This Sunday the Baltimore Ravens will travel to Cincinnati to face the AFC North leading Cincinnati Bengals. Earlier this year when the Bengals came to Baltimore Carson Palmer led a fourth quarter comeback assisted by Baltimore's defensive penalties. Cedric Benson ran for 120 yards and broke the streak the defense had of 39 consecutive games without allowing a 100 yard rusher and worst of all they won the game and got the divisional win they needed to sit at atop their division.
This year Benson has had a comeback year making a home in the top 5 rushing leaders so far this year. On the other hand, the Ravens run defense had seemed to regress to a soft vulnerable defense incapable of defending the run. The Bengals, Patriots and Vikings all had a hand in the ravens falling from first in the division to third in the month of October.
They did it by taking advantage of the underperforming secondary and having just a little bit of luck. The Bengals game winning touchdown was thrown right down the middle of the field where Andre Caldwell stepped in virtually untouched. The Patriots were getting man handled by the Ravens offensive line in the fourth quarter until Flacco through the perfect pass to Mark Clayton for what would have been a first down but it was dropped. Then a week later when the Ravens drive down the field on the Vikings defense, the lose when Steve Hauschka misses a kick in the final seconds of the game.
But this Sunday after the Ravens defeating the Broncos at home in what seemed to be the revival of the intimidating Ravens defense the Ravens could very well split the series this year between the Birds and Cats (Ravens and Bengals people jeez!). If the defense can treat Benson like Knowshown Moreno, they should have a good chance of grabbing the "W" in a hostile environment at Paul Brown Stadium.
The only setback will be whether Haloti Ngata will anchor down the defensive line when showtime comes. He has a sprained ankle and has missed Wednesday's practice. That does not sound all that bad but now there is speculation that he may not play at all this weekend. If the Ravens are without one of the best defensive tackles in the league(by that I am refering to Ngata) come Sunday, the middle of the defense maybe more vulnerable to big plays bursting through the middle than they were three games ago.
Justin Bannan is talented but there is only one Haloti Ngata. Lets hope and pray that 92 is standing tall come Sunday at 1:00pm.
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