Superbowl Prediction

Just for the record, I picked the Ravens to win PRIOR to picking them to lose in the playoffs (see third paragraph below), I'm just saying.

With that in mind I'm picking the Ravens to win the Superbowl for several reasons:

• The most glaring reason is that these guys are going to play their hearts out in an effort to get Ray Lewis a ring on his last "ride".
• The Ravens are a veteran team with a lot of resolve playing a younger team that clearly has about 3-5 years (if everyone stays healthy and doesn't get traded or leave) where they will be vying for NFC and NFL supremacy. I don't think you can discount just how much veterans that produce on-field matter to a team. The Ravens have Lewis, Suggs, Ngata, Pollard, Flacco, Rice, Boldin, McKinnie (yep), and Oher that are all veterans that are proven and will be focused on getting that championship. Not that the young guys on the Niners side won't be focused and ready to play, but it's different when you've come close several times but not gotten the deal done (just ask LeBron before last year).
• The Ravens defense has a solid blueprint on how to stop a QB like Kaepernick AND, if he stays in the pocket, the Ravens have also proven they can stop a QB like sayyyy, Tom Brady. And I doubt that Frank Gore and LaMichael James are going to beat the Ravens by themselves.
• My Washington Redskins beat last year's Superbowl Champions and the last time San Francisco and the Redskins played, San Francisco won.

So there you have it. I expect Baltimore to be purple all weekend and probably for an entire year until the get eliminated from playoff contention or lose in the playoffs next season.

Baltimore's Love for Ray Lewis Has Absolutely No Limits

I present without comment, the "Ray Lewis Light Show" that is apparently being projected onto a side of the Marriott Hotel downtown in Baltimore. Ok, ONE comment. I'm not a Ravens fan nor am I a Ravens hater (well, sometimes) but this is actually kind of neat. I wonder who will be the first person to recreate this video footage with that lil situation that happened in Hotlanta a while back.


Not that I want to, but I might have to drive downtown tonight just to see if this thing is real.

NFL Conference Championship Weekend: All Bets Are Off in the AFC

After the performance the Ravens put on in Denver to pull out that win there is no way I can dismiss them from moving forward to the Superbowl. The Ravens showed a lot of heart, resolve, grit, determination, et. al. I can't help but think that the notion of Ray Lewis retiring at the season's end really is subconsciously or consciously driving and inspiring these guys, not to mention Ray's leadership during the game.

With all that said, I'm gonna pick the Ravens to beat the Patriots 31-27 next Sunday.

As for the other game to be played on Sunday, I don't think Atlanta is tough enough to beat the 49ers. Talented enough, for sure. But do they have the heart to pull off a win against a very tough team and also stop another dual-threat QB 2 weeks in a row? And Kaepernick is probably more of a "problem" than Russell Wilson. If the Falcons pull off this win I'll take back most of the negative stuff I've said about them. But until then, I'm gonna go with the 49ers.

So yeah, get ready for the HarBOWL!

Deadskins, huh? Hysteria in Baltimore over the Ravens (LMFAO)!!!

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.

Revisiting my NFL Season Prediction post

First and formost, the Redskins won this week and I am shocked in the best way possible. RGIII played great and the defense played well, but not necessarily great. I'd say that the defense got lucky more so than played great since Drew Brees was clearly off on Sunday. RGII beat my prediction of him throwing for 200 yards with a TD and an INT by a landslide. His line ended up going for 320 yards with 2 TDs and NO INTERCEPTIONS! That's stellar for a rookie debut. Congrats to him because the hard work paid off!

Now that I'm past my own team's play this weekend, the only other team I would like to talk about also happens to be in my "just formed after week 1" NFL season prediction. If you recall, my original post on how the season will end was basically full of nothing. But now that I have gotten a chance to watch a week's worth of games I think I'm ready to go out on a limb (it's still early in the season) and make a prediction for the Superbowl. Like to hear it? Here it goes...

The San Francisco 49ers will represent the NFC in the Superbowl. Point blank period, defense wins championships, just ask the Patriots. The 49ers went into Green Bay and basically shut Aaron Rodgers down completely. That's all I needed to see. And as crazy as it may sound, I think Alex Smith is the key to their season even more so than the defense. If Smith goes down who is his backup? That's all I have to say about that. But back to my main point, this team is stellar defensively. No one can run the ball on them, their LBs are stout, they pressure the QB with 3 or 4 man fronts, and their secondary is full of hitters and ballhogs. That's a recipe for forcing teams to pass, putting pressure on QBs, and forcing turnovers through the air, or just forcing teams into plain-ole 3-and-outs. If they stay healthy on defense and Alex Smith stays healthy, I've got them in the Superbowl this year.

In the other conference, I'm finding it a bit tougher. My gut is telling me that this is the year that Houston will make it to the big show but I can't rule out the Ravens. They're going to be hungry this year because of what happened to them in the playoffs last year. Not to mention, what better way to send Ed Reed and Ray Lewis into retirement than with a Superbowl win where they go out on top, their QB finally breaks-through (though I'd argue he did that in last year's playoffs), and every in Baltimore's favorite running back (Ray Rice) gets a chip? So I'm gonna roll with either the Ravens or the Houston Texans in the Superbowl against the 49ers.

Who will win you ask? Well, if the 49ers play the Ravens, I think the Ravens will win. The Ravens defense is just as gritty as the 49ers defense and I think the Ravens have an edge offensively over the 49ers, especially at the QB position. But if the 49ers play the Texans, I think the 49ers will win. I'm going to hate to see my favorite RB in the league (Arian Foster) lose in the Superbowl if it happens, but I think the 49ers would impose their will on the Texans more so than they could against a seasoned veteran team with playoff experience like the Ravens.