Are the Ravens a Contender or a Pretender?

Are the Ravens a Contender or a Pretender?

Steve Smith on his way to his first TD of the day

Through 4 weeks of the NFL season, the Baltimore Ravens own a formidable 3-1 record. This includes 2 divisional victories over the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns while they faltered at home to the Cincinnati Bengals. Their most recent victory over the Carolina Panthers was an impressive one in which they led from the start and coasted to a 38-10 victory.  

While still early in the season, I pin the Ravens as a playoff team with potential to be a Super Bowl contender. The Ravens do face a tough stretch coming up including games in Indianapolis, New Orleans, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati. Escaping any of these road games with a victory would be massive for the Ravens but they are not to worry. Baltimore closes with 6 of 7 very, very winnable games. Home vs Titans, Home vs. Chargers, @ Dolphins, Home vs. Jaguars, @ Texans, Home vs. Browns. Assuming the Ravens can grab 2 or 3 more road wins and hold at home, they will most likely represent one of the two wild card spots in the AFC. Whether the Ravens finish as the 6 seed behind what appears will be San Diego or as the 5 seed, they will need to get hot in the playoffs similar to their 2012 title run. 



The Ravens fortunately have the capability to make a deep playoff run for three reasons. First being, their reining Super Bowl MVP Quarterback Joe Flacco’s playoff experience in addition to his ability to string multiple games together among those of the elite. Flacco has shown he can be a very inconsistent quarterback. Watch a Ravens game and you will see the Raven offense breeze down the field one drive only to see the next drive end up in 3 boneheaded plays by their gun slinger. The thing that Flacco has going for him is the fact that he has made a playoff appearance in 6 of his 7 years including a win in all 6 of those years. Flacco is a prime time performer and getting to the playoffs could be all it takes to spark the performance he had 2 short years ago.

Justin Forsett

Secondly, it appears that the Ravens run game has been fixed with new offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak. The Ravens lost Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce has been injured but this has not slowed down Baltimore one bit. 7 year veteran Justin Forsett has stepped up unbelievably averaging 5.8 YPC with his 2 touchdowns. Not to mention, 4th round pick Lorenzo Taliaferro has proven he is very capable of handling the rock averaging 4.5 YPC. Even with the injury to Eugene Monroe, who will be sidelined for 4 more weeks, the Ravens managed to rush for a solid 127 yards against the Panthers. 

Rookie Linebacker CJ Mosely
 tackles fellow rookie Isaiah Crowell

The third and final reason why the Ravens could contend come the cold winter months is the defense. The aforementioned offense wins games but defense wins championships. The Ravens have been a little injury prone at cornerback and still have a lot to figure out at the safety position but it’s very early. If you can recall two years ago when the Ravens won it all, many were worried that they couldn’t get it done on the defensive side of the ball. But, what we must remember is that Terrell Suggs, Ray Lewis, Haloti Ngata, and Ed Reed, the four stars of the defense, did not play until guess when? The Divisional Round of the Playoffs. Compare this to 2014 where Lardarius Webb will most likely battle injury until the playoffs, Will Hunt who was the number 3 ranked safety last season by PFF is suspended for two more games, and two rookies who the Ravens are looking for to make an impact, CJ Mosely and Terrance Brooks, will all be fully gelled by late in the season. A promising thought when you augment that former DPOY Terrell Suggs and Elvis Dumervil line up opposite of each other and Haloti Ngata mans the middle. 

          Give the Ravens their due time and they will stout one of the best defenses in the league  paired with a very capable offense. And if you want some more evidence to why the Ravens can contend, return man, Jacoby Jones, owns the ability to take a kick back whenever he gets his hands on a ball. Finally, they have a pro bowl kicker Justin Tucker with multiple game winning kicks in his short career. The Ravens need to first get to the playoffs but once they get there the top tier of the AFC better not overlook the Black and Purple.

Money Talks:Joe Flacco's Contract, Trout's non-contract, and LeBron's Million Dollar offer

Over the past week there have been many intriguing money stories. Spreading over the NFL, MLB, and NBA, Sportacular Sports analyzes the Money situations.

