2010 Baltimore Ravens Schedule Breakdown and Predictions

Yesterday the NFL unveiled its 2010 schedule and let's just say the Ravens don't exactly have a cake walk into their third straight postseason. The question on everyone's mind in Baltimore was, "Will the Ravens play the Steelers close enough to the start of the season to catch them during Big Ben's inevitable suspension?". The answer to that question seems to be yes. They get the Steelers in Pittsburgh in week 4 and if the most recent reports are to be believed, Ben will be out for at least 4 games.

So that's the good news. The bad news: 4 out of the the first 6 games on the Ravens' schedule are on the road against three play-off teams (Jets, Bengals, Pats) and two others that barely missed the playoffs (Steelers, Broncos). The guys in purple and black are going to have to come out of the gate focused to survive this stretch.

The competition in the middle part of the season softens a bit and includes a bye in week 8. The Ravens should be able to roll the Bills and the 'Fins at M&T Bank, but things won't be as easy when they have to travel to Atlanta on a short week to take on Matt Ryan and the Falcons on a Thursday in prime-time.

The home stretch is almost as tough as the beginning of the season, with prime time games against Pittsburgh and Houston and a match-up with the Super Bowl champion Saints. The NFL has mandated that all Week 17 games must be played within the divisions and the Ravens finish up the 2010 regular season against the Bengals at home, with the possibility of a playoff berth on the line.

Here are my game-by-game predictions:

Week 1: @ Jets - Win. 17-10. Rex Ryan's defense holds his old team to under 21 points, but Sanchez struggles to move the ball inside the Ravens' 35 yard line.

Week 2: @ Bengals - Loss. 27-21. The Ravens' problems in Cincy continue as the defense fails to keep Carson Palmer out of the endzone on the game's final drive.

Week 3: Vs. Browns - Win. 35-16. Come on, its the Browns.

Week 4: @ Steelers - Win. 24-21. Ravens squeak past a Roethlisberger-less Pittsburgh, but Dennis Dixon has another strong performance.

Week 5: Vs. Broncos- Win. 28-10. Denver fails to move the ball against the Ravens' D for a second straight year.

Week 6: @ Pats - Loss. 31-20. Belichick and Brady avenge an embarrassing loss the Ravens in last year's playoffs.

Week 7: Vs. Bills - Win. 27-9. Buffalo sucks.

Week 8: Bye - Would have been nice to have the bye in Week 9, before the Thursday night game in ATL.

Week 9: Vs. Dolphins - Win. 24-14. The Ravens are the better team and they get it done at home.

Week 10: @ Falcons - Loss. 27-24. Ravens, coming off a very short week of practice, lay an egg in prime time, as they are prone to do. The national media uses this game as proof that Matt Ryan was a better pick than Joe Flacco despite Joe's superior overall and playoff record. I really hope I'm wrong about this one. This would be a perfect coming-out party for the Birds and set the tone for a strong second half of the season.

Week 11: @ Panthers - Win. 31-21. Just a gut reaction, I don't expect Carolina to be particularly good.

Week 12: Vs. Buccs - Win. 35-10. While TB should be better than they were last yer (how could they be worse?) but they will still suck.

Week 13: Vs. Steelers - Loss. 24-20. The Ravens can definitely win this game, but I just don't think they will win both against the Steelers. I picked them to beat Pittsburgh in game one, so I had to pick the Steelers in this one.

Week 14: @ Texans - Win. 21-20. I'm picking this one with my heart. The Ravens have to win this with the Saints coming into Baltimore the next week. I wouldn't be at all shocked if the Texans pull this one out at home, though.

Week 15: Vs. Saints - Loss. 35-24. Too much firepower from Drew Brees and champion Saints.

Week 16: @ Browns - Win. 21-7. Again, its the Browns.

Week 17: Vs. Bengals - Win. 20-17. Final game of the season, at home, crowd going ape-shit the entire game, they cannot lose this one.

Regular season record: 11-5
Division record: 4-2
Verdict: Ravens win the AFC North, barely.

What do you think? Discuss.

Can anyone say, "Butt Cised"?

Various sources are reporting that the Raven's have signed WR Anquan Boldin to a 4 year deal worth 25 million dollars. Aside from adding a top-tier playmaker, the best thing about this deal is the fact the Raven's got him for little more than a song. All they had to give up was a 3rd and 4th round draft.

