AFC North: Tough Stretch-Run Awaits Ravens
Sports Network | December 02, 2008
(Sports Network) - When the Baltimore Ravens' team charter lifted off on Sunday evening to carry the team back home following a 34-3 rout of the hapless Cincinnati Bengals, head coach John Harbaugh and his charges might as well have started waving goodbye to the light portion of its schedule.
There are no more Browns or Bengals left for the Ravens, no Raiders or Texans, though there is an arduous three-game stretch, beginning with the Washington Redskins in primetime this Sunday night, confronting a surprise team with its postseason hopes still firmly intact.
After the 7-5 Redskins travel the 35-mile stretch of I-95 that separates Landover from M&T Bank Stadium, the Ravens will play unquestionably their biggest game of the year against the visiting Steelers (9-3).
Beyond that tilt is a short-week trip to meet the Cowboys (8-4) in a game that could very well be Dallas' all-time finale at Texas Stadium.
Baltimore's regular season finale, at home against fading Jacksonville (4-8) in Week 17, looks more like a gimme than it did when the schedule was first announced, but if the Ravens wish to ensure their status in the 2008 playoff bracket, they had better not wait until then to find the win column again.
No matter what happens for Harbaugh and company during the month of December, the undeniable truth is that they have injected themselves into the playoff discussion just a season removed from a 5-11 disaster, and that's good enough for the first-year head coach.
"We think we're a good football team," said Harbaugh on Monday. I'm very proud of our guys. Our guys have worked really hard, and they've earned the right to be in this spot. So to look back and say we're surprised or we thought we'd be here or wouldn't be here, we don't care about any of that. Our guys have earned the right to be playing meaningful football games in December. That's all we care about."
How a Ravens team that is young in several key positions - most notably at quarterback and along the offensive line - will handle the spotlight's glare during the final month has become a hot topic in and around Baltimore.
Quarterback Joe Flacco comes off another sensational outing, a 19-of-29, 280- yard, two-touchdown performance against the Bengals, with the yardage total ranking as a career-best for the Delaware product.
Flacco, who has slowly seen his passer rating move to a solid 82.3 on the year, has now thrown multiple touchdown passes in four of his past five games and has nine TDs versus just two interceptions over that span. But he wouldn't be the first green quarterback to come apart at the seams when the games got especially important, meaning the team's running game and stifling defense could be called to pick him up during the arduous stretch.
But Harbaugh doesn't see his young quarterback or any of his players hitting the wall. In fact, Harbaugh rejects the notion of that obstacle's existence altogether
"We laugh about that, you know...Where's the wall? I don't even know what the wall means. What you're talking about is a psychological thing, and our guys take care of themselves, they work hard. There is no wall. They know they've got a game on Sunday, and I think they do a great job of taking care of themselves throughout the week and getting ready to play a game. We don't see any walls."
"We don't care about playing on prime time. We don't care if the rest of the country knows about us or not. We're not interested in any of that. We're not trying to impress anybody. We're getting ready to play a football game on Sunday, and I think our guys understand how to win a tough football game when it counts. They've proven that, and we're looking forward to the chance to be in that situation on Sunday and for the rest of December."
BENGALS: With nothing to interest Bengals fans on the field in the midst of the team's dismal 1-10-1 season to date, the comments team president Mike Brown made in an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer and Bengals.com on Monday are in the process of being fully dissected by the club's frustrated base of supporters.
And without question, some of those comments were curious.
On the topic of the team's quarterback play this season, Brown said, "This thing would take a quantum leap forward if we just had Carson Palmer back on the field playing the way he can play."
Interesting, considering Palmer's passer rating (69.0) in the four appearances he made this year is almost identical to that of current starter Ryan Fitzpatrick (68.1), and it's impossible to pin all of Palmer's sketchy play this year on his injured elbow. The fact that the plodding Palmer had been sacked 11 times in four games seemed to be the bigger issue when he went out, and it should be pretty clear that Palmer, Fitzpatrick, or Joe Montana himself wouldn't have been successful working behind an offensive line that simply doesn't protect well.
