +61 in points differential and most of that came from two wins against Cincinnati and crappy Oakland. They’re 6-1 in games decided by a touchdown or less and they haven’t had a particularly tough schedule. They could have [...]
Last week: 14 (+7) Record: 7-2 This team really lucked out. They were looking shaky (even off a 35 point home win) and had 2 games against the Steelers in their next 3 weeks and looked poised to cede their division lead, but Ben Roethlisberger’s injury changes that. They’re still allowing 40 more yards per [...]
Baltimore Ravens (7-2) at Pittsburgh Steelers (6-3) Ben Roethlisberger is out for this one. How can the Steelers possibly beat the 7-2 Ravens? That’s the question that everyone seems to be asking this week and apparently no one can come up with an answer as the public is pounding Baltimore as road favorites here. However, [...]