A Turkey Day Roundup
First and foremost, I’d like to wish everybody out there a Happy Thanksgiving Eve Night!
Yes, Thanksgiving Eve Night.
As we all know, the biggest bar hopping holiday of the year kicks off today, with patrons spending the day/evening/night out at the local bars, likely getting ‘lit fam’ sans the fam, or at least the family you’re dreading to see around the table on Turkey Day in less than 24 hours.
Or maybe you’re out with the out-of-town family catching up?
Who knows! Just be safe out there tonight folks, and remember- Uber, Lyft & Taxis exist for a reason.
MAKE GOOD DECISIONS.
Week 10 In Review
Last week was eventful to say the least. A few awful teams showed up for the first time in months, a few good teams made awful mistakes, and one rookie quarterback embarrassed the hell out of his head coach.
Here’s the quick scoop!
-The craptastic Giants beat the (currently) 4th-seed in the AFC. The Chiefs. It took OT, sure, but the Giants kept Tyfreak Hill, Kareem Hunt, and Travis Kelce in check… one more week for Ben McAdoo to have a job! #blessed
-The Eagles continue to kick the literal crap out of every opponent. This week their victim was the Zeke-less Cowboys. Call me crazy… is Dak Prescott actually good? Or does he need an elite supporting cast in order to be good? Sounds like a guy ’round these parts we all know too well…
-Staying in the NFC East, the Skins held a 15-point lead against Brees & the Saints with 5:58 left in the game. Blink. Now it’s a tie game with 1:05 left. Blink again. Saints won in OT. THE SKINS ARE 4-6 AND THE RAVENS ARE 5-5 TAKE THAT WRONG SIDE OF THE BW PARKWAY!!
-I’ll eat crow here: I thought Bills QB Peterman would play well despite facing the likes of Joey Bosa & Melvin Ingram. Instead, the pass rush forced Peterman into some awful throws, resulting in 5 first half picks by the rookie from Pitt. Tyrod came in for the second half. And he’ll be under center this week. RIP Peterman Era.
-The Seahawks lost at home in front of the “12th Man” (still think it’s a stupid gimmick to sell merch) by three. Worth noting- Pete Carroll tried a fake FG earlier in the game and came up short. Do math. Pete Carroll coaching blunders cost the Seahawks another game, as Marshawn laughs hysterically from Mexico…
Last Week: Ravens 23 Packers 0
Hey look! More crow to eat!
I admittedly had higher expectations for Packers quarterback Brett Hundley after his victory over the Bears in Week 9- the same Bears that beat the Ravens a month ago with rookie QB Mitch Trubisky under center for his first road game.
Instead, Hundley proved that he’s no Aaron Rodgers. Hell, he’s not even Jordan Rodgers (Aaron’s brother? QB for Vandy? Practice squad for Jags for a cup of coffee? Ring a bell? No?).
With Rich Gannon on the call for the game last Sunday, he picked apart Hundley’s issues, namely staring down his receivers, forcing bad throws into tight coverage, and essentially trying to do far too much, as he looked for the kill shots instead of taking what was given to him by the defense.
All in all, it resulted in 4 Hundley turnovers (3 picks, 1 fumble). Coupled with a fumble by rookie 4th-string RB Mays. The Ravens capitalized on the miscues of the Packers, turned 5 turnovers into 13 points, and walked away victorious with a 23-0 win on the road in Green Bay. In doing so, the Ravens handed the Packers their first home shutout since 2006, while also forcing 3 interceptions by a Packers QB at home since that same year.
Not too shabby for a post-bye must-win game!
This Week: Texans @ Ravens
Monday 11/27 @ 8:30pm
When the season started for the Texans with Tom Savage under center? I had this game marked as a definite WIN.
When rookie QB Deshaun Watson stepped in, and lit the world on fire? I had this game marked as a definitive LOSS.
When rookie QB Deshaun Watson tore his ACL in practice and the Texans went back to Savage? I had this game marked as a definitive WIN.
When Tom Savage went out last week against the Cardinals and put up 31 points?
On one hand, the Texans are playing without a TON of talent due to injury: Deshaun Watson, Donta Foreman, JJ Watt, Brian Cushing (suspension), Whitney Mercillus, CJ Fiedorowicz to name a few. With those key injuries on both offense and defense, this Texans team goes from a playoff contender to a scrub on paper.
The first 2 games following Deshaun Watson’s injury, the Texans only scored 21 points; however, they managed to put up 31 against the Cardinals last week in a 31-21 victory… then promptly found out they lost RB Donta Foreman to a torn ACL (Foreman had 2 TD’s in the game).
On the other side of the ball, the Houston defense has allowed an average of 28.75 ppg in the past four games.
That’s BRUTAL.
The Ravens have come out of the bye week on fire, both on offense and defense (special teams has continued to play great as well).
Of course, it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t mention the shortcomings of the Packers, and how substantial of an effect that was on the outcome of the game. Many are confident that the Ravens are just that good, but is that really the case?
