In Theory, there is no Practice.

Ravens shut down Raiders’ inept offense

I watched roughly 1/2 the game (perhaps more, just TiVo’d it, and flipped among several games, mostly the Indy-Houston game).

If I were to give a grade, I’d say overall a B. The offense was C+/B-, the defense was B+/B, the special teams were a B.

Overall, I really believe the Ravens will be among the best front runners in the league, but I have real doubts as to whether they can play catch up.

My impression was this was a step back offensively from week 1, but defensively was very good. The D is nasty, and hitting people with bad intentions. Other than McAllister’s melt down after a dipsuted (but probably technically correct) interference call, the D played a solid, smart, physical game. At the same time, it is hard too take too seriously, since the Oakland offense is just about as offensive as the Tampa Bay offense: very and very not.

The offense looked more ragged, made more mistakes (penalties and a bad throw for their first turnover). As long as they can not lose the game, they can win 10+ games. But they won’t be a championship team unless the offense can win a game or two. I’m willing to give the offense a pass in the sense that they had much less real prep time for game 2 than game 1, but they need to show improvement next week. They have verterens who should be able to improve (McNair in particular) as they get more consistent prep time and become more familiar with the plays being run at game speed, not just practice speed.

They need to work on the kick coverage, though.

Neither team actually impressed me that much. The Colts look like they are going to be very one dimensional: Passing Offense, hope the Defense holds. They looked HORRIBLE stopping the run (or rather, failing to stop the run)– which is a no-no for a playoff team, much less a championship team.

The Giants on the other hand, were sloppy. The defense dropped a lot of balls, the offense had quite a few untimely penalties and other mistakes.

Perhaps the build-up, especially for a Week 1 game affected things. Many teams don’t look sharp week 1, where, only the Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Chicago looked good accross the board. Add the intense scrutiny, and the fact that both teams are supposed to be playoff to championship caliber teams, and the sloppiness could be a side effect of both teams disrupting the other teams. Perhaps. In my gut, I think both teams are pretenders.

Playing on the road, a good start to the year. I really think the Browns could be dangerous, but they need to keep their cool. Especially Winslow. Reggie Bush looked good for the Saints. Let the second guessing of the Texans officially begin.

Neither team is very good, though. Probably 6-9 wins for each team.

McNair rolls as D shuts out Bucs; Ravens snap road skid

Saw most of the Raven’s game. The Raven’s Defense looked okay, but the poor Bucs Offense really made them look better than they are. On the other hand, the Ravens’ Offense was very, very good against a good Buc’s Defense. And the Ravens did this on the road.

If the Ravens can average 20+ points per game, they will be a playoff team, possibly even division champs. The really impressive stat, though was lack of penalties, turnovers and dumb mistakes in all facets of the game. That was clearly the biggest improvement from last year. They actually looked and acted like a veteren, playoff caliber team. The second biggest improvement was the play at quaterback. McNair looked good. The Ravens even managed to get Boller a half quarter of work, which reduced the amount of beating McNair was subject to. Nice.

Last season I refused to jump on the Colts bandwagon. This season, well, I guess I’ll buy a ticket.

Will they go undefeated? Dunno. Conventional wisdom is that Seattle will be the toughest test, now that Leftwhich (JAX QB) is hurt. I doubt that. I really think that San Diego will be the toughest test. First, Seattle may not be playing for anything more than prode at that point, just like Indy. Second, San Diego is just a better team than Seattle. For all the offensive accolades that seattle gets, I would rather have LT, Brees, Gates and McCardell than Alexander, Hasslebeck, Jurevicous, et al.

And San Diego will be playing for their playoff lives, unless Denver, JAX, KC, Pittsburgh all collapse. Okay, so Pittsburgh and KC collapsing would not be out of the question, as they both have very tough schedules. But I don’t think there is any way that San Diego can clinch a platoff spot next week, and losing the week after certainly wouldn’t help.

As for who can beat Indy in the playoffs. Again, I think San Diego matches up the best. The have the most physically gifted offense next to Indy. If Manning and company play drop the ball a LITTLE, they could easily get a loss in the regular season or playoffs against SD.

The rest? Manning and Company would have to play drop the ball a LOT.

I saw the Philadelphia/Pittsburgh game last night. Some of my thoughts:

McNabb looked okay. Something badly wrong on the first play (lol, no joke: interception returned for a touchdown). He looked okay, but seemed to struggle when the Steelers blitzed, and only was comfortable when they dropped back into coverage. That is probably more the receivers than McNabb, though. It is when super quick decisions have to be made, and made perfectly, i.e., during a blitz, that players new to a system will have big problems. Of course, McNabb isn’t new, but he probably doesn’t trust any of his receivers enough yet to just let the throw go. Perhaps that will come.

