Seriously, after losing to the "uppity Redskins" and our two rookie QBs yesterday and losing to the oldest QB on earth (Charlie Batch), the Ravens have fired their offensive coordinator (rightfully so but he should have been gone months ago) and every football prognosticator in the city is about to claim the end of the Ravens chance at a Superbowl. Personally, I find it all very very funny being a Redskins fan that lives in Baltimore.
Here's how I sum up the alleged Ravens-Redkins rivalry which is really a rivalry between two cities with different personalities that don't "click" with one-another:
I like how in this article from the Baltimore Sun, the writers uses the phrase, "uppity Redskins". That pretty much sums up how much Baltimore fans hate DC fans and why this loss hurts them so much. For years and years DC has been a better city than Baltimore in many ways and most Washingtonians have not been shy about stating it, especially those who have come from the D.C. area to live Baltimore. BUT when it came to football, the Ravens - since they came into the league - have been far more successful than the Skins over that time period. So the one sure thing Baltimore folks always had on D.C., it was FOOTBALL! Yeah, Baltimore has a baseball team too but the Orioles stank so bad Baltimorians couldn't throw the O's in the faces of D.C. sports fans. Not only did Baltimore have the better football team, Baltimore had a tough, "we'll kick your ass in a street fight too!" team! A team that definitely embodied the personality of many in this city. Tough, gritty, locally prideful folk (which is one of the things I respect about real Baltimorians). Baltimore sports fans have always viewed themselves as a tougher, grittier city with more heart and less pomp, circumstance, high-priced free agents, and well... "uppity-ness". So now that they've lost to us after we've been the "bums down '95" the fans here are really hurting. Oh well, let it burn folks and get over it. I'm sure many Ravens fans are thinking "I can't believe we lost to the soft, bum Redskins!" Well yep, you sure did and it sucks to be you for at least a week.
I don't feel bad for Ravens fans at all, especially the obnoxious ones that know very little about football but talk relentless amounts of trash. Any Ravens fan with solid football knowledge and a realistic perspective on their team KNEW that no matter how they felt about the Redskins, that game was going to be a tough one and one the Ravens could easily have lost. Joe Flacco's still the QB ya know?
The Ravens have a great football program with players that were once great and now they're just good. They had an offensive coordinator that failed to use his biggest weapon consistently enough and that's where the Redskins and Ravens are different. The Redskins run EVERYTHING through their most talented player, even on run plays, and even though he's a QB and not a RB like Baltimore's best player, Ray Rice. The Redskins are headed in a positive direction from being a mediocre/bad team for the last X years. The Ravens have been a good team for that same amount of time and now, their stars are getting older, losing a step, and they're QB is on his best day a low-end of the top 10 QBs in the NFL and on his worst day (or just on the road for that matter), one of the 5 worse QBs in the league.
The Ravens will make the playoffs and win a game (or two) and the Redskins likely won't make the playoffs even though we have a good shot. But every year the same thing happens and it will again this year, the Ravens will win a game or two in the playoffs and then it's back home with the Redskins, fighting over stippers at Stadium or the gold-diggin' chicks at the various late-night party spots in Washington. In the end, both cities appear to have good teams this year and although the cities have different personalities, we should be rooting for both cities to do well because if both teams do well it helps all of the Baltimore-DC metro area. It's not a real rivalry by any means when it comes to football. The real rivalry is among the two cities.
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