Newport News, VA– Yeah, I know that I haven’t posted in a while. But there has been a lot of things going on personal wise that has prevented me from logging on here. Holidays, picking up my daughter from Idaho, preparing my separation from the Air Force after 11 years, and trying to find a new job… but, the number one reason is that I was lazy.
Lazy, when I could be talking about a playoff team.
I know that I am not alone when I say that this season feels different than ones before. It’s kind of hard to explain. The Ravens went 12-4 this season, the best record since the Harbaugh/Flacco era started, are once again in the playoffs for the third straight year, and I feel like I haven’t had my coffee yet. Someone asked me, “are the fans getting spoiled?”
Good question- and I took some time to ponder about it.
I don’t know if spoiled is the right word– but I believe the fan base is growing tired of losing in the playoffs.
That being said– when we brought in Boldin, Housh, and Stallworth, I think we were expecting a very high scoring offense that would eat up the time of possession clock and score lots of touchdowns.
Yet the offense has been in the middle of the pack compared to the rest of the league– and there have been far too many times when we’ve seen Cundiff split the uprights for 3 in the red zone, instead of the extra point.
The defense has given up 4th quarter leads- and all of the games that went into overtime shouldn’t have.
Look at the scores that the Ravens have won by. The only dominating efforts I’ve seen this year was against the Broncos, Miami, and Carolina.
here is the margin of victory or defeat of the Ravens this season:
+1, -5, +7, +3, +14, -3, +3, +16, -5, +24, +7, -3, +6, +6, +10, +6
So while I am ecstatic that the Ravens are in the playoffs– and it’s especially rewarding that my 6 year old daughter is understanding the concept of football, and loves the Ravens– I think as a fan base, we expected a more dominating effort. We want to win the division, we want to be the team that no one wants to play against. We want a Ring!
Joe has seven skill players that are also former pro bowlers…and no one from the offense was voted in this season. So yeah, I expected more…. from both sides of the ball. The defense also allowed three 100 yard rushers this season.
I know that I am probably sounding selfish– and yeah, maybe it’s true. But let me add this: the regular season is over now– and it’s now win or go home. I still love our chances of making it to Dallas– and hope that we can crush Kansas City like they were an NFC-West team.
I’d like to know what your thoughts are about the feelings of this season as a whole. From both of my readers.
WHO GIVES A STAT
Earlier, I mentioned our stats being in the middle of the pack– so I looked up the rankings of the following stats. I didn’t include the actual numbers, because then I would want to show how far ahead or behind we were from the #1 overall team, etc. Ranking seemed to be easier, and still get the point across. Keep in mind that there are 12 playoff teams, so there are a lot of teams who did better in the stats than the Ravens did- and did not make the playoffs. However, also keep in mind that the 12-4 record is tied for the third best in the league, and the Ravens were an overtime victory away against the Patriots of capturing the #1 seed in the AFC. Just because the stats are low, does not take away the fact that this team is a winning team, and with the biggest blowout loss only being 5 points- the Ravens are highly capable of beating anyone.
Offense:
Total Yards: #22
1st Downs: #18
3rd down conversion percentage: #16
4th down conversion percentage: #21
Time of Possession: #11
Turn over Margin: #9
Total points/game: #16
Touchdowns: #16
Field goals: #10-T
pass attempts/rushes: 491/487 (balanced)
Passing Yards: #20
Passing TD’s: #15-T
Interceptions: #6 (lower the interceptions- higher the rank)
QB Rating: #6
Pass completion percentage: #9
Rushing Attempts: #6
Rushing yards: #14
Rushing TD’s: #18-T
Receptions: #18
Receiving Yards: #17
Receiving TD’s: #15-T
Defense: (higher the rank, better in the stat)
Total Points: #3
Total Yards: #10
1st downs: #10
3rd Down conversion percentage: #15
4th Down conversion percentage: #17
Interceptions: #8-T
Interceptions returned for TD’s: #2-T
Fumbles returned for TD’s: #17-T
Touchdowns allowed: #3
Tackles: #18
Sacks: #27
Returned TD’s allowed: #1-T
Defensive TD’s allowed: #1-T
Passing Attempts: #30
Passing Yards: #21
Passing TD’s #9-T
Opposing QB Rating: #5
Passing Percentage: #11
Rushing Attempts: #3
Rushing yards: #5
Rushing TD’s: #1-T
Receptions: #23
Receiving yards: #19
Receiving TD’s: #9-T
So based on those rankings- what do you take from it? I would like to hear your positives and negatives.