Bottom line, though, is Philly should praise the maker that they are in the NFC. With their depleted receivers, and the whole Terrell Owens thing, they’d be out of the playoffs in the AFC.

As for Pittsburgh, their special team looked pretty good. Punt and Kickoff returned for a touch, no exceptional penalties, Cowher shouldn’t be too unhappy with them. He really didn’t get much of a chance to evaluate the first team Offense, but really, with Hines Ward just reporting, Deuce Staley hurt, there aren’t really a whole lot of questions for the Steelers on Offense.

Except the big one: Will Ben Roethlisberger have a sophomore slump? Well, regardless of the title of this post, I don’t know. I do know that he could play better in every phase of the game and the Steelers still won’t go 15-1. They lost a key receiver (Plaxico Burress), two key players are currently hurt (Porter & Staley, neither of which are a spring chicken nor historically durable). Bettis is older. Hines Ward did just report, but if contract talks stall, will he be there when the season starts? So the Steelers as a team have questions that even better season from Ben may not answer satisfactorily.

The Eagles clearly have an easier division than the Steelers (the Ravens, in particular, are better than anyone else in the NFC East). The Eagles, though have the biggest negative of the two: Terrell Owens.

More on him later.

Hmm, I said

If Philadelphia doesn’t play a LOT better next week, Pittsburgh is going to hang a loss on them too.

The Eagles didn’t and the Steelers did. Am I good or what?

Ravens ground out a tough one against the Browns. Still have a little hope, but not much. If T. Heap, J. Ogden and P. Boulware all come back from injuries and are strong going into the playoffs, they have a shot. Otherwise, I expect them to make the playoffs and then lose in the wild card round.

Indy won at home against a hurt (no R. Moss) Minnesota team. I still don’t believe Indy can win in cold weather.

Bandwagons? Ravens: eyeing it. Indy: nope. Philly: never was on it, and hope they crash and burn (I really don’t like T. Owens, especially after dissing O. Newsome). Pittsburgh: Not a fan, but I am impressed, a good solid team, and Cowher does a good job with generally medium level talent.

Remember, I jumped off the Ravens’ and Colts’ bandwagons earlier this year. I am still off, because both teams are soooo flawed. (Here it comes…) However, all things considered, the Ravens have a better shot. They played at Philadelphia, with all three of their key offense players out (J. Lewis, T. Heap, and J. Ogden). Yet, they only lost 15-10 to the best team in the NFC. If Philadelphia doesn’t play a LOT better next week, Pittsburgh is going to hang a loss on them too.

This Ravens team seems similar to the one that one the Superbowl, though it’s run defense is not a s good. It’s special teams is strong, its secondary may be the best in football, its linebackers are top-tier. When Lewis, Ogden and Heap are back, the offense can grind out possessions and time off the clock.

Color me hopeful (but not convinced).

As for the Colts, two words: San Diego. (Think ’80s Air Coryell). All offense, no defense. Not sure if this team is even that good, as Dan Fouts/Kellen Winslow/Wes Chandler/Charlie Joiner/Chuck Muncie/James Brooks had at least as much talent as Manning/Harrison/James/Wayne/Stokely. I mean, in his prime Winslow was better than any receiver on the Colts. Muncie/Brooks were as productive as James and Stokely/Wayne have a looooong way to go to match up to Joiner/Chandler. Manning is probably better than Fouts, but not by much.

They are fun to watch. But I am not going to put any hope into a late season/cold weather win. The Ravens are much more likely to walk into Pittsburgh or New England in January and steal a win than the Colts. In short, the Ravens can win ugly, the Colts can’t.

Okay, I have to concede they aren’t as good as I thought. I mean, the Ravens have lost to Cleveland, more or less barely beat Pittsburgh and Cincinnati (and this is how hard?) and got run over by the Chiefs.

Granted, I never had any delusions of the Ravens offense, and with their best WR and All-Pro TE injured, they can make even the KC or Indy defenses look good. But their defense really wasn’t very good, and that is not what I originally believed was true. I do now, though. The Ravens can be run on, and they have little pass rush, which, even with Ray Lewis and a fine secondary, gives me serious doubts.

I am not yet sold on Indy, either. Their defense is atrocious. I thought their early season schedule was brutal. Going into this season, if told Indy would be 3-1 after four games, I’d say they were AFC Title contenders. But Tennessee and Green Bay are disappointing (mostly due to injuries, but they are flawed teams regardless). Jacksonville is over-achieving, but Jacksonville’s offense makes the Baltimore offense look proficient. And yet, the Colt’s defense let the Jaguars look competent.

I am off the bandwagon until either Indy or Baltimore beats someone ambiguously good.

On a lighter note, Congrats to the Houston Texans, winners over Dallas 19-10 in their first game in franchise history. As the old joke goes, ‘My two favorite teams are Washington and whomever is playing Dallas’.