These last few posts in this thread above my post are why I wanted the Ravens instead of the Chiefs or Bills. Both of those other teams have either scary qbs who are better passers than LJ8 who’ve both been there before…or just present serious match up problems for us..not to mention the weather in those places looks to be worse.
Although week 1 is now a long distant memory & both teams have gotten better since that time, I feel like we’ve improved much more than they have. Plus too, There are things we can glean from that 1st game. For 1, it was closer than it appears on the final scoreboard…especially when you consider that we had a QB/HC and OC all making their debuts in the NFL in their current roles. You factor in that our offense & defense were both learning new schemes at the time….…The Ravens really should’ve dominated that game in every aspect there was to. Now Part of why that maybe didn’t happen was b/c they too were learning a new offensive scheme, but I don’t think that was as huge of a deal for them as maybe some of their fans think it was. I mean they still had a veteran star in LJ8 at qb..they still had Harbaugh on the sidelines. They also had veteran leadership all up and down that roster too. Just with that alone they should’ve been able to curbstomp us….and they really didn’t do that. Game was basically tied at the half.
Not saying that we should win over them…they’re the #1 seed…but we all watched our guys over the course of the year. We’ve all seen the notable improvement since that 1st game. I believe that this game is gonna be tougher for them than their fans really realize. And of course the longer we hang in, the more pressure begins to build up on them. If this game isn’t still up for grabs late in the 4th qtr, I’ll be shocked.
What it’s gonna come down to is preventing LJ8 from putting his cape on too much..& how well CJ is protected. They know they don’t stand a chance in hell if they can’t get pressure on him. He took some really bad sacks in that 1st game that in essence killed a lot of drives before they got started. I don’t see that happening this game.
You might not ever get it. The Ravens are the worst possible matchup for you for a ton of reasons. I will name them.
1. Per DVOA and almost any other worthwhile metric, the Ravens are one of the best teams of all time (5th I believe). The Chiefs aren't even close. I guess if yo would rather play an all time legendary team yeah great matchup, definitely the one you want.
2. The Texans have no run game, the Ravens like to GIVE teams the run to make sure they cover the deep pass and allow nothing over the top. You will not be able to exploit this in any meaningful way.
3. The Texans want to push the ball down the field, and that is specifically what Ravens defense is designed to prevent. As I mentioned before the average is the best ok the last 17 seasons because they literally allow no deep balls passing. The entre secondary is full of starts even without Humphrey Once again, worst possible matchup you could think of.
4. The weather isn't supposed to be just cold, but cold and very windy. Oh guess what that affects.....the deep passing game, what the Texans want to use. Once again, could not be a worse situation for what Texans want to do.
5. So when it is cold and blustery what else can you do? Run the ball! Oh right The Ravens are the best running team in NFL, and the Texans are one of the worst.
6. Ravens have 5 legit passing options that all need to be covered equally on offense. You can't focus on one guy, they can all kill you. The Texans pass defense is like 28th one of the worst, once again just another horrible mismatch if it goes the way.
7. Texans run defense is great. Well guess what there isn't a team in football the Ravens can't and haven't run against, especially with a lead. Once again we can wash your best strength.
8. Back to the Texans offense, in order to have ANY chance at moving ball on us, you cannot be a one dimensional offense. It just aint gonna work. That is a death sentence if we know what you are trying to do all the time. You are largely one dimensional right out of the gate. Just a bad combo once again. I mean look what we did to 49ers, on the road to the best dual threat offense in football with weapons all over the place. Light work.
So you keep hanging your hat on "Lamar can't throw" or something. The Ravens are the absolute LAST team you ever want to see right now. You might have actually had a shot to beat the Chiefs, who are far inferior in every way compared to Ravens. Just remember this, you better get up early to have any chance. If WE get up by 14 at any point the game is over I promise. That is when things just snowball completely out of control, see SF and Miami.
Oh but here is the problem with getting up early on us. We have only trailed for 28 minutes the entire season. Out of 549 minutes of total game time. We are never behind, and the 3 games we (gave away) all happened months ago in the last 2 min with random dumb **** happening. When we were seriously banged up and not the team we are today. Or even close. When we lost those game early we had 6-8 starters out every game and still almost won. (a bunch got hurt in game 1 vs you guys, and those injuries lingered for a while and piled up)
I get you are playing with house money and all that. But you just don't understand how good we are. No one does until we beat them by 20-30 after everyone was predicting a close game. I'm not trying to knock you at all, but you are about to play a completely different animal. We had a late bye with a murderers row of 6 playoff teams to finish. Smoked first 4. Got to SF, oh it's gonna end here they said. Destroyed them in their own place. Oh next week here comes Miami, for #1 seed lot of pressure! Ran them out of the building 56-19. We have seen all the "pressure" and then some over past 2 months. It means nothing to this team.
www.nfl.com
All nonsensical crap based on a faulty premise. We can challenge deep, but its not our offense bro. our offense is perfectly fine with & capable of marching down the field using the short & intermediate game. Ask TB..& the Colts....& the Browns.... & the Jags. Furthermore, your defense/secondary has not shown much if any resistance between the 20's. Stingley BY HIMSELF has more ints than all of your DB's combined. And since you like PFF so much, he's also graded higher than any of your DB's according to them too. So is Nelson. Your mismatches in the passing game will most likely come with TE's and the safeties. But we don't NEED the big passes downfield. Also if you didn't know, our QB and #1 WR both played up north in Ohio and Michigan..Think they'll be ok playing in cold and windy weather 
