After a much needed bye week, the Ravens are back in action at the Castle and ready to enter the “Dawg Pound”.
After a Week 7 embarrassment against Houston, Ravens Nation has been champing at the bit to get ready to watch real Ravens football again.
Week 4 against the Browns was anything but pretty. The once vaunted Baltimore defense let Brandon Weeden tear them to shreds as they surrendered 320 yards through the air and just barely squeaked by with a 23-16 victory. The Ravens could have very easily lost the game if Weeden would’ve connected on a last play Hail Mary pass.
There is no reason that this mediocre Browns team should even compete with Harbaugh’s “mighty men!”
In my mind, there are three crucial things that need to happen in order for the Ravens to flush the Browns this week!
Fire Up the SIZZLE: The Achilles is healed, and the Sizzle is back! Even though Suggs’s stellar performance went to waste in the loss to Houston, this game the way he plays will matter! Terrell Suggs is a playmaking machine. As much as he played last week, I would expect him to be back to an almost full work load on Sunday.
Sizzle will look to get his 85th career sack Sunday and cover Brandon Weeden with dirt and grass all afternoon long. If Suggs can do this and force Weeden to make unnecessary throws, Cary Williams might finally look good and get another lucky Pick-6.
Would the real Joe Flacco please stand up? Joe has kept us on our toes for the last four years and year five has been nothing different. We have endured weeks of not knowing what’s going on in his head and this week QB Joe needs to make a statement. I’m getting really tired of the stats saying that Flacco is unstoppable after a bye week. The fact is, Joe has to prove to me he can live up to the hype!
As a joking fashion statement yesterday, Joe wore a hat that read “reckless”. Probably not the best choice heading into Cleveland… Reckless performance is exactly what we all fear. Joe has to be sharp! Sure, we would like to see added reps for Ray Rice, but this is truly a statement game for Flacco.
Touchback Tucker: Always a big threat when playing Cleveland is return man Joshua Cribbs. Justin Tucker has to be on his game and boot the ball out. Offensively, the Browns aren’t stellar, but Josh Cribbs could make the field position battle in the Browns favor!
Sitting at 5-2, we need a win to set up a VERY impressive 6-2 record. If we can hold off the road-game blues, Oakland is going to have to come into a momentum juiced M&T Bank Stadium!
