NFL Predictions

Well it's not like these are going to be any more accurate than the Ravens/Saints Super Bowl prediction last year, but they are back and I am ready to go on record with the once more, and yes I am wildly backing off of the 9-7 Ravens prediction now that Joe Flacco is being forced to start, and with so many question marks still with this team ...

AFC East: New England, NY Jets, Buffalo, Miami
AFC North: Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Baltimore
AFC South: Indianapolis, Tennessee, Jacksonville, Houston
AFC West: San Diego, Denver, Oakland, Kansas City
NFC East: Dallas, Philadelphia, NY Giants, Washington
NFC North: Minnesota, Green Bay, Chicago, Detroit
NFC South: Tampa Bay, Carolina, New Orleans, Atlanta
NFC West: Seattle, St. Louis, Arizona, San Francisco

AFC 1st Round:
(5) Tennessee def. (4) Pittsburgh
(3) Indianapolis def. (6) Denver

NFC 1st Round::
(5) Philadelphia def. (4) Minnesota
(3) Seattle def. (6) NY Giants

AFC Divisional:
(1) New England def. (5) Tennessee
(3) Indianapolis def. (2) San Diego

NFC Divisional:
(1) Dallas def. (5) Philadelphia
(2) Tampa Bay def. (3) Seattle

AFC Championship:
(1) New England def. (3) Indianapolis

NFC Championship:
(1) Dallas def. (2) Tampa Bay

Super Bowl XLII:
New England def. Dallas

I will now light myself on fire

The headline says it all: Ravens hit rock bottom.

Yuck....

Surprise!

I'm stunned at this:

For the fifth time in seven games, Atlanta Falcons coach Bobby Petrino is making a quarterback switch in an effort to jump-start his sagging offense, with little-used Chris Redman taking over as the starter for Monday night's game against New Orleans.

The start will be Redman's first in a regular-season game since Oct. 20, 2002, when he was playing with the Baltimore Ravens. Since that game, he has thrown only 24 passes.

"It's unbelievable," Redman said. "I have a chance to be on a pedestal that I never thought I would be on again, to be honest. I want to take advantage of this opportunity."

Truthfully, I didn't even know Redman was back in the league. Last I'd heard of him he had signed with the Austin Wranglers of the Arena league.

Of course, this just further proves the problems the Falcons have these days. And, with the Ravens luck, he'll probably be the league MVP next year...

Meltdown

Patriots 27, Ravens 24......and I am at a loss for words. I have never seen a football game so heartbreaking as this one. And I have never seen a team self-destruct in the waning moments like the Ravens did.

Other than that.....I am at a loss.

Studio 53

53. That's how many pass attempts Steve McNair had during today's 27-13 debacle against Cleveland.

53 passes. Only 20 rushing attempts. It was completely unbelievable.

Bud wants to lay all of the blame at Billick's feet. And yes, a lot of blame can be sent Billick's way for the playcalling. But a lot of the problems came with execution, not playclling. Two missed field goals. McAlister getting burned in coverage. Dropped passes. The inability to put the ball in the end zone. Coaching had nothing to do with that. That was just execution. Billick's insanely late throwing of the red flag on the Lewis touchdown? That's a coaching problem. Poor execution was only players not performing.

Looks like in the north, first team to 11 wins takes the division title, if that many wins are necessary.

In the meantime, and here's a question I didn't think I would ask: can anybody beat Dallas?

Stupid, Stupid Playcalling

Think Coach Billick will realize that he can't blame the guy calling plays this year and get away with it? Yes, the offensive pass interference call was a complete joke. But to follow that up with two consecutive pass attempts from the 2-yard line with a quarterback coming off the bench was absolutely out stupid, there is no way around that. At the very least, run the ball from the two, even if it is something simple like a sweep, and then throw the ball if and only if you get to 4th down or if the clock is winding down.

Playcalling only lost them the game because of the situation. The team really lost the game on the interception that led to the last Cincinnati touchdown. But the playcalling the entire game, not just during the two-minute drill, was entirely suspect.

Run Peter Run

The dominating Ravens defense is now going to try and tackle a new arena: politics. And the good kind:

Former football player Peter Boulware announced his candidacy for the Florida House today, flanked by the next two speakers of that chamber. Boulware, a linebacker with the Baltimore Ravens for eight years after his FSU career, said he would spend most of his time over the next 15 months learning about the concerns of residents in the Leon-Jefferson County district.

State Rep. Loranne Ausley, D-Tallahassee, is term-limited out of the House next year. The district is heavily Democratic and has three Democrats running to succeed Ausley.

But Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer turned out to welcome Boulware into the race, along with state Reps. Ray Sansom, R-Destin, and Dean Cannon, R-Winter Park. Sansom is speaker-designate for the 2008-10 term, and Cannon is in line to succeed him.

They said they will make Boulware's campaign their top priority next year.

"I care deeply about the issues facing Florida and the Panhandle, and I believe that I can be a strong voice for residents of our community and make a difference in public service," Boulware said. He said he didn't think being a Republican would be a disadvantage.

Boulware, who is an executive in a Tallahassee car dealership, said he grew up a Democrat but became a Republican when he became a father and businessman. Records show he registered to vote in the GOP in Leon County four years ago.

It's not a surprise that so many retired athletes enter politics. And it is certainly not a surprise that so many retired athletes are active Republicans. Professional athletics provides many athletes the opportunity to practice good conservative values of teamwork, perseverance and individual responsibility. And the economic structure of professional athletics also (generally speaking) rewards athletes solely on the basis of their performance.