On the issue of head coach Marvin Lewis, Brown offered his full support, not sounding at all like a man ready to fire the person that has presided over just one winning season since taking over in 2003.
"In many ways he's done an incredibly good job," said Brown of Lewis. "Our players still try hard and that's hard to come by when you go through all the losing this team has gone through. But he has them out there trying to the best of their abilities. At least in my eye. And on this point my eye counts."
Many who have witnessed the Bengals' body language and their declining performance late in games, when things go badly, might suggest that Brown needs a new prescription for those glasses.
Of the fans themselves, who have almost universal distaste for Brown and his management style, Brown said, "It's an interesting thing in Cincinnati. The fans and the Bengals have a love-hate relationship. When we're doing well, we ride high. And when we're not doing well, then we get kicked around some. I think what that reflects is an emotional connection they have with us.
"And they're disappointed and when they're disappointed they flare out and we understand what's going on. That's what happens here. We want to please them. Believe me. That's what we want most. We're not doing that right now and it means a lot of sleepless nights down here."
BROWNS: The Brady Quinn vs. Derek Anderson quarterback controversy is officially done for the year in Cleveland, unless you're talking about which player will be first in line to begin injury rehab.
Just days after Quinn was ruled out for the year due to a thumb injury suffered against the Bills on Nov. 17, Anderson saw his season end late in Sunday's 10-6 loss to the Indianapolis Colts, when he tore his left MCL on a hit from defensive end Robert Mathis.
Third-stringer Ken Dorsey will start under center when Cleveland faces 11-1 Tennessee on Sunday, marking Dorsey's first start as a member of the Browns.
The Miami-Florida product last opened a game on Nov. 27, 2005, when the then-49er set career-highs for completions (23) and attempts (43) in San Francisco's 33-22 loss at the Tennessee Titans.
"I've been a starter in this league," said Dorsey on Monday. "It's something I'm accustomed to. I prepare myself the same way every week. Now I'm playing. It's fun to be out there playing.
"Any time you get an opportunity to go out and play, you look forward to it. I just like playing. I like being out there. It's exciting for me and for us as a team to go out there Sunday and have another opportunity to play."
Dorsey will be backed by ex-Buccaneer and University of Toledo product Bruce Gradkowski, who was signed on Tuesday.
Gradkowski, a Pittsburgh native, went 3-8 in 11 starts as a member of the Buccaneers in 2006.
STEELERS: Patriots quarterback Matt Cassel had posted two consecutive 400-yard passing days entering Sunday's game against Pittsburgh, becoming just the fifth player since the AFL-NFL merger to hit 400 on back-to-back weeks.
The Steelers defense saw to it that Cassel did not make it three in a row.
The quarterback struggled mightily in the telling 33-10 home loss to Pittsburgh, completing just 19-of-39 passes for just 169 yards with no touchdown passes, four turnovers (two INT, two fumbles) and five sacks absorbed on the evening.
A Steeler defense that has emerged as the consensus choice for the NFL's best in 2008 received big performances from the likes of outside linebackers James Harrison (9 tackles, 2 sacks, 2 forced fumbles) and LaMarr Woodley (5 tackles, 1 sack, 1 fumble recovery), safety Troy Polamalu (5 tackles, 1 INT, four pass breakups), and inside linebacker James Farrior (7 tackles, 0.5 sacks, 1 fumble recovery), among others.
How in the world is this team going to select a Defensive MVP at the end of the year?
In his typical understated fashion, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin downplayed the ferocious effort against the blossoming Cassel.
"It's not because we did anything differently, really," said Tomlin. "They probably just were throwing the ball down the field a little bit more than they were in the first half, due to game circumstance. Sometimes things like that snowball. I don't want to make more out of it than what it is. When you start to get up on people and they have to start to throw the ball vertically, you get more rush opportunities. It's not like any grand scheme of things that we changed or that our level of intensity changed. I think just game circumstances created more opportunities for us."