If Aaron Rodgers had started for the #Packers on Sunday instead of Brett Hundley the games outcome would not have been #Ravens 23-0. The score would have been closer to:
— Tony Lombardi (@RSRLombardi) November 22, 2017
One player can make a huge difference…
PREDICTION:
Luckily, Tom Savage can be that one player this week for the Ravens! This season (5 games) Savage boasts a 52.8% completion rate, with 4 TD’s, 3 INT’s & 7 FUMBLES!
The Ravens D will do to Savage almost exactly what they did to Brett Hundley, as they’ll pick off Savage 3 times and force a fumble. They won’t get the shutout (late 4th quarter score versus the reserves), but they’ll have a better defensive showing than last week, as rookie Marlon Humphrey will start in place of Brandon Carr, and they’ll completely shut the door on the Texans offense for the first 50+ minutes of this game.
I’m also throwing in a pick-6 for Jimmy Smith this week, marking his 2nd straight home game with a pick-6.
On offense, I expect similar results as we saw against Green Bay: nothing dominant, a few downfield shots, a few ill-advised throws by Flacco, but ultimately the offense will find the endzone twice- once on a short field thanks to a Savage turnover.
I will note that this game will fall more on Flacco’s shoulders, as Houston’s 7th ranked run D versus their 26th ranked pass D dictates as much. As long as Joe limits his mistakes, the Ravens can easily win this game.
BAL 27
HOU 10
Rest of the Slate
Make sure you stuff your face with Thanksgiving Day games tomorrow, along with the usual Sunday dose of NFL!
-Vikes @ Lions Turkey Day @ 12:30pm. I’m not saying I want the Vikes to beat up the Lions too badly… just enough to soften them up for the Ravens the following week.
-Chargers @ Cowboys Turkey Day @ 4:30pm. The Chargers are actually the team I’m most afraid of stealing the Ravens Wild Card spot. They’re 1 game behind Baltimore, have won 4 of 6, and the 2 losses- Patriots & Jags- were close games. There final 6 games have 4 easily winnable ones- starting with this game vs the Cowboys tomorrow- then the Skins & Chiefs…
-Giants @ Skins Turkey Day @ 8:30pm. Mind you, this game likely won’t be close. I can’t see Cousins succumbing to the Giants defense much like Alex Smith did. Then again, the Chiefs are better than the Skins… worst case scenario, just remind your local family of Skins’ fans that the Ravens have a better record than them!
-Titans @ Colts Sunday 11/26 @ 1pm. The Ravens lost a heartbreaker to the Titans, who hold the 5th seed right now. Here’s hoping the Colts (@ Ravens 12/23) can knock the Titans down a peg this Sunday, helping Baltimore move closer to that 5th seed.
-Saints @ Rams Sunday 11/26 @ 4:25pm. Two high flying offenses. One QB is a young up & comer (Goff), the other defeating Father Time (Brees). The Saints are riding an 8 game win streak, while the Rams look to rebound after a 4-game win streak was snapped in Minny.
We should see some fireworks in this one!
Rank Em!
Turkey Day is upon us, and I would be remiss if I didn’t focus my Top-5 on such a glorious day!
Let’s do the typical “Reasons to be Thankful” with a slight twist…
Top 5 People Ravens Fans Should Be Thankful For
5-Brian Billick: Billick’s biggest slip up during his time in Baltimore is never a debatable topic- it’s definitively drafting Kyle Boller. Boller was such an embarrassment to the QB position (sans a few solid games), that the bar was instantly lowered for all future Ravens signal callers. Enter Joe Flacco. Joe clearly peaked during the Super Bowl run 5 years ago, but with fans afraid of another Boller-esque draft, we still appreciate having Joe under center every Sunday… and really hope that it’s the lack of talent around him causing his downfall and nothing more!
4-The Dude Who Sells Tee Shirts On Ravens Walk: This guy is easily the best part of Ravens walk (sans the vendors selling beer for half the price of the in-stadium booze). My favorite thus far is “She Loves The D,” of course in reference to the Defense… I did see him selling Dolphins colored ones post-game after Thursday Night Football and I almost bought one to stick on a Fins Fan’s car…
3- Chad Morton: As a rookie, RB Alex Collins saw some touches with the Seahawks, but had fumble issues. Instead of being able to correct those issues (I’d assume the Running Backs Coach, Chad Morton, would be the responsible party), the Seahawks decided not to add Collins to the 53-man roster. Instead, the Ravens scooped up Collins, fixed his ball handling after a few games of similar issues, and the rest is history of a great theft by Baltimore.
2- The DJ @ M&T Bank Stadium: He stopped playing Katy Perry & Taylor Swift the last few games, which I am very thankful for! Now if we could just convince the team that Seven Nation Army is overrated, played by literally 75% of professional and college teams, and the Ravens need a new celebration jam… (we’ll save that article for a rainy day!)
1- Jimmy Haslam:Â Ah Jimmy… the latest in a long line of failures at the top of the Browns food chain! This is fairly obvious, but Ravens fans should be thankful that Haslam has continued to trot out mediocrity without improving his team, much like those before him, allowing the Ravens 2 freebie wins each season, no matter how bad the Ravens are in any given year? We know we’ll NEVER be as bad as the Browns!