I can't tell you how excited I am about this deal. I was worried when they signed Stallworth that Ozzie would give up on grabbing another big-name pass catcher. With the addition of Boldin, we are looking at the possibility of having one of the most solid receiving corps in the AFC, if not the whole league. If Mason decides to return, we will probably see Boldin and Stallworth spread wide and Mason in the slot with option of inserting Kelly Washington for 4-wide sets. Does that, or does that not sound fucking sweet?

I think this signing could mean the end to Mark Clayton's tenure in Baltimore, which is more than fine by me. It also spells an end to the horrible rumors flying around that the Ravens could pick of T.O. Thank god that didn't happen.

Also, the fact that the Ravens have bolstered their wide-receiving depth frees the team up to go after players in the draft that help fill other holes, particularly in the secondary.

Lastly, in an unrelated development, Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger has again been accused of sexual assault. Could this day get any better?

Ravens sign Wide Receiver and Homocidal Maniac Donte' Stallworth

What?! You mean you didn't know that The Unfresh Feeling is the place to go for breaking sports news? Shame on you.

So, our beloved Baltimore Ravens have started the off-season with a bang by signing controversial wide-receiver Donte' Stallworth to a one-year deal. The local sports talk radio circuits have been abuzz with conflicting opinions in regards to whether or not this was a positive move by the club. Rest assured disciples of the purple and black, it was a good move...as long as it isn't their only move.

Clearly, the biggest issue detractors of the deal are pointing to is Stallworth's vehicular manslaughter charge. They figure that this is another typical Ravens move, bringing in a criminal and a thug. Unlike the cases involving Ray and Jamal (both of which I thought were bullshit, particularly Jamal's), Stallworth's case was an accident. Yes, an accident that left a man dead, but an accident none the less. Does anyone really believe that while Stallworth was at the club popping bottles of Ace of Spade, he was doing so knowing that on the drive home some Mexican dude was going to dart out from behind a bush into the middle of the street and directly unto the hood of his luxury sports car? Of course not. Should he have been drinking and driving? Again, of course not. But is he a murderer? I don't think so. Since the incident Stallworth has been nothing but contrite and apologetic. I mean, if he wanted to be a dick, he could have gone to trial, dragged it out for a year and probably had the manslaughter charges dropped. The dude he hit ran out into the middle of a highway for chrissakes. Instead he accepted his plea deal and paid the family of the "victim" several million bucks. As long as Stallworth produces on the field, by week 4, most Ravens fans (who aren't members of MADD) will have forgiven him.

Having dealt with that, here are the pros and cons of the deal in football terms:

Pros:

The Ravens got Stallworth on the cheap. He signed a one-year deal for under a million dollars. So, the Ravens got a legitimate offensive threat with very little damage to their salary cap, leaving room for additional deals this offseason. If he doesn't produce or gets in any more off the field trouble the Ravens can jettison him from the roster with minimal consequences.

Stallworth is a good player, or at least he was. The guy has 32 career touchdowns. Compare that with Mark Clayton's 14. If Stallworth can stretch the field and force the opponent's best cover corner to guard him, that will free Derrick Mason (if he decides to return) to dominate lesser defenders over the middle.

Cons:

The obvious PR ramifications of signing another player with a less than stellar police record.

We don't really know what kind of production we will get from him. He didn't play at all last season and even before his suspension he was never an elite playmaker.

This may give Ozzie an excuse to sit on his hands for the rest of the off-season and not try to bring in another big play offensive threat.


All in all, I think the pros certainly outweigh the cons. I like the move, but I just hope this is a first in a string of pick-ups the team makes before the start of the 2010 season.

What do Joe Flacco and Snookie have in common?

I am not exactly comfortable admitting this, but I don't know which stung more, the Raven's relatively early exit from the playoffs or the fact that after last night the season of Jersey Shore is over. At least for the Ravens game I had about 29 beers to numb the pain, the bittersweet pill that was the Jersey Shore finale was one I had to swallow dry.