MY DAUGHTER- THE RAVENS FAN
I had mentioned earlier that I had my daughter recently. She is 6-years old, and lives with her mother in the northwest. This kid is a trip to say the least! I took her to the Ravens-Panthers preseason game earlier this year, and she sat there, in the pouring rain, screaming her head off on third down, yelling at the players to tackle someone, and even with the downpour got unbearable for even me- she said “I did not come here to leave when they are still playing Dad. They are in the rain, the cheerleaders are in the rain, I can be too!”
She’s one tough little cookie.
A few weeks later, I called her up for our daily phone call, and she said that she had been practicing tackling and she was good at it. I said “oh really”. She told me that she had been practicing on her 1-year old baby brother… But she couldn’t tackle him anymore because her mom gets mad.
Last week she asked me if I could teach her to tackle like Ray Lewis. That she promised that she would practice till she got it right. Thoughts of her at PE in the first grade leveling some unsuspecting kid out crossed my mind. I could hear her taunt the kid with a scuffed up knee, and tears in his eyes, as she screamed “You can’t hurt this, I’m a machine. Jerk!”
“Maybe when you are older”, I told her.
But this year, my daughter had a “Go Ravens Purple” Christmas. She got a purple mp3 player, a cheep purple digital camera, a few ravens posters, and Joe Flacco Jersey, and a Ravens Youth hat. (Of course Santa also brought purple My Little Pony’s- and other Disney princess stuff). I taught her that there were 32 NFL teams, and that since we loved the Ravens, we had to hate the Steelers.
Now let me say this about Pittsburgh fans. They are the best people to debate with. They really are! Because our rivalry is so great, we know a lot about each other teams. I will never buy a Steeler fan a beer, except for the one I went to Afghanistan with, but they are fun to debate with. Especially when you throw jabs in there, like making rape jokes regarding Ben, and making “Hairball” references about their strong safety, or saying “Hey, how does your coach like working for Dr. House?”.
Well, my daughter has a dis-found taste for Steeler fans. When she sees one, her eyebrows get real low, she stares at them, and says in a pissed-off, almost growling voice, “Look Dad, it’s a Steeler. I wanna punch them in their face.” She actually called one out in an airport, a woman in her 30′s, just for her to turn around to see my 6-year old, dressed in her #5 jersey, and hat look at her, and say “boo!” then give her the thumbs down sign.
Now, I hope that she is just showing off in front of her Dad- and trying to make an impression that she is a Ravens fan for life. And I can’t help but smile about it. Obviously, I will not condone my daughter hitting people in their faces. But, for her to understand a rivalry at such a young age– and the greatest rivalry in modern day sports, mind you– I can’t help to feel like a proud Daddy. She and I have used football as one of our bonding tools. We have thrown passes to each other, and counted how many times we could throw the ball without it hitting the ground. 117. We have used the playoff bracket to work with subtraction, to find out how many teams will be left after each round. We have of course, used football as a physical activity tool… and have her wear off all that energy I wish I could bottle up and sell and become a billionaire.
And after we have our fun at football, we have to go and play with her stuffed animals and dress up stuff. She is a girl, after all.
KANSAS CITY MASTERPIECE
To be honest, I haven’t done a lot of research on the Chiefs leading up to this game. But in a lot of ways, they remind me of the Tampa Bay Bucs. A solid team, that will be a major threat with the way they are being built up– but has benefited greatly from an easier schedule. That being said, Arrowhead Stadium is one of the loudest places to play a football game– and the 12th man will be a factor unless the Ravens can squash them early like they did to the Patriots last season.
Accuscore has the Ravens winning by a average margin of 4 points in 10,000 simulations of the game. I think Accuscore went 168-88 this season– which is slightly better than the talking heads on TV. (The program also has the Colts, Saints, and Eagles winning this weekend) The Ravens are favored 7-3 in the ESPN Picks page.
Throughout the season, Accuscore only had the Ravens losing twice. Once to the Steelers in week 4 (a Ravens victory), and correctly in a week 6 OT defeat to the Patriots.
HOMER OF THE SEASON: Merril Hoge, former Steeler Running back-turned ESPN Analyst, had Pittsburgh 15-1 in his “pick-ems”.
Okay, when it’s 4:00am, and I’m looking at stats to see if former NFL players can stay unbiased as analysts– I think it’s time to hit “post” to this 1750+ word blog that is just starting to look like a hot mess, take an hour nap- and start the work day.
I want to tell everyone Happy New Year (when can you stop saying that by the way?), and let me be the first one to tell you “Happy Easter”!