Just look a the professional athletes who enter public service. Very rare is it an athlete who enters the Democratic side of the aisle. Sure, there was Whizzer White and Bill Bradley, and Democratic supporters such as Mike Richter, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan. But take a look at the list of those who are Republican leaders and support Republican candidates: Jack Kemp, Steve Largent, J.C. Watts, Mike Ditka, John Elway, Curt Schilling, Al Leiter, Steve Young, Brent Jones, Lynn Swann, Richard Petty, Jim Bunning, Walter Johnson, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Jason Sehorn, Brooks Robinson, Matt Stover, Dorothy Hamill, Art Donovan, Todd Heap, Edwin Mulitalo, Tippy Martinez, and the list goes on and on and on.

And now, Peter Boulware enters the arena. Good for him, and good for the Ravens too because despite all of the hype this shows how well this organizations develops leaders...

Warning: Non-AA GOP Material

There is other important work to be done; like 2007 NFL Predictions.

AFC East: New England, NY Jets, Buffalo, Miami
AFC North: Baltimore, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland
AFC South: Indianapolis, Tennessee, Jacksonville, Houston
AFC West: San Diego, Denver, Oakland, Kansas City
NFC East: Dallas, Philadelphia, NY Giants, Washington
NFC North: Chicago, Green Bay, Minnesota, Detroit
NFC South: New Orleans, Carolina, Tampa Bay, Atlanta
NFC West: Seattle, San Francisco, St. Louis, Arizona

AFC 1st Round:
(5) Cincinnati def. (4) Indianapolis
(3) San Diego def. (6) Tennessee

NFC 1st Round::
(5) Philadelphia def. (4) Seattle
(3) Dallas def. (6) San Francisco

AFC Divisional:
(1) New England def. (5) Cincinnati
(2) Baltimore def. (3) San Diego

NFC Divisional:
(1) New Orleans def. (5) Philadelphia
(3) Dallas def. (2) Chicago

AFC Championship:
(2) Baltimore def. (1) New England

NFC Championship:
(1) New Orleans def. (3) Dallas

Super Bowl XLII:
Baltimore def. New Orleans

Poor Misguided Soul

See, all conservatives aren't necessarily right about everything. Take my RedMaryland colleague Mark Newgent, who outed himself as a Redskins fan today.

Mark is right about one thing. The Ravens and Redskins do not have a rivalry. That would require the Redskins to be, you know, good.....

That's New...

Watching the Ravens/Redskins scrimmage, and all of the sudden on second down from the six the Ravens run a play out of the spread formation. Boller threw and incompletion (you can't change some things), but I was completely stunned to see that kind of aggressive play calling.

I suppose that with Jamal Lewis now in Cleveland, and the more agile Willis McGahee replacing him in the backfield that such versatility may be a more possible. Lewis' insistence on running behind a fullback, and McGahee's ability to work in a single-back formation limited a lot of the ability for Billick and Neuheisel to open up the offense.

Maybe the sign of good things to come(!)

More Bad News

Jamal Lewis signs with Cleveland.

Now, this is not bad news in and of itself. It is probably best that the Ravens moved forth from Lewis and look towards another running back. The problem is that there is no obvious solution to the vacancy as a starter. On the roster, we have:

• Mike Anderson (who carried the ball sparingly in 2006, but has starter experience)
  
• Musa Smith (who I have never been enamored with)
  
• P.J. Daniels (who didn't sniff the field this year)
  

Market solutions at the moment include guys like Corey Dillon and Chris Brown. The Sun story reports that the Ravens are in talks with the Bills to acquire Willis McGahee, but I'm not sure that replacing one injury-prone back with a younger injury-prone back is really the solution.

Should the Ravens see what options are available for trading up in the draft? I think it is a possibility, if a runner like Adrian Peterson or even Marshawn Lynch were available.

This off-season keeps getting more and more curious. But, to be fair, I'm not sure we should have a reason to doubt Ozzie Newsome and the Ravens front office folks at the present time.

Bring It On

Next Saturday, 4:30 PM: Ravens vs Colts.

As if Ravens fans didn't have enough reasons to be up for next weekend's playoff game, now we get to throw 23-years of still lingering resentment into the mix as well.

A Ravens playoff win is always sweet; next weekend's win will be doubly so. Look for the Ravens to thrash the Colts....

A Kyle Boller Day

So far, Kyle Boller's day today looks a lot like the Kyle Boller we saw in 2005 than the Kyle Boller we saw earlier in the season when Steve McNair got hurt.

I'm not sure if there is a need for McNair to come back into the game given the way things are going, but I'm not certain if the growth it looked like we saw from Boller earlier this year is really there.

That Sums Up the Night

A muffed punt late in the game....yeah, that pretty much tells the story of tonight's game.

Hitting their Groove

The Ravens are really starting to hit their groove right now. It's not often that you get to dominate your arch rival like the Ravens did today with their 27-0 whitewashing over Pittsburgh. The team is really starting to hit their groove at the right time of the year.

I don't think it is unreasonable to say that this team is the best, most balanced team in franchise history. We'll have to wait and see what they do from here out and in the playoffs to see if they can regain the ultimate prize...

Tackle Somebody

Yes, the Ravens won today 27-26. Yes, Steve McNair brought the team back from a 19-point deficit. But for goodness sake, somebody needs to give a lesson in tackling to the defense, particularly the front-seven. A lot of the Titans mid-range to longish plays were the result of poor tackling. Once again, poor tackling almost cost the team a game they should have won, similar to the Browns game back in September...