Are the Ravens for real?
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| Robb Carr/Getty |
After an impressive victory should we consider the Ravens a real contender for the Super Bowl this year?
The Ravens are a contender
After seeing Cool Joe play last night why not consider them? He may only have thrown for 166 yards but he didn't turn the ball over. Steve Smith is not playing his age as he caught 6 balls for 71 yards, Jacoby Jones still looks electric, and having two solid catching tight ends helps. Not only that but holding the Steelers to two field goals looks pretty damn impressive when you consider Big Ben and company were able to put up 30 points in week 1.
The Ravens defense has looked solid so far, giving up only 21 points in the first week and a mere 6 points against the Steelers. It also helps when defenders are hitting hard enough to cause fumbles and create turnovers. It also seemed like Elvis Dumervil was on Big Ben all night.
The Ravens have not proven themselves as a contender
It's easy to get wrapped up in the excitement of one game. Look at the Patriots, when they lost last week people reacted as though the season was already over. Sure they had a well deserved win at home, but this is a team that also lost to the Bengals at home last week. Also, when I watched this game it looked like the Steelers gave them the game. Those two fumbles seemed more like bad ball security than amazing effort and the Steelers run defense was bad last week as well, giving up 100 yards to rookie running back Terrance West.
Big Ben actually looked comfortable throwing the ball and really didn't have a bad game. The two fumbles were caused by people who he threw to after they caught the ball and the interception was a deflected ball on the line caused by Ngata who then jumped to catch his own tipped ball.
We also haven't seen the Ravens play away this year. Perhaps a few more good games, at least one away, and they might be in the mix of serious contenders. As of this writing Vegas Insider has the Ravens' odds of winning the Super Bowl at 50/1.
Prediction
I'm not saying the Ravens are a bad team, but I also don't think they are a great team. To me this division seems like the Bengals are the heavy favorite to win. The Bengals have a great defense and a lot of play makers in skill positions on offense. They have also already beat Baltimore in Baltimore. The Ravens have gotten some production out of journeyman runningback Justin Forsett and the veteran Steve Smith but I just don't like Flacco. Last year the guy threw 22 interceptions and only 19 touchdowns. Yes he played very well in the playoffs in their run to the Super Bowl but Flacco's career stats are very mediocre. If the Ravens want to join the ranks of the Broncos and Seahawks as serious contenders for the Lombardi trophy their defense is going to have to carry the team. I just don't see them defeating either the Broncos or the Patriots in the playoffs, especially if the Ravens are playing away. My prediction is that they sneak into the wild card and lose in the wildcard round.
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