Joe Flacco-Baltimore Ravens

Joe Flacco: Super Bowl MVP, Playoffs all 5 years in his career, 3 AFC Championships
Joe Flacco entered the 2012-2013 NFL season in a contract year. Before the season began contract talks faltered. As agent Joe Linta discussed throughout the season with Owner Steve Biscotti, Joe just kept performing. To say the least, Joe placed a hefty bet on himself and it payed off big time. Come Friday night, Joe Flacco's groundbreaking contract details were released. Flacco became the highest payed player in NFL history earning 126 million dollars over the course of 6 years.

With Joe's contract being released, 2 major issues came about; Is Joe Flacco the best player in NFL history and Doesn't this hurt the Ravens when they have so many key free agents.

To answer the first, obviously Joe isn't the greatest player in the history of the game but timing is everything. The fact that Joe won a Super Bowl in his contract year in the year 2013 just happened to earn him this contract. Joe ranks 5th in the league just at his position behind Manning, Brees, Rodgers, and Brady but he got the job done when it had to be done.

The next question, Will this hurt Baltimore?
While Joe is going to be a heavy contract on the already tight Raven's budget, signing Flacco will actually relieve some pressure on the Super Bowl Champs. If the two sides hadn't agreed to a contract, Baltimore would have had to utilize the tag, costing them up to 14 million dollars this season. From my research, The Baltimore Sun notes that Flacco's deal will have about a $7 million dollar hit on the cap as opposed to the potential 14 million. With Flacco saving the team about $7 million combined with the retirements of Ray Lewis and Matt Birk, Baltimore will be saving about $15 million dollars to retain key free agents like Paul Kruger, Cary Williams, Anquan Boldin, and Dannell Ellerbe.

Mike Trout- Los Angeles Angels

Shifting gears to Baseball, during this past week, Los Angeles Angels-Center Fielder, Mike Trout, decided to renew his contract at only $20,000 above the league minimum of $4900,000. The reigning Rookie of the Year obviously could have chosen to renegotiate a contract more fitting to his performance but chose to take "the high road". While his agent, Craig Landis, was not happy about Trout's decision, it is a respectable one coming from the 2nd year player. These are the players that should be most respected in sports today. They are putting the team's needs before themselves. LAA took on Albert Pujols, the highest paid player in the league, and then added Josh Hamilton's monster contract in the offseason. I'm not sure exactly what the Angels plan to do when Trout comes for his money but for now, much respect goes to Mike Trout.





LeBron James-Miami Heat

Everyone by now should be aware that the Heat are blazing. Miami has won their 14th straight with a come from behind win over the Knicks on Sunday. But the bigger news this week has been about LeBron's pre-game dunking routine. James has shown off his high-flying skills with an impressive dunk throughout this great win streak. So great are LeBron's dunks that Hall of Famer, Magic Johnson, has put a bounty on LeBron. The Bounty states that if James participates in the Dunk Contest, the winner of the Contest will be awarded $1,000,000. Yes 1 million dollars. While this is clearly a bribe to get James into the contest, I see it as a positive motivation. Assuming LeBron wins the contest, James would then have the chance to donate the money to his charity the LeBron James Family Foundation. James has had the critics out on him for a while since he's left Cleveland and I see no greater opportunity for LeBron to make his image crystal clear. For the aforementioned reasons, I do believe James will participate in the 2014 contest and add an iconic dunk to his ever lasting legacy.

The Baltimore Ravens are Super Bowl Champions

The Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 47 by the score of 34-31. Super Bowl 47 was the longest SB of all time and included perhaps the most exciting non-4th quarter in Super Bowl history. Before we recap the amazing 3rd quarter, lets first look at the beginning half.

The Ravens got off to a roaring start. After causing a quick Niners possession, the bird gang scored quickly with a Joe Flacco to Anquan Boldin connection. Unfortunately while the Ravens were putting up points, safety Bernard Pollard was in the locker room for the first time in this injury plagued Super Bowl.

