The Ravens host the Cleveland Browns tonight, a team that John Harbaugh has yet to lose to as Baltimore’s skipper. But despite the Browns 0-3 start and chatter about the team already looking towards 2013 when head coach Pat Shurmur and President Mike Holmgren are both likely to be gone, it doesn’t mean that the Ravens will take the plant operators of The Factory of Sadness lightly.
“You ever seen a pregnant possum?” Jacoby Jones asked this week while a guest on NFL Network.
Jones explained the unusual metaphor.
“Angry. Teams like that they come out scratching and fighting. They going to come playing hard, and we got to do what we do best and that is play Raven football.”
The Ravens are listed as 12-point favorites and while that line might invite a wager (for those who swing that way) on the home team a few things have me leaning the way of Cleveland and that tempting dozen.
- It’s a short week which doesn’t allow the Ravens superior coaching staff to fully implement what they might on a regular work week.
- The Ravens are coming off a big come-from-behind win before a national audience against the defending AFC Champion. It seems only natural that they could come out flat.
- Overconfidence has to be guarded against. After all, the Ravens have beaten the Browns 8 straight and outscored them 203-91 in the process.
- This is a divisional game and as Jacoby said, the Browns will be fighting for their lives.
But in the end, the Ravens will prevail. The Browns just don’t have the firepower even at full strength and tonight they will play without their best receiver Mohamed Massaquoi who is out with a hamstring injury and their best corner Joe Haden who is serving a suspension for a banned substance violation.
And that doesn’t bode well for the “Factory.”
Expect a slow start but in the end, make it Ravens 24, Browns 13.
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