Before the Lardarius Webb season ending injury. Before the Ray Lewis season ending injury. Before Haloti Ngata and Jimmie Smith got banged up......This game had ASS-WHOOPING all over it.
I have been reporting since week1, the Ravens are HORRIBLE, not bad, HORRIBLE on defense. Don't ask me how they are 5-1. The offense is very good and improving. I believe they can be great by year's end. Lord knows they will have to be. This Ravens defense had given up way over 200 yards rushing in back to back wins. That almost defies logic in itself, but to win both games??? The only feasible way to somehow win BOTH of those games you would have to have some crazy combination of playing against the likes of Tony Romo and Matt Cassell back to back.....oh wait, yeah..
The Texans are laying 6, at home, after a humiliating loss. The Texans are playing at home against the team they outplayed and lost to in the playoffs last year. They are playing a team that is just not great on the road, or even a very good, even at full strength. The Ravens were thin on defense. Now, they are flat out decimated.
The Ravens will not be be able to fill 2, possibly 3 HUGE holes on a defense in just 1 week. This defense was BARELY playing well enough to begin with just to keep teams from getting into the 30's. The task at hand, to take a thin defensive corps, eliminate 2 of the biggest pieces of the puzzle and severely damage 2 other pieces, and ask them to band-aid itself together enough to stop a top 5crushing Offense, is simply too much to ask, anyone. Before the latest injuries, the Ravens defense was in BIG trouble. Arian Foster and Ben Tate were salivating, waiting for Baltimore. The Houston Texan coaching staff are disciplined and smart enough to just keep on pounding it and pounding it on the ground. 300 yards on the ground? 40:00 T.O.P.?? These are very real expectations from the Texans.
Flacco, Rice and the gang can move the ball on anyone. They will again this week. However, when you have the ball less than 20 mins, you simply cannot keep up. The Ravens had he ball less than 20 mins vs. Dallas and got 24 pts on offense, a very commendable feat. This week, its the REAL Texas team.
The Ravens get a bye week after this game, they will be 5-2 with the division lead and the #2 spot in the AFC. All will seem well in Raven land. They get 2 weeks to find the "next man up", then come home to the Browns and the Raiders. T-Sizzle Suggs starts practicing this week. By week 11, the Defense will be at least serviceable again. Just not this week. Healthy or not, the Purple and Black come home Black and Blue
Prediction: Houston 37 Baltimore 17
PLAY: HOUSTON -6 HUGE!!