When I talked to Pollard early in the team hotel on Monday he said, "I feel sore, I'm just hurting from the broken ribs. I've been dealing with them all season, I'll be fine though. " I thought to myself, what, this guy has broken ribs? But then again these are the toughest guys in the world and Pollard is one of the hardest hitting safeties in the league. Could his rib situation have led to an uncharacteristic missed tackle on Michael Crabtree's third quarter touchdown, sure, but that comes later.

The scoring was capped by a David Akers 34 yard field goal. I commend Akers on his Super Bowl performance after all the scrutiny he faced leading up to the game. Even though he received a mulligan on one attempt, Akers finished a perfect 3 for 3 on the night.

Joe Flacco got the scoring started in the 2nd quarter with a 1 yard pitch and catch to Tight End Dennis Pitta. The real big play in the quarter though came from hometown hero Jacoby Jones.

"It's always the goal to win the Super Bowl and by me being able to come home and play, that was like icing on the cake. You can drop the cherry on it, the strawberry, and the sprinkles." Jones had mentioned how excited he was to play in his hometown throughout the week and him scoring his ankle-breaking touchdown was truly an amazing moment yet not his greatest of the night. An Akers field goal closed the scoring for the half and left us with an incredible halftime show.

Now to the 3rd quarter. As I mentioned above, this quarter could have possibly been the most exciting or action packed quarter before the final 15 in NFL history. The excitement began with the beginning kickoff of the 2nd half. Jacoby Jones took Aker's kick 109 later changed to 108 yards right down the middle of a suspect Niners coverage team. It was one broken arm tackle and then the rest was history. (See who it costs $600,000)

After this amazing kick return even more excitement followed including a 34 minute delay caused by the outage in the Super Dome. Had the Ravens not held on, this Super delay would have been the most disputed event ever in football. Why would it have been so disputed? Because this outage clearly changed the momentum and killed all the rhythm the Ravens had going for them. Ravens fans were so loud and the Ravens were rolling but all of a sudden the lights go out and we see a whole new 49er squad. The 49ers eventually went on a 80 yard drive including the aforementioned Michael Crabtree touchdown. As the Niners fans began to get loud, the Ravens had a quick possession and poor punt by Sam Koch leading to a walk in touchdown by Frank Gore. All of a sudden a 22 point lead was down to one score.

Ray Rice coughed up the pigskin only a few plays later but a key stand by the Ravens defense somewhat weathered the storm. An Akers field goal put the game within 5 points. This ultimately raps up the greatest 15 minutes of the game yet we still had 15 more to play.

The Ravens really needed to stop the bleeding and Super Bowl MVP Joe Flacco took that challenge under his belt. Flacco led the Ravens down the field but were held to a short field goal by rookie Justin Tucker. The FG at least pushed the lead back to 8 points but Colin Kaepernick wasn't done. He answered quickly including his run down the left sideline in which he scampered 15 yards into the red and gold endzone. Kaepernick did his trademark kissing of the bicep and the Niners had a chance to tie the game. A questionable play call on the 2 point conversion left Kaep zinging the ball over top of Randy Moss' head.

Up 31-29, Flacco answered again. He led the team back into the redzone but Patrick Willis and company held on again. This was the moment that one realized the Niners had stormed all the way back and had implemented the "bend don't break strategy". The Ravens had given up a little over 350 yards per game during the regular season ranking 17th in the league but Baltimore always buckled down in the redzone. The irony seemed to be rising as San Fran came up with 2 key holds and had given themselves the chance to win the game a formula Baltimore had been utilizing all season.

Kaepernick got the ball back and simply marched down the field. A Frank Gore rush sent the Niners down to the 7 yard line. A read option for two yards by LaMichael James sent the clock tumbling down to the two minute warning.

As the Ravens prepared for 3 more plays Joe Flacco sat on the sideline wondering if he would get the ball back one more time. "I was sitting there thinking there's no way, there's no way we stop them here. But we did."

