Reality: Steve Smith Sr. is tied for the NFL lead in dropped passes with nine.
Perception: Steve had some nice catches in the 4th quarter Sunday, but he also dropped the first pass thrown to him – one that hit him right in the hands.
In the same way that I wish players would not showboat after making a simple tackle, I wish some players would let their play do the talking. Smith has been a loud mouth his whole career, and this week he continued that trend.
After the game, Smith was quoted as saying, “We expect and understand and anticipate all of the negative feedback and all of the fat, lazy, sorry couch quarterbacks are going to come out. We expect that and understand that. We’re not going to pay attention to it.”
My thought? Smith should stop talking smack to fans who are critiquing his play and stop dropping passes when his team is paying him millions to catch the football.
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Reality: The Ravens are 8-1 when they rush for over 120 yards in a game this season.
Perception: The Ravens are just 1-4 when they are held to under 100 yards rushing in a game.
Justin Forsett has struggled the last two weeks. Part of it might be that he is struggling with an injury, but the other part of it might be that he is simply wearing down.
Even with his lack of production over the last couple of weeks, Forsett is 6th in the NFL in rushing, and 3rd in the AFC. He needs just 53 yards this week to go over 1,200 for the season.
At the beginning of the year, if the Ravens knew they would have a 1,200-yard rusher, and have Joe Flacco having a career year (stat-wise), they would be extremely happy with that. But that hasn’t been enough.
Reality: The Ravens have the second most players on Injured Reserve in the NFL.
Perception: According to Spotrac, the Ravens have 18 players on IR. Only the Giants have more, with 22.
The 18th player to go on IR for the Ravens was Rick Wagner. He was placed on IR Tuesday. It might not feel like a big deal, since Wagner is a first-year starter, but it is. According to Pro Football Focus, Wagner is the second-highest graded right tackle in the NFL.
Eugene Monroe is also not playing a full strength. If the Ravens want to win Sunday and win in the playoffs, they are going to need to find some combination of linemen that can keep Flacco upright.
Reality: The Ravens will face a QB that was not on the 53-man roster the previous, for the second straight week.
Perception: Last week, the Texans called Case Keenum while he was hunting to come be their quarterback against the Ravens. He then went out and got his first win as a starting quarterback in the NFL.
This week, it looks likely that the Ravens will face either rookie Connor Shaw, who was on the Browns practice squad last week, or Tyler Thigpen, who was a free agent last week.
Shaw is the winningest quarterback in the history of the University of South Carolina football. Living in Columbia, South Carolina, I saw a lot of Shaw over his final two seasons for the Gamecocks. Last November, during a couple of big SEC games, I tweeted that I thought Connor Shaw would be the best quarterback in the 2014 draft class. Shaw went undrafted, but that hasn’t changed my opinion.
Blake Bortles could end up being the franchise QB the Jaguars hope he is. I still don’t believe Johnny Manziel will be a franchise QB. Teddy Bridgewater looks like he has potential, and so does Derek Carr. But look at the quarterbacks selected in the last NFL draft – if given the opportunity, I think Shaw could be the best of them.
Thigpen hasn’t thrown an NFL pass since 2012. Honestly, Shaw has more to prove and I think he is a real solid QB. If you follow the Ravens, you know they don’t perform the best against back-ups. I think Shaw will make Sunday a lot tougher on the Ravens than Thigpen.
Reality: If the Ravens make the playoffs, a lot of people think they could do some damage.
Perception: Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk said in his Power Rankings this week that the Ravens have the best chance of any AFC team to go into Foxboro and beat the New England Patriots, who are the #1 seed in the AFC. On ESPN Tuesday, Tim Hasselbeck and Louis Riddick made that same statement.
The Patriots haven’t lost a home playoff game since losing to Baltimore in the AFC Championship in 2012. New England has only lost at home in the playoffs three times since 1979, and two of those are to the Ravens.
If you are saying to yourself that the Ravens can’t make it to the AFC Championship game this year with the way they are playing, then you have a short memory.
It was just two years ago that the Ravens lost four of their last five regular season games to finish the regular season 10-6. That season, they went on the road in the playoffs and won the Super Bowl.
With a win over the Browns Sunday, the Ravens would finish 10-6, and again have to go on the road in the playoffs.
