Less than a week has gone by since Joe Flacco demonstrated that he's the toughest, most stoic quarterback in the NFL today by not letting anyone know his ACL and MCL were torn and continuing to stay right in the game to get the win--I've never heard of anything like that. It's not like playing pumped full of painkillers with a broken bone here or there; this was a fully blown out knee. I doubt anyone will argue that Joe Flacco is the greatest quarterback in the league, but it's that kind of situation that has solidified in my mind the fact that there's no one in the league I'd rather have playing quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens than #5. His certainly isn't the first time he's played injured, though it IS the most injured he's been while playing. Make no mistake: Joe WILL be back, and he'll be back in a BIG way next season.
With Joe out, the Ravens turn to a quarterback who, if it were three years ago, may have been more highly regarded than Flacco by many. Matt Schaub went to the Pro Bowl in 2009 and 2012, and he utterly DESTROYED the Ravens in the 2012 Super Bowl season. For whatever reason, however, Schaub fell off a cliff the following year, and then he couldn't find success as a backup in 2014. The question is whether or not there is something physical that changed about Schaub or whether his issues were purely psychological. Who knows? Maybe it was a combination of both. I would say that I'm curious to see how he's able to rise to the occassion, and I am, but on Monday he'll be playing with less talent at the wide receiver position than he's had at his disposal at literally any time in his professional career.
Now let's get one thing straight: it's not as though the Ravens CAN'T beat the Browns on Monday. Their defense has actually looked quite strong at times over the last month, and it did an excellent job limiting the Browns earlier this season until far too many starters came out with injuries. Buck Allen looked fantastic running against a Rams team with a sensational defensive line, and each one of the Ravens top three tight ends was recently rated in the top 10 by Pro Football Focus. It's entirely possible that the Ravens will take pressure off of Schaub with Buck Allen and Terrance West (especially since Terrance West is quite familiar running against the Browns defense in practice) and then they'll include lots of 2 and even 3 tight end sets as Schaub has typically loved going to his tight ends over the course of his career. No, the question isn't whether or not the Ravens can beat the Browns--the question is whether they actually WANT to beat the Browns at this point.
The Raven are 3-7. Without Steve Smith, Dennis Pitta, Breshad Perriman, Justin Forsett, Joe Flacco, Terrell Suggs, and Jeremy Zuttah this season has BEEN lost for quite some time. Yes, there was a point going into the bye week where there was a shred of optimism that the Ravens could make a run if their team could get healthy and Perriman and/or Pitta could return to add legitimate weapons to Flacco's arsenal. None of that even REMOTELY panned out. According to the NFL, the Ravens should be 4-6 right now, but even if they had received credit for beating the Jaguars, the Ravens would still be without their starting quarterback, their starting tailback, and their starting center now with more difficult opponents in front of them. This would SEEM like an appropriate time to give it the old college try and make all efforts to win games, but I would hope the organization is in full agreement that each game their lose from here on out is a step closer to the highest draft pick this team has possessed in a long time or ever. With that said, I'll always root for the Ravens to win anytime they play...it's just that now we can find a silver lining to their losses.
Football is almost always worth watching, but I must say that I'm a little bummed that each of the 3 Thanksgiving games features only NFC teams. I am, nevertheless, quite curious to see one of the three matchups. The Eagles are in a tailspin at this point, and the Lions have shown signs of life as of late, so I'm expecting a rare lunchtime home win today in Detroit. The Packers will host the Bears in what could prove to be a hard-fought divisional showdown or a total snoozefest/blowout. The truly intriguing game is the 4:30. The unbeaten Panthers are in Arlington Texas this afternoon/evening to face a Cowboys team that just recently became a threat to win every game on its remaining schedule. Yes, the best the Cowboys can do is 9-7, but that may be easily enough to win the NFC East at this rate. Tony Romo and Dez Bryant are both healthy, and Darren McFadden's excellent recent excellent production are all reasons the Panthers may well experience their first loss on the road today. I'll be curious to see how Cam Newton can rise to the occasion once more. Let's take a look at the picks!
THANKSGIVING NFL PICKS
EAGLES AT LIONS- Megatron is back healthy, and the Lions are coming off of two consecutive wins over quality teams. Mark Sanchez will start, and that means I have zero faith in Chip Kelly's idiotic experiment of getting rid of his most talented players. The Lions' record is bad, but I can't see them losing to a team that is much worse at this point. LIONS 23-17
PANTHERS AT COWBOYS- The have appeared to be the league's most complete team this season with strong defense and a quarterback who wills his offense to victory, but the Cowboys should have the NFC's strongest offense now that both Tony Romo and Dez Bryant are back healthy. The Cowboys are undefeated with Romo on the field, and they couldn't win a single game without him. The Panthers could easily squeak this one out too, but I'm expecting the Cowboys to control the line of scrimmage and simply outscore a Panthers offense that has been clutch but not overwhelming this season. COWBOYS 31-28
BEARS AT PACKERS- The return to form of Eddie Lacy will help the Packers win what will be a much closer game than many realize. The Bears beat the Chargers in San Diego, overwhelmed the Rams in St. Louis, and just barely lost to the Broncos. The Packers are a top 5 team in the league with 7-3 record, but they've looked uneven as of late with three losses in their last games. Last week, however, they dominated a strong Vikings team in Minnesota as Eddie Lacy finally had a strong performance. The Packers are 4-1 at home this season, and they should emerge 5-1 by the end of the night. PACKERS 33-21
I URGE RAVENS FANS NOT TO THINK OF THIS YEAR AS A FAILURE, BUT RATHER TO THINK OF IT AS A BIG OPPORTUNITY TO SET THE FRANCHISE UP FOR GREAT YEARS TO COME. THERE HAVE BEEN SOME DRAFT DISAPPOINTMENTS BY OZZIE NEWSOME IN THE EARLY ROUNDS IN RECENT YEARS, BUT THERE HAVE ALSO BEEN SOME GEMS INCLUDING BRANDON WILLIAMS, CROCKETT GILMORE, C.J. MOSLEY, MAXX WILLIAMS, NICK BOYLE, TIMMY JERNIGAN, AND CARL DAVIS. THIS IS A GREAT ORGANIZATION AND SOMETIMES YOU HAVE TO TAKE ONE STEP BACK TO TAKE TWO STEPS FORWARD.
I KNOW IT'S A BIT EARLY, BUT I'M GOING TO BEGIN DRAFT CANDIDATE ANALYSIS OVER THE COURSE OF THE NEXT MONTH. THE RAVENS WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY HAVE THE ABILITY TO PICK WHOMEVER THEY PLEASE THIS SPRING, AND THAT MEANS A TON OF POSSIBILITIES!
NOW AND FOREVER
GO RAVENS!!!
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