While Joe didn't fully trust the defense Ray Lewis knew there was no greater way to go out on his final ride than with a goal line stand. "The most exciting things ever were the conversations we were having on the goal line. Nobody ever panicked. There was no panic. When you have that, when your back is against the wall … for us to stand up like that is just a testament to what we've been through all year."

With Haloti Ngata sitting out the final 20 minutes of the game, San Francisco opted to throw 3 times within the 5 yard line. Kaepernick showed who his favorite receiver was as he targeted Crabtree on all three throws. The final one coming with a minute and fifty seconds as the ball sailed out of bounds. Jimmy Smith grabbed a handful of Crabtree's jersey but the referee's indecision let the play stand and left the Baltimore Ravens as Super Bowl Champions.











Super Bowl MVP-Joe Flacco

Final Score: 34-31

Is Joe Flacco Elite?

Is Joe Flacco Elite?

As we approach Sunday, some food for thought has come up about Raven's Quarterback, Joe Flacco. Flacco assumes the role of facing Tom Brady this weekend for a chance to play in Super Bowl 47. In facing a great like Brady, the question surfaces, is Joe Flacco elite?

Before we dive in, I would like to state that I believe their are about 4 classes of Quarterbacks which rapidly change based on performance over the season. For instance the bad, consisting of Blaine Gabbert and John Skeleton for example. The next class are the good/more than game managing Quarterbacks. For instance, Matt Stafford and Philip Rivers headline this class. The class that sits right below the Elites, consists of names like Roethlisberger and Matt Ryan. The gun-slingers in the final class are the best of the best. In no particular order, Brady, Manning, Brees, and Rodgers. I throw Eli in there because of his 2 rings and clutch moments. I'm satisfied with him in either class. Now to answer the question, does Joe belong in that category.

Plain and simple, No. Unfortunately he doesn't match up with the ranks of the Elites. These MVP candidates throw for 35+ touchdowns a season and are usually below the 10 interception mark. Fu-manchu and all, Joe only managed to pass for only 22 TDs. He definitely does not put up the numbers of an Elite quarterback but a legitimate rebuttal would be, like Tim Tebow, all he does is win.

In his 5 years in the league, Flacco has been to the playoffs every year including a victory each and every time. The one thing that holds him back in this category is his inability to advance to the Big game. Don't get me wrong, he outplayed Tom Brady in his own house last season but still has not won under the bright lights. Right now, it is essential for an Elite Quarterback to have a ring. While in the past, this wasn't the case (see Dan Marino), nowadays you simply can't be talked about in that class without some hardware.

So my final answer, No, Joe Flacco is not elite...BUT... talk to me in 3 weeks and if Joe has lifted the Lombardi Trophy, I'll be the first one to introduce him to his new buddies. 

Sportacular Sports Baltimore Ravens vs. Cleveland Browns

 The injury-ridden Baltimore Ravens travel to Cleveland to face the up and coming Browns. Baltimore has defeated Cleveland the last 6 times they have played them. But this is a Ravens team without leader Ray Lewis and top CB Lardarius Webb.

The Browns have added ROY candidate Trent Richardson and 29 year old rookie Brandon Weeden. While the Browns record isn't stunning they play teams a lot closer than the games should be. In Baltimore, Cleveland fell 23-16 and had multiple chances to tie it up late in the game.

Now for Baltimore, the Ravens have only played one game without Webb and Lewis but did get last year's DPOY back. Terrell Suggs was the only bright spot in Houston's blowout loss two weekends ago. Under coach John Harbaugh, the Ravens have yet to lose coming off the Bye. Ray Rice traditionally dominates the Browns on the ground but Joe Flacco usually struggles on the road. It's about time that Flacco shows up on the road and there might not be a greater opportunity than this Sunday.

Prediction: Ravens-27 Browns-21

The Browns will play a tight one but somehow the Ravens find a way to beat the not very good teams. 2 Td's from Flacco and a score from Rice will be enough to counter Trent Richardson's TD. Birds by 6.