Every doofus outside of Baltimore seems to think it all hinges on, "What can the Ravens defense do to stop the unstoppable Peyton Manning?"
But it's all just man love for the Herman Munster lookalike QB in Indy, because we already have a fairly good idea of how the Colts offense will match up against the Ravens defense. The Colts will score points, but the Ravens will slow them down, so the high-scoring shootout that everyone wants to see from their beloved Peyton is unlikely. It didn't happen this year (17 points for the Colts) or in the 2006/7 playoff game (15 points for the Colts, no TDs). And our defense seems to be peaking. There are no guarantees, and Any Given Sunday and all that, but this side of the game seems not to be too mysterious.
Here's what really matters: how the Ravens offense matches up vs. the Colts defense.
In our team history, no matter how good our offense has been (OK, that's rare, I admit!) and no matter how mediocre the Colts defense has been (which is the usual case, including this year) the Colts defense always manages to grind our offense to a halt. Every time our offense makes those lightweight save-money-on-the-salary-cap fill-ins look like the '85 Bears. The Colts shoot gaps, drop our RBs for losses, harass our QBs, and somehow make all the plays that they couldn't make against anyone else. But against us? We've made them look awfully good.
It shouldn't happen, but it does. Is this the year we break the pattern?
ESPN and their ilk want to talk about Peyton Manning, so the idea of focusing on the other side of the game, Joe Flacco versus a bunch of mediocre defenders on a team known as "Manning and 52 other guys" doesn't exactly light their fire. But it should, because that's what will decide this game. And it's the hardest part to predict. We could come out flat like we've done historically and score a couple of field goals and nothing more. Or we might come out and steamroller them and shock the world. Our run game has looked great lately, but against the Colts you never know. Even though the rest of the world can run over a half dozen Colt defenders before breakfast, we've rarely shown that ability. And although we know Flacco is The Man, his injury status is a question mark.
So can we get it done on offense this Saturday?
I hope so! Go Ravens! Lay waste to the Inglorious Irsays.
For some reason I've got a feeling that Marshal Yanda is going to pile drive somebody in blue this weekend. I like that idea.