Its hard to be too upset about how the Ravens' season ended. They were one of the final eight teams remaining, they finished with double digit wins for the second straight year, Ray Rice emerged as one of the leagues most promising young stars and the defense seemed to congeal to some degree in the second half of the season. Of course, after last year's improbable run to the AFC championship, expectations coming into the season were sky high. Joe Flacco began the year looking like the second coming of Johnny U and ended it looking more like a gimpy Trent Dilfer 2.0, tasked merely with handing the ball off and managing the game. It is unclear that this in-season regression was due to nagging injuries, a lack of a competent receiving corps (and it looks like the Ravens will have a tough time upgrading this unit with free agent wide receivers unless the owners and the players can come together and put in place a new CBA) or a genuine sophomore slump. I would like to see Joe take more of a leadership role on the offense and behave less like a emotionless cybernetic organism fueled by Pizza Hut pizza.

Jersey Shore has become a cultural phenomenon not because of the controversy surrounding the Snookie punch, or the perceived ethnic stereotypes it portrayed. Its popularity was based upon the fact that Jersey Shore is a fucking great show. I defy any of its staunchest critics to sit and watch the season in its entirety and not grow to truly care about the characters. Sure, they are over-the-top and flamboyantly Italian, but these people are genuinely likable. We went from laughing at Snooki, to laughing with Sitch to genuinely caring about the future prospects of Ronnie and Sam's relationship.

I always thought that my dream was to be on the cast of the Real World (the amazing thing about the Shore is they got this much great material from barely more than a month in the shore house, while the Real Worlders are together for at least 6 months), but I would trade any "seven strangers" for a chance to chase poon in Seaside Heights with The Situation and Pauly D for a summer (I would put these two up as the best television dynamic duo since Bunk and McNulty and Vic and Shane and Jerry and George). Not since The Big Lebowski has there been a more quotable pop-culture commodity. From "beating the beat up" to "gorilla juiceheads" to "haterade is best served cold" there wasn't a 5-minute stretch that didn't feature an absolutely classic zinger or a knee-slappable one-liner.

Those of us that stayed up to tune into the Jersey Shore reunion show were treated to one of the more uncomfortable hours of television in recent memory. Everything started out predictably enough with Mike taking the stage to do his normal Situation shtick and take abuse from Vinnie and Ronnie. Soon he was joined by his wingman, Pauly and hilarity, of course, ensued. If you watched closely, however, you could tell things were going to get strange. Every time the camera stopped on Ronnie and Sammie, it was obvious that something just wasn't right there. They were sitting next to each other, but their body language suggested that they would rather not be. Sammie's facial expressions ranged from boredom to embarrassment to sheer rage. As soon as the two took the stage, the lightheartedness and fun that characterized the entire show was sucked out of the room faster than it took Snookie to pound 10 shots and strip down to her bra and leopard panties on the first night in the shore house. It was instantly replaced with an awkward bitterness, as Sammie sat in silence and Ronnie threw emotional haymakers. Eventually Sammie broke down, ran off the stage and locked herself in the bathroom to have a good cry with one of the show's producers. She composed herself, came back the stage and promptly broke things off with Ronnie (sending my girlfriend into a frenzied people.com search to find out if they had really broken up for good). From then on, the show was tense and you could tell the cast just wanted to get the hell out of there and get to their paid bar appearance. Not even the eternally peppy Snookie could raise the spirits of the room.

Much like the Ravens' season, Jersey Shore came in with a bang and went out with a whimper, but, boy, was the ride fun.

The Curse of Matt Stover

With the release of Steve Hauschka and subsequent signing journeyman kicker Billy Cundiff, the Ravens have fully acknowledged that they made a mistake in the handling of the place-kicker position this off-season.

Ozzie Newsome, widely regarded as one of the leagues top GM’s, has made some extraordinary personnel moves over his career in Baltimore, however, he has made his fair share of blunders, this current kicker situation being the most recent.

In the past he has missed on high draft picks the likes of Travis Taylor, Kyle Boller (Brian Billick shares most of the blame for this disaster), Dan Cody (who I was excited about, but could never stay healthy), and Mark Clayton (The jury is still out on him, but considering he has never risen past the level of number two receiver on a weak receiving corps, I think it is pretty safe to say he has not met expectations).

Like most GM’s he has struggled to make a big impact on the field with his free-agent signings. Dominique Foxworth, Chris Carr and L.J. Smith have been complete non-factors. On the other hand, Kelly Washington has been a pleasant surprise.

With the Colts coming to town this weekend Ravens fans will have the pleasure of seeing Matt Stover at least one last time. Unfortunately he will be on the opposite sideline. The rationale behind cutting Stover before the season was that the Ravens would have to use an extra roster spot to carry two kickers because they felt that Stover would not be able to kick-off or hit long field goals. I refuse to believe that keeping Edgar Jones, Oneil Cousins or Frank Walker on the team was worth losing Stover.

