Saturday, January 1, 2011

What is in the Ravens' near future?

Happy new year to all. You are reading the first post of 2011!

Tomorrow is the final day of the NFL regular season. All four teams in the AFC North division are facing each other. The Pittsburgh Steelers are traveling to Cleveland to face the Browns and capture a division title. The Ravens, who can potential seize the AFC North title with a win and a Pittsburgh loss, host the Cincinatti Bengals.

Although the Ravens have clinched a spot in the playoffs, becoming the number two seed would make things a little easier.

Right now the Ravens are the fifth seed and will travel to Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to face the resurging Colts. Keep in mind the Ravens have not defeated Peyton Manning and the Colts since December 2, 2001 and their 2010 postseason run ended disappointingly in the same building.

The final score was 20-3 and the Ravens spent the entire game vicariously turning the ball over. Ray Rice fumbled on a 20 yard run, Ed Reed fumbled the ball during an interception return and Joe Flacco threw two interceptions and no touchdowns. Flacco threw the ball 35 times, mostly because he had to play from behind for a majority of the game. By halftime, the Colts buried the Ravens in a 17-3 lead.

As the number two seed, the Ravens could avoid all of this by earning a first-round bye and return the following week to face either the Kansas City Chiefs or the New York Jets.

Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself as the Ravens have a formidable challenge tomorrow. The 4-11 Bengals are in a position to play the spoilers and defeat the Ravens who must come out victorious to maintain their winning momentum as they approach their third playoff run in three years.

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