A Great Sunday for The Ravens
By Joe Barnes
What a day. Everything went right for the Ravens today. A humungous, record-setting win, with Ray Rice leading the cavalry. Everything went right today, with the run game unstoppable, Joe Flacco rolling on all cylinders and the defense being the same dominant force, intercepting Culpepper all over and making Kevin Smith run backwards from one side of the field to the other on multiple occasions. It was one of the most dominant performances the Ravens have ever had. 48-3!!!! But, it was the Lions. Regardless of the opponent, I was very impressed and I’m sure other teams in the Wild Card chase, and the team’s next three opponents are pretty scared.
The team took care of business, but now in the season, it matters just as much what other teams do. This week, there were some awesome transgressions. Denver lost, so now the Ravens are one game behind them, and own the tiebreakers. The Jaguars lost, so in terms of record, they’re tied, but Jacksonville owns the tiebreaker over the Ravens. Since Miami beat them, the ‘Fins have an equal record to the Ravens, and tiebreaker-wise, should be ahead of the Jags, but are listed as behind on NFL.com. With the Steelers and Bengals losing, the Ravens still have a faint shot at the division. Not likely to happen. Here is the Wild Card picture right now.
- Denver (8-5)-Lost to Ravens
- Miami (7-6)-Beat JAX (own tiebreaker, not listed on NFL.com
- Jacksonville (7-6)-Own conference tiebreaker
- BALTIMORE (7-6)-One loss more than JAX in conference (6-4 to 6-3)
- New York Jets (7-6)-5-5 in conference
- Houston (6-7)-play Miami in two weeks
- Pittsburgh (6-7)-lost to BAL
- Tennessee (6-7)-3-7 conference record
The Patriots are now 7-5, and play both Jacksonville and Houston the last two weeks. If Miami passes them in the division, that makes the race even more interesting. Should be fun to watch, and might be stressful to watch unfold as well. For now, enjoy a big win, hopefully the success continues next week at home against DA BEARS. Anyone want to make an over/under on Cutler interceptions? I’ll say five.