Matt Stover is legend in Baltimore and he deserves a roster spot on this team until his leg falls off, I don’t care who you have to cut to make this happen. I hope if the Ravens lose this Sunday it is on a last second field goal by Money Matt Stover.

Letters to the Ravens

Dear Ray, Ed, T-Sizzle, Kelly Gregg, Jared Johnson and any other defensive player that his been with the team for awhile,
Do you guys remember what it used to be like for the Ravens? Back in the days of Boller and Billick. Back in the days when all you would ask is that the offense score at least 10 points. Now the offense puts up tons of points and the D can't get a stop when it matters. No more forcing timely turnovers, no more confidence that the D will come through when it really matters. What happened, guys? Did the departure of Bart, Rex and Jim Leonhard hurt the unit as much as it appears? Pull it together, use this bye week to do some soul searching and decide what kind of defensive unit you want to be, one that thrives on its past reputation or one that has an identity of its own.

Dear Chris Carr and Frank Walker,
You guys are way out of your league. You do not deserve to be out on the field on Sundays. Carr, on kick-offs and punts, you field the ball (if we are lucky) and run directly into the arms of the opposing tacklers. And god-forbid if you are inserted into the defensive secondary. Walker, you are just plain not good enough. You get burned repeatedly every game, you can't cover and your tackling leaves much to be desired. You should give half of your game check to Chris McAllister for being such a drunk and a loose cannon and burning every bridge here in Baltimore.

Dear Greg Mattison,
How did you get the job as the leader of one of the most innovative and feared defensive units in all of football with little to no NFL coaching experience? I know you are close Harbough family friend, but did you walk in on Jim and John practicing french kissing on each other as kids or something?

Dear Joe Flacco,
Thank you for the gutty performance yesterday. You went head to head with Brett Favre and didn't blink. Your expression, or lack thereof, on the sideline when Hauska missed the game winning kick said it all. You know you did all you could to win, your defense and kicker let you down.

Steve Hauska,
You better thank your lucky stars that Adam Vinatieri went down for 4 to 8 weeks. If he hadn't and Matt Stover was still sitting at home on his couch, you would be out of a job. Kill yourself.

Cincy shocks Baltimore and takes sole possesion of first place in the AFC North

I went to the Ravens game yesterday; sometimes when you are at the stadium you get swept up in the atmosphere and it is tough to really analyze the game. That said, here are some thoughts on the loss to Cincy:

Derrick Mason had zero catches. It didn’t even seem like Joe looked his way. This is mind boggling. Mason has been Flacco’s favorite target for the past two seasons but for some reason was completely absent from this weeks game plan.

Willis McGahee had only one carry. What happened to the “three headed monster”? I like Ray Rice, he always seems to pick up positive yardage and is a great dump down option for Flacco, but I would have like to see Willis involved more.

What the hell has happened to the Ravens defense? We all knew the secondary was questionable (and they proved this again by giving a touchdown through the air in the final minute), but since when does this D give up 120 yards on the ground to any running back, much less Cedric Benson? I mean, come on. The Ravens D could not get off the field and they allowed the Bengals to completely dictate the tempo of the game and dominate the time of possession. I am really starting to have serious doubts about Greg Mattison’s ability to come up with an effective defensive scheme that works in the NFL. Maybe we all took Rex Ryan for granted a little bit while he was here. I sure do miss the days of pre-snap “organized chaos”. Carson Palmer had all day to sit in the pocket yesterday. The secondary is suspect, but the front seven are not doing it any favors by allowing opposing quarterbacks to take as much time as they want to find an open receiver. Final thought on the defense: Didn’t that last touchdown drive for the Bengals remind you of the drive the Ravens gave up to Tennessee last season to lose that game?

I don’t want to blame the officiating for this loss, because that would take the onus the poor performance of the players and coaching staff. However, some of the calls that were made against the Ravens D were borderline at very best. This is now two weeks in a row that the outcome of the game has been at least partially decided by the officials.

I am very concerned about the challenge of going to Minnesota next week. If Palmer and Benson were able to make the Ravens defense look that pedestrian in Baltimore, imagine what Farve and Peterson could do in Minneapolis.