Apparently I should have stuck to my guns two weeks ago when I claimed the Baltimore Ravens were a flawed two-loss team. Last week I choked on my words a bit and owned up that the Ravens look playoff-ready. However, after an ugly 13-7 loss to division rival Cincinnati, I’d like to reinstate my original assessment of Baltimore.
Nobody is going to say that the Ravens defense is overrated. The unit causes a ton of turnovers and always puts a great deal of pressure on opposing quarterbacks. However, the offense lacks any real playmaking threat and Steve McNair hardly looks comfortable in the pocket. Jamal Lewis has had a few nice games since Brian Billick took over the play calling duties from Jim Fassel, but he’s not a dominant back by any means. Look at Thursday night’s score. Sure, the field was slick and bad weather always keeps points off the board. But Baltimore faced a Bengal defense that was ranked 31st overall coming into this contest and was one cheap touchdown at the end of the game away from being completely shutout. All Cincinnati seemed to do was take away the underneath passing routes and McNair had nowhere to throw.
The Ravens will make the playoffs and may win a game with their defense and home field advantage. But that’s probably going to be it. As for the Bengals, I’m still holding judgment on whether or not “they’re back” until I see that defense play as well as they did Thursday night.
