The 18-16 win for the Baltimore Ravens on Monday Night Football sure wasn’t pretty, but then again, that’s what December football is all about. A win is a win when you’re trying to fend off teams in the battle for the postseason.
Some of my standout players from this week:
The week leading up to the showdown between the Ravens and the Lions was marked by rookie, Matt Elam, calling All-World receiver Calvin Johnson “old.” This of course, created a frenzy for the national and local media, putting the rookie from Florida under a microscope. However, Elam wasn’t the one responsible for controlling Megatron Monday night.
Jimmy Smith would take on the majority of that responsibility.
Smith is a having a break out season in which he has shut down the likes Brandon Marshal, AJ Green, Andre Johnson, and Calvin Johnson. Of course, I use “shut down” loosely when referring to Johnson, who had six receptions for 98 yards with a few drops sprinkled in there. It was Jimmy’s physicality that allowed him to win the battle with Johnson. At multiple points throughout the game Smith was jamming Calvin Johnson off the line, throwing off any kind of timing he and Matt Stafford would need.
Not bad for a guy people were trying to firmly place the “bust” tag on in the offseason.
Matt Elam reminded Ozzie Newsome why he thought so highly of him to draft him in the first round of the 2013 draft. Elam had the game-clinching interception, along with some great reads on passes into the flat where he made some sure tackles that otherwise could’ve gone for big yardage. Aside from a missed tackle early-on in the game and a bonehead personal foul for hitting Matt Stafford during a slide, Elam laid a couple punishing shots on the Lions’ Brandon Pettigrew and Reggie Bush.
If it takes making yourself stupid in the week leading up to the game to be on top of your game, go ahead and bring up Spy-gate now and get it over with.
One player that has been overlooked for much of the season is Jacoby Jones. This is mostly because of the injury Jones sustained early in the season, but since getting healthy and back into rhythm he has put together four impressive games. Whether it be as a receiver or returner, Jones has been a game changer for Baltimore. Six receptions for 80 yards last night, a kick return for a touchdown against the Vikings, we all remember what might have been in Pittsburgh, and four receptions for 103 yards and a TD versus the Jets.
Houston have we in Baltimore thanked you for putting Jacoby on the market yet? Oh yeah, we did after the Denver game last year…
And then there is Justin Tucker. Tucker singlehandedly kicked the Lions’ ass last night (pun intended) nailing the game winning 61-yard field goal in the final minute of regulation along with five more to go with it. When Tucker was asked about his 61-yard winner he replied, “I definitely felt like I got a lot of leg into it, but it jumped up so high I thought I might have gotten under it.” In the last 4 games, “Legatron” has gone 15 for 15 including two kicks from 50+, four from 40-49, and one from, of course, 61.
A lot of kickers aren’t even real football players. I like to think Justin Tucker isn’t a real kicker, he’s a football player. That being said he’s been concussed on an onside kick attempt, truck-sticked by Cordarelle Patterson, and now kicks 60+ yarders. You just get the feel that he’s a lot more accepted than most kickers.
Here’s to Ravens 2013- one heart attack at a